Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Armchair Travel Mysteries

The Black House: The Isle of Lewis, one of Scotland's Outer Hebrides islands, is as much a character in Peter May's novel as its hardscrabble residents. Edinburgh detective and native islander Fin Macleod returns to his boyhood home and its haunting memories when a murder on the island seems to mirror a similar one in the country's capital. His investigation will expose ugly island secrets, painful childhood memories and shocking revelations about a woman he once loved.

The Black Box: Crime writer Michael Connelly is a reliably good storyteller and his novels' endings pack a satisfying punch. The Black Box, 18th in a 20-year-old series starring L.A.P.D. detective Harry Bosch, could be the best yet. It's perfectly balanced along two time lines. One is the 1992 L.A. riots sparked by the verdict in the Rodney King beating trial. The other takes place now as Harry hunts down the killer of a Danish journalist dumped in an L.A. alley in 1992.

The Boy In The Snow: Edie Kiglatuk, half Inuit and 100% unique, is the troubled but irresistible heroine in M.J. McGrath's debut mystery set in Alaska during the Iditarod. Reluctantly, Edie has left her Arctic island home and travels to Anchorage to support her ex-husband Sammy who's competing in the famous dog sled race. But Edie's commitment to Sammy takes a turn toward life-threatening when she discovers the body of a baby boy in a snow-covered forest. Suspicion falls on an ancient sect, the Old Believers, but soon Edie, who already carries the weight of innumerable family tragedies in her heart, exposes ties to prostitution, human trafficking and baby selling.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Armchair Travel Mysteries

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