Last week, I finished 3 books:
In a true light by John Harvey - I have to admit, I expected this to be better than it was. It was recommended as a crime noir novel. Sloane, the main character, has just been released from prison in England for art forgery. He is contacted by an old lover who is dying and tells him that he was the father of her child. She asks him to find the daughter (Connie), last known address is in New York. Meanwhile, two New York detectives are piecing together a case about a murdered woman. Their suspect happens to live with Sloane's daughter, and all the pieces come together in rather brutal fashion. While it does have a dark side and the villain of the piece is totally evil, there is a lot of meandering about modern art and jazz music. Not being a jazz fan, the references were lost on me.
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See - This is the sequel to Shanghai Girls, Lisa See's novel about Pearl and May, two Shanghai sisters who work as models (known as "beautiful girls")for a well-known Shanghai painter. He uses their images for posters, calendars and advertising. After their father sells them into arranged marriages to cover his gambling debts, they go to America with their new husbands. Dreams of Joy is set 20 years later, when Pearl's daughter Joy leaves Los Angeles to live in the "new China." When she realizes where Joy has gone, Pearl goes after her to stop her or bring her home.
Stone's fall by Iain Pears - A length novel that begins in 1953, then moves back in time to 1909, then to 1890, and finally to 1863. An English lord named John Stone falls from an upper story window at his London home. Did he fall by accident or deliberately, or was he pushed? There are three different narrators, and overall, the story is riveting. It does drag somewhat in the second section, which is about international finance. This section could have been much shorter/less complicated, but the other two parts make up for it.
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