A bunch of really great books lately!
Philippa Gregory's latest, "The Kingmaker's Daughter", was a fascinating fictional look at Anne Neville, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Warwick, Richard Neville, who was responsible for putting Edward IV and the Henry VI on the throne. He was killed in battle when Edward wanted his throne back, and Anne married Edward's youngest brother, Richard, who later became King Richard III and one of history's most interesting and (in my opinion) maligned figures. I can't wait for her next book, which will be from the point of view of Elizabeth Tudor, who married Henry VII and was Henry VIII's mother.
The first in the Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, "Game of Thrones" was very tense and riveting. At the heart is the basic War of the Roses story, so it was familiar to me: King Robert married a woman against the wishes of his advisers, Cersie Lannister. She is part of a large family which rises swiftly in the land, taking important titles and lands from men who feel they deserve it more. There are rumors that Cersie is a witch. When King Robert's hand (his closest adviser) dies, he approaches his longtime friend, Ned Stark, to come and be his new hand. Ned doesn't want to leave his home, Winterfell, but he hardly feels like he can refuse. There is much intrigue and secrets and people are murdered and while all this is going on half a world away the woman who feels Robert stole the throne from her, Dany, is preparing to launch a battle to win her rightful place back. I haven't seen the HBO show yet, but I'm eager to after reading the first book.
"Long Lankin" by Lindsey Barraclough is a genuinely spooky YA book based on a real English ballad. The book is set in the English countryside in the 1950s. Cora and Mimi turn up on their great Aunt Ida's doorstep with nowhere else to go. Ida makes it painfully clear she doesn't want the young girls there, and there is a long list of rules to follow: doors and windows must never be opened, no playing near the marsh, and never, ever go to the old church. Cora meets a young boy named Roger who lives near by, and of course they go to the church to see what all the fuss is about. It slowly comes out that Ida's family has been terrorized for generations by Long Lankin, who steals little children in order to drink their blood. Ida has lost many family members to Lankin, and it looks like Mimi might be next.
And finally, "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn. There is a lot of hype surrounding this book, and it has long holds list at my library, so I was worried it might not live up to expectations, but it was very good. I can't say too much about the plot because there are several big twists, but the book starts out with Nick coming home and discovering his wife Amy is missing and the living room is torn up. The police don't take very long to determine that there was a great quantity of blood in the kitchen that has been hastily cleaned up, and that the struggle in the living room was staged. In between chapters dealing with Nick, who acts guilty, we read past entries from Amy's diary, as she grows increasingly scared of her husband's escalating violence. So did he do it or not? The ending was very satisfying, a lot of times a book will be very good and the ending will fall flat but not this one. Excellent!
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