Sometimes when I read a book I really love I go on a quest to relive the experience. For example, when I read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfeld, a gothic pageturner, I went on a gothic kick that lasted months and included highlights such as John Harwood’s The Seance, Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger and Jane Harris’ The Observations.

Sometimes this quest goes on for years and is never really satisfied. Three books in particular have led to fruitless searches for me: Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier, The Magus by John Fowles and The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It occurs to me as I make this list that these books are somewhat similar. There’s a sense of mystery and secrecy and youthful innocence destroyed. All three of these books are among my very favorites and I’ve read them all more than once trying to get myself lost in them. They all have a strong sense of atmosphere and foreboding and they’re the kind of books I like to read for hours at a time.

But every now and then I run into a book that reminds me of one of my beloved books and even if it’s not the same, it brings back a similar spirit. That’s what happened when I read The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood. I don’t know if Wood has read The Secret History, (which is among my all-time top 5 most-loved books) but his novel brought back many of the same sensations I felt the first time I read The Secret History and I mean that in the best way. It’s not derivative, it’s more beautifully reminiscent.

Image via goodreads

So maybe I should actually tell you a little bit about The Bellwether Revivals. Oscar is from a lower-middle-class upbringing, a working family who never expected much of him. He escaped to start his own life and works as an aide in a nursing home. He isn’t happy per se, but he’s satisfied in the way a young person who’s making their own way is. He doesn’t feel demeaned by his work, or at least he doesn’t until he finds himself entangled with Iris and Eden Bellwether, two siblings from the upper class with a sense of entitlement and ease completely unfamiliar to Oscar.

Oscar and Iris form a romantic attachment but it’s never free of the influence of Eden’s eccentric musician brother, who is obsessed with playing the organ, music, philosophy and himself. They bring Oscar into a type of life he’s unfamiliar with, but gradually he becomes uneasy with his own lack of privilege and Eden’s strange narcissism.

The Secret History connections are definitely there. The protagonist who finds himself taken in by an “elite” group of sorts at a college. The mysterious leader who is more than he seems.

Ultimately, though, The Bellwether Revivals is its own unique story. Iris enlists Oscar’s help in finding the help she believes her brother needs. But the more Oscar takes part in her plan, the more he’s convinced Eden has strange delusions of supernatural grandeur, and the more he finds himself at odds with Iris, who is both a victim and a follower of her brother.

I do wish the book was a bit longer. I didn’t feel as though I got as much of an opportunity to get to know the other members of the social circle. But I found the plot very intriguing and though I’ve been rather lax in my reading lately, I found myself stealing time to read and find out what was happening.

The book starts with a strong tease of the danger and violence that will come later on in the story and I’m a big fat sucker for such things. Especially when the book will have a nice, long slow burn. The pacing is excellent and even when not much was happening, I felt drawn to see where things would go.

While I consider it a page-turner, The Bellwether Revivals is definitely in the “literary fiction” category. This wouldn’t be classified as a thriller, even though I found it thrilling.

This is Benjamin Wood’s first novel and I’m really excited to see what he writes next.

Thanks to Edelweiss and Viking Books for providing me an advanced e-galley of The Bellwether Revivals. It will be released on June 14th, 2012.

Related Posts:

• Friday Reads Review: The Cranes Dance
• Friday Reads: Two from Mulholland Books
• Friday Reads: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

There’s something about dance, isn’t there? Something about watching a person in such complete control of their body. There’s such dedication in every movement, even though they make it look effortless.

I’ve had dance on the brain ever since I started reading The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey. It follows Kate Crane, a member of a prestigious ballet company in New York. For those of us on the outside, watching her on stage as she dances a solo would make it seem as though she’s perfect. But for Kate, life is a constant battle.

This isn’t just one of those behind-the-scenes books about ballet. If you find it as fascinating as I do, you probably won’t be surprised by the horrors that lurk inside those toe shoes. Or the competition that goes on among even the most talented and successful dancers.

Image via Goodreads

Kate narrates us through her life, a breathless whir of practice and performing. Kate has recently lost her boyfriend and her sister, Gwen. Though Gwen is Kate’s younger sister, she’s been more successful in the company. She’s gone back home to live with their parents, everyone in the company believes she’s injured but Kate knows the truth: Gwen had a nervous breakdown.

Still weighed down with her sister’s presence and constantly fighting a neck injury, Kate fights to make her way through the end of the season. It’s a physical and a mental battle and it may decide whether Kate continues to have a career in ballet.

For those of us who find dance fascinating, this book doesn’t disappoint. There is all the closeness and competition of a company, the choreography of several different ballets and the rigor of diet and physical strengthening.

If you’ve never had much of an interest in ballet, you’ll probably change your mind when you see it from the other side. Instead of some lovely looking ladies in tutus, Kate lets you in on the injuries and jealousies that happen backstage. The beaten up feet and the bottles of Vicodin. The drama is high and you don’t have to know what an arabesque is to enjoy it.

I admit I’ve been on a serious ballet kick thanks to this book. I watched Mikhail Baryshnikov in White Nights and The Turning Point. (Both on Netflix Streaming!) I have Mao’s Last Dancer all queued up. I’d also recommend Black Swan, The Red Shoes and Robert Altman’s The Company. I didn’t realize I had such a ballet thing!

The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey will be available on May 15, 2012. You can pre-order at your local bookstore or at any online store. Or if audiobooks are your thing you can also find an audio copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and Vintage for giving me an e-galley for this review.

Related Posts:

• Friday Reads Review: The Bellwether Revivals
• Friday Reads: Two from Mulholland Books
• Friday Reads: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

Mulholland Books is a new imprint of Little, Brown that focuses on suspense fiction. So of course I took notice and looked through several of their titles. Today I’m reviewing two of their 2012 releases, one that’s already out and one that’s coming up this summer.

Image via Goodreads

First up is The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi. The influx of European crime novels has been rising each year. It’s no longer just the Scandinavian writers that you see, they’re now from all over Europe. The Whisperer is by Italian author Donato Carrisi, and in Europe it’s as popular as Stieg Larsson’s novels. It’s not hard to see why. Carrisi has a great hook, strong characters and a plot that keeps you guessing right up to the end.

These days every crime novel has to start with a big hook and The Whisperer has a memorable one. After a string of kidnappings of young girls, police find 6 severed arms in a field. One problem: there were only 5 kidnapped girls.

When testing indicates one of the girls is still alive, police find themselves on a chase from body to body. Except the placement of each body is itself a clue to another, older crime. This killer seems to know a whole network of other killers and criminals but leaves few clues to his own identity.

Hunting for him is Mila Vasquez, famous for finding kidnapped children. Her uncanny intuition and her own troubled history make her very good at what she does. But this case challenges her like nothing before. Especially since she is joining Goran Gavila and his team, who have their own approach and aren’t always welcoming.

Mila and Goran are both the kind of troubled characters you often see in crime fiction, but I found them to be more than just the scarred, grizzled cops you normally see. The team relationships and their gradual adjustment to Mila make a good counterpoint to the crimes and the investigation itself.

I wouldn’t dare reveal the plot to you, but let me say that it is a constant road of twists and turns. Even when a pattern arises you never know what will be around the next bend. And the ending is a doozy.

While The Whisperer is a classic serial killer novel, The Demands by Mark Billingham is a more unusual situation.

Image via Goodreads

Detective Helen Weeks is just stopping in to her neighborhood shop when she suddenly finds herself held hostage by the normally-friendly shopkeeper. He is Javed Akhtar and he isn’t asking for a ransom. Instead he demands an investigation into the death of his son, Amin, which was dismissed as a suicide.

Tom Thorne is put on the case and finds this is no ordinary investigation. Young Amin was in prison for manslaughter after he killed another boy who attacked him. He seems to have killed himself by overdosing on pills while in the prison infirmary but no one knows how he got access to them. The more Thorne looks, the more he’s convinced this is a murder, but the clock is ticking and the motive is hard to find.

What makes this novel unique is the point of view of Helen while she goes through the hostage situation in the shop. She feels both sympathy and fear towards Akhtar and watches as he gradually unwinds from day to day.

Reading the book does require some suspension of disbelief. It seems unlikely that the police would respond to a demand like Akhtar’s, but if you’re willing to set that aside, you’ll find The Demands to be a satisfying police procedural.

I look forward to see what else Mulholland Books has in store.

Thanks to Netgalley and Mulholland Books for allowing me access to e-galleys of these books. The Whisperer is available now. The Demands will be released on June 12, 2012.

Related Posts:

• Friday Reads Review: The Bellwether Revivals
• Friday Reads Review: The Cranes Dance
• Friday Reads: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened