Sheila's Guests and Reviews

 A friend who lives in the Pacific Northwest recommended this author to me, saying these books might offer the best depiction of the area. So I had to read them. Now, at last, I'm catching up on writing book reviews. The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld Set in a vividly depicted Pacific Northwest, Rene Denfeld’s dark novel follows a PI nicknamed the Child Finder as she researches a cold case – the mystery of a child who disappeared three years previously. Child Finder Naomi is herself a “lost” child, and her skills have been honed by her past. But the search for Madison threatens to open dark doors to that past, and Naomi is soon in danger of “finding” her own self – a self she keeps deeply locked away, even from those she cares for most. A dark, haunting novel about an all-too-believably dark, haunted world, The Child Finder is an enthralling read full of character and plot. The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld Sequel to the Child Finder by the same author, the Butterfly Gir...

 I got these two books for my birthday last year but found them hard to hold with a broken wrist. They stared at me from the not-read bookshelf, enticingly. And eventually I got them down, reading both in the space of three or four day. Long books, but great reads, especially if you like time travel contradictions, or just like London. Blackout by Connie Willis Historians in 2060 Oxford, England, are researching the past. It’s a kind of hands-on research whereby they travel into the past, with strict instructions (and many protections) to avoid their changing anything. Of course, things go wrong. Travelers visiting different locations, times and events of WWII find themselves trapped. Time-travel interactions might mean a certainty that someone will survive, combined with uncertainty about oneself. And multiple viewpoints have the reader tracking back and forth till the threads start coming together. And the fears. The characters quickly become very real, and the world of WWI...