The Testaments is a 2019 novel by Margaret Atwood.

It is a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale (1985).

The novel is set 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale.

It is narrated by Aunt Lydia, a character from the previous novel; Agnes, a young woman living in Gilead; and Daisy, a young woman living in Canada.

Spoiler – Agnes and Daisy are the daughters of June Osborne / Offred / Ofjoseph (Elisabeth Moss in the TV series).

The highlight of the sequel is Aunt Lydia, for sure. Her backstory. Her rise to power as an Aunt overseeing the women of Gilead. Atwood said that Dowd’s performance as Aunt Lydia on the series helped inspire the new novel

Ann Dowd plays the Aunt Lydia role in the TV series. And she reads the part in the audio book.

My only quibble with the otherwise very good book is the plot. It’s absurd to think this was the only way to get Aunt Lydia’s Testaments to Canada. Absurd.

Though Bosch has had knee replacement surgery, this book is as good as any other in the series.

Harry Bosch and LAPD Detective Renée Ballard come together again on the murder case that obsessed Bosch’s mentor, the man who trained him to be a homicide detective. …

Bosch brings the murder book to Renée Ballard and asks her to help him find what about the case lit Thompson’s fire all those years ago. That will be their starting point.

The bond between Bosch and Ballard tightens as they become a formidable investigation team. And they soon arrive at a worrying question: Did Thompson steal the murder book to work the case in retirement, or to make sure it never got solved?

PS: Mickey Haller is in The Night Fire, too.

Click PLAY or watch a teaser on YouTube.

Morrell is a superb writer. But I felt he made book 3 over-complicated by having 3 pairs of protagonists. It would have worked better with fewer characters to follow.

After all, we mainly wanted to know how it wraps up for Saul and Drew.

The surviving hero of The Brotherhood of the Rose meets the hero of  Fraternity of the Stone, making this novel a double sequel and the third book in a trilogy.

Why have ten elderly men from around the world been kidnapped, all at the same time?

The Brotherhood series is about orphans searching for a foster father. David Morrell is an orphan.

Book 3 in the Mortalis series:

1. Brotherhood of the Rose (1983)
2. Fraternity of the Stone (1985)
3. The League of Night and Fog (1987)

This book was the basis for the 1989 mini-series starring Robert Mitchum.

David Morrell is a Canadian novelist from Kitchener, Ontario who’s been living in the States many years.

Very good. But the least superb of the Morrell books I’ve read, so far. I am continuing on to book 3. The PLOT of this series is intriguing.

Book 2 in the Mortalis series:

1. Brotherhood of the Rose (1983)
2. Fraternity of the Stone (1985)
3. The League of Night and Fog (1987)

In a remote monastery in Vermont, a mysterious man named Drew MacLane has spent the previous six years doing penance for sins that he committed for his government. …

As a black-ops team searches the monastery, he realizes that his deadly past has caught up to him. … he leaves his sanctuary to confront the outside world and the ruthless enemies that he prayed he had left behind.

… It stands alone and requires no familiarity with the prior classic espionage novel. But together they form a powerful bond that culminates with The League of Night and Fog.

This ground-breaking blend of an espionage and a religious thriller begins at the time of the Crusades and the invention of the word “assassin.” It was the first novel to deal with Opus Dei, the Vatican’s civilian intelligence community. …

davidmorrell.net

Amazon

I’m working my way through all the Shari Lapena books:

Things Go Flying (2008)
Happiness Economics (2011)
The Couple Next Door (2016)
A Stranger in the House (2017)
An Unwanted Guest (2018)
Someone We Know (2019)

She’s got a unique style. For this book some are calling it suburban paranoia. Seemingly normal people are capable of extreme things.

A flirtatious, unfaithful wife is brutally murdered in the first chapter.

Suspicion immediately falls on the men in her life, especially those suspected of having extramarital relations with her or her jealous husband.

Meanwhile, two mothers are worried about their teenage sons. One boy has been sneaking into neighbourhood homes and reading the content of their computers. What secrets may he have learned and how will his snooping connect with the plot? Another boy is a drunk. Their two mothers are best friends and support each other in their concerns.

Amazon

Surprisingly good.

Fast paced. Entertaining from start to finish.

First Lady … gone rogue

Sally Grissom is a top secret service agent in charge of the Presidential Protection team. She knows that something is amiss when she is summoned to a private meeting with the President and his Chief of Staff without any witnesses. But she couldn’t have predicted that she’d be forced to take on an investigation surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the First Lady–with strict orders to keep it a secret.

The First Lady’s absence comes in the wake of the scandalous, public revelation of the president’s affair …