A few more books read

Retirement Homes are Murder, by Mike Befeler. I thought this might be a book based on Alzheimer's, but it really isn't. The premise is that a 70+ guy who has just moved into a retirement home can't remember anything that happened in the last five years or so once he goes to sleep. He gets involved in a trying to solve a murder and has to reset his memory every morning. It's a clever premise and this light diversion is well done. A quick read, but fun. Set in Hawaii, and it does have a good sense of place.

I'm Not Scared, by Niccolo Ammaniti. The book opens with a sense of foreboding associated with corn fields. Told from the perspective of the son of incompetent kidnappers, it has a tone of dislocation as the 10 year old main character, Michele, finds the kidnapped boy and figures out what's happening from overhearing the adults. Although the story line is frightening and the author seems to be trying for a sense of menace, the book wasn't totally convincing as the "thriller" it claims to be.

The Double Bind, by Chris Bohjalian. The writing was nothing special, but it was not intrusive to the story. The story, connecting an assaulted woman with the homeless and with The Great Gatsby, was very complex and the twists and turns really kept me reading. Big twist at the end still has me thinking; I'm not sure the author played fair about that.