A funny murder mystery?

Garrett pulls it off well — and keeps the book feeling very contemporary.

… no one bats an eye when a Black reality TV star is found dead—except her estranged half-sister, whose refusal to believe the official story leads her on a dangerous search for the truth. …

“I found out my sister was back in New York from Instagram. I found out she’d died from the New York Daily News.” …

“A briskly plotted, socially astute thriller.” ―Los Angeles Times 

“Like a Sister combines the voice and humor Kellye Garrett fans have always loved with a twisting and surprising story sure to attract new readers. Domestic suspense for the Instagram gen. #lovedit.”
―Lori Rader-Day, Edgar-nominated author of The Lucky One

The Watchmaker’s Daughter (2016) is book #1 of the Glass and Steele Series.

Historical fiction set in London.

I’d call this Young Adult.

Too slow paced for me — but I did enjoy the setting and plot. It kept me guessing.

India Steele is desperate.

Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father.

Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her.

Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who’ll accept her – an enigmatic and mysterious man from America. A man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he’s ill.

Matthew Glass must find a particular watchmaker, but he won’t tell India why any old one won’t do. Nor will he tell her what he does back home, and how he can afford to stay in a house in one of London’s best streets. …

Not bad. Not brilliant.

The Heiress (2024) by Rachel Hawkins.

I did enjoy the audio book using different readers for different characters.

Ruby is an entertaining monster.

I related most to Jules — trying to make the best of this weird family.

AND the big plot twist revealed at the end was well done.

AND there are other plot twists — all surprising.

… Maybe this is an excellent book, after all. 😀

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious.

The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money―and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable.

And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will––and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.

Demon Copperhead is a 2022 novel by Barbara Kingsolver, a co-recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Fantastic.

I went back to read her first novel ➙ The Bean Trees (1988)

Fantastic, as well.

A white trash 18-year-old sets out to leave backwoods, Kentucky, and travel west, and finds herself in Oklahoma near Cherokee territory.

As she stops in the town, an Indian woman suddenly approaches, deposits a small child, and leaves without explanation.

Not knowing what else to do, Taylor decides to care for the child.

The two travel to Tucson, Arizona, where she meets Lou Ann, a woman with a young son. Lou Ann had been married; her husband abandoned her and their child.

The novel traces the experiences of Taylor and the child, … named Turtle.

The Bean Trees is a coming-of-age novel.

Barbara Kingsolver uses a nonstandard perspective to share the characters’ adventures and the world they live in. The use of nonwhite mythology, anti-western sentiment, and not using the typical form of male adventure, allowed the author to explore the world where women were powerful and had a voice.

The novel shares negative traumatic experiences of the characters and people they meet, like Native Americans and Guatemalan refugees. …

It’s often assigned in High School classes though I’d not heard of this modern classic.

I downloaded the sequel … good, but not nearly as good IMHO.

Pigs in Heaven

I t continues the story of Taylor Greer and Turtle, her adopted Cherokee daughter.

It highlights the strong relationships between mothers and daughters, with special attention given to the customs, history, and living situation of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. 

I can see why the author wrote this book. No doubt MANY wanted to know what happened to Taylor and her daughter.

In fact, the final resolution of the second book is satisfying.

BUT getting there I found too slow and tedious.

I did enjoy Turtle getting on Oprah !

Taylor’s Mom, Alice, is the character with the most important role.