A DESPERATE FORTUNE by Susanna Kearsley

A DESPERATE FORTUNE

by

Susanna Kearsley

            I attended a book signing where Susanna Kearsley talked about how someone in her family has Asperger’s and how her new book involves someone with Asperger’s. This seemed a departure from her “usual”, and I had some trepidation about what this entailed – perhaps, in part, that is why I had put off reading A Desperate Fortune. I am not sure what I had expected – about Asperger’s or the book’s dealing with it – but I finished the book knowing more about Asperger’s yet thinking this is a non-issue. What is the big deal? I suspect that this was, at least in part, the point that Kearsley was trying to make.

            Sara Thomas, the main character in A Desperate Fortune, does have Asperger’s – but again, so what? Sara is good with ciphers. Her cousin introduces her to a historian who hires Sara to decrypt a journal that was kept by Mary Dundas. Dundas, a Jacobite exile living near Paris in the 1730’s, wrote her journal in code. Sara travels to Chatou, a suburb of Paris where the journal is located, to determine the cipher(s) that Dundas used while writing her journal and to translate the journal. As we follow Sara to France, we, too, learn about the adventures and dangers that Mary and other Jacobite exiles faced during that earlier time. At the end of the book, Kearsley includes a fairly lengthy author’s note, entitled “About the Characters,” in which she discusses the historical accuracy of many of the characters and details included in the book; this note is almost as wonderful as the book itself.

            I am a big Susanna Kearsley fan, and A Desperate Fortune does not disappoint. As with other Kearsley works, this book has Sara’s modern day story juxtaposed with Mary’s historical story. My only comment is that the two stories do not appear to be as parallel or tied as those found in other Kearsley books. Nonetheless, each story is interesting on its own, and I like the manner in which Kearsley has tied them together. A Desperate Fortune may not be my very favorite Kearsley book, but it is a solid, quintessential Kearsley and is definitely worth the read.

THE LIKENESS by Tana French

THE LIKENESS

by

Tana French

            Cassie Maddox is back. Fans of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series will remember Maddox from book one in the series, In the Woods; she returns in the second book, The Likeness.

            Lexie Madison is found dead. Not only did she look like Detective Cassie Maddox, but her name – her entire character – was created and used by Cassie while working undercover. So, Cassie returns to undercover work to discover who Lexie was and who killed her. Lexie had been a graduate student at Trinity College, living in a large, rural manor house with four other graduate students. So, Cassie must slip back into her Lexie Madison character in a way that seamlessly meshes with her four housemates – quite a challenge as the five had been extraordinarily close.

            I loved The Likeness. Every time I read one of Tana French’s books, I remember how much I love her work. I do not know why, when I am not reading a French book, I seem to forget this, but when I return to French, I am once again captivated. There is something about her writing, something magical. French’s work is character weighted. Her characters are not the beautiful that we dream of becoming – they are ordinary, often troubled people, warts and all. But, French is a master at painting pictures with her words. Although the mysteries in the plots are intriguing and enticing, they are secondary to the world she creates. The pictures painted by her words seem to capture an extra “layer” – some sort of additional element, like an esoteric metaphysical layer, though not in a fantastical or sci-fi sense. It is an ineffable, albeit enticing, quality.

            And, like every other time that I have read Tana French, I now have the urge to read the entire Dublin Murder Squad series again, trying to bide time until a new French book is published.