Reading Ahead: September 2017, part 4

While this post could have waited for my Meg's Picks segments, I felt that each of these three novels deserved a little extra attention for various reasons. Intrigued? Read on!

The Ninth Hour, by Alice McDermott. McDermott (Charming Billy, Someone) may not be prolific, but when she publishes, awards follow. She's won both the National Book Award and the American Book Award (both for Charming Billy) and she's been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction twice: At Weddings and Wakes in 1992 and After This in 2006. What I'm saying is, pay attention. In the aftermath of a tenement fire in Brooklyn in the early part of the twentieth century, a young widow and her unborn child are cared for by the nuns who serve the community. Described as a masterful, compassionate, suspenseful drama, I have no doubt this will be a reader favorite in the years to come.

Keep Her Safe, by Sophie Hannah. Hannah is making a name for herself with her own suspense novels as well as writing new Hercule Poirot novels for Agatha Christie's estate. In her latest contemporary suspense, Cara Burrows flees her home and family and holes up in a five-star resort, which she really can't afford. When a mistake at the front desk results in her walking in on two people already in her room, it's irritating, but it's no big deal. Except that one of the people is supposed to be dead, one of the most famous murder victims in history, whose parents are serving life sentences for the crime. But did Cara really see what she thinks she saw? Like your novels intense and tightly plotted, full of twists and turns? This is a sure bet.

Forest Dark, by Nicole Krauss. Krauss (The History of Love, etc.) crafts a novel about personal transformation in her latest, interweaving the stories of an older lawyer and a young novelist whose transcendent searches lead them both to the same Israeli desert. Jules Epstein is, at 68, a man undergoing metamorphosis. His parents have passed, his thirty-year marriage is over, and he's retired from his New York law firm. He feels compelled to give away his possessions with a nebulous plan to do something to honor the memory of his parents. Meanwhile, the well-known young novelist, suffering from writer's block and a failing marriage, arrives in Tel Aviv hoping to jump-start her creativity in life and in work. If there's a sleeper hit waiting to happen, this one has my bet.
Also available in Large Print.