Neshama’s Choices for November 18

The titles and links below will direct you to print copies when available.  Click on the title to see all available formats, including recorded versions and eBooks. 

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The Trees by Percival Everett

When I listened to this wild mystery in my car, I kept gasping at its outrageousness. Very broad, often brutal farce playing out in the small town of Money, Mississippi. The first murder scene: a white man covered in blood, a Black man gripping the other’s chopped-off testicles. Who killed who first? Two Black detectives from Hattiesburg come to investigate. The local constabulary is pretty lame, especially when they keep losing track of the victims. And similar deaths keep piling up. Crazy—huh? Turns out it’s all linked to the history of lynching; three of the characters were involved in the Emmett Till case. Grisly humor, dead-serious rage, and amazing character names like Junior Junior, the Reverend Doctor Fondle, and Hot Mamma Yeller (a CB handle). Whew!

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson

Jackson Brodie is back—that redoubtable PI who’s featured in many of Atkinson’s mysteries. The setup is a very familiar trope:  a simulated mystery weekend in Rook Hall that produces an actual corpse. Brodie’s there to investigate the theft of a painting. The twin siblings who’ve hired him seem false and weird as if they’re reading from a script. Could the charming young carer for this dysfunctional family’s matriarch have been the perpetrator? Seems likely since she’s just done a bunk.  The plot is convoluted and often absurd, but I swallowed it happily while snickering at the wit.

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher

At first, I found the protagonist, a very rich woman from Palestine now living in NYC, almost repellent. She spends an inordinate amount of time on cosmetic regimens and shopping. She teaches at a peculiar school for poor boys, ignoring the standard curriculum and improvising with whatever she feels like that day. She seems to operate in a world where she makes the rules. One outrageous scheme: an attempt with a scuzzy sidekick to corner the market on Birkin handbags. But the book takes a breathtaking turn towards the end when she goes feral in her apartment, trying to recreate her homeland that never was by filling it with soil and plants. Since I couldn’t stop thinking about this haunting fable despite my resistance to the main character, I decided to share it here.

What Have You Done? By Sharon Lapena

This author really knows how to craft a good thriller, and this one does the trick. In a little New England town, the trusting tranquility is shattered by the discovery of a corpse in a hayfield. It’s Diana, a high school student and now a ghost; she narrates her observations on what’s happening from beyond, as it were. She’d been arguing with her popular boyfriend, Cam, so he’s the obvious suspect.  However, there are other bad actors in the wings, full of secrets and lies. A coverup, blackmail, and finally the truth will come out. Excellent characterizations along the way, so the book delivers suspense.