Author: Lisa Moore

Pat picked this book up off the for-sale stand at the library. He knows Lisa and said he thought it was one of her best books. I knew it was a contender for Canada Reads but I didn’t realize it was a winner.

The story follows Helen, the widow of one of the 84 men who died when the Ocean Ranger (an oil rig off the coast of Newfoundland) sinks. The story bounces back and forth between the time before the disaster and the time after. What stood out most for me were the character descriptions – I felt like I knew them all by the end of the book.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Author: Mankell, Henning

I’ve read a lot of books by this author and I have enjoyed every one of the Wallender mysteries. In this book he refers to things that happened in the past ; all the references were familiar so I must have read about them in previous books in the series.

This one is a computer thriller. Within a few hours two people are found dead. In one case the guilty parties have confessed and in the other case it appears the death was from natural causes. But as the story unflolds we find that the two cases are linked and it takes Wallender the whole book to see how.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Author: Nikki Erlick

I think this was one of the books that came from a Facebook group I belong to. I have trouble finding any of their recommendations through Libby and while we were traveling I went a long way down my list before finding one that was available.

On a certain date, all over the world, every person receives a small box containing a string that measures the length of time they have left before death. Some choose to open their box and live with the consequences of a short string or breathe a sigh of relief if their string is long. Others choose not to look at their string at all.

There were a lot of characters in the book and I worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep them all straight but there was no problem; each character and their circumstances were well described.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *