In “After She Wrote Him” by Sulari Gentill, Madeleine d’Leon is a writer of crime novels who comes up with a new character, Edward McGinnity. But wait—Edward McGinnity is a writer of literary novels who creates a character, also a writer, named Madeleine d’Leon. Are both real? Are both fictional? Who created who?
Sisters-in-law who both lost their husbands in a scuba diving accident are the focus of the Christian fiction novel “The Joy of Falling” by Lindsay Harrell. Eva is left childless and wealthy. Angela has to take two jobs to support her three children. More than a year after the brothers’ deaths, Eva finds out that they had signed up for an “ultra-marathon” in New Zealand along with their friend Marc. She convinces the reluctant Angela and Marc that the two widows should compete in the marathon in place of their husbands. The experience makes them face things about themselves they had been avoiding; it also brings hope.
“The Socialite” by J’nell Ciesielski is an historical novel with elements of romance, set during the German occupation of France. Kat uses her family’s wealth and connections to travel from Britain to occupied Paris with the goal of bringing her sister Ellie back home. Ellie, always the wild child, is the mistress of a Nazi officer and refuses to leave. Unknown to the two, their father also used his connections to hire Resistance trainer/bar owner Barrett to do what he can to deliver the two to safety. Barrett is not thrilled with being the minder for a couple of socialites, but he eventually sees beyond Kat’s aristocratic façade to appreciate the strong woman she really is.
The septuagenarian Cassandra Tipp has disappeared in “You Let Me In” by Camilla Bruce. She is a controversial figure whose own family members believe her guilty of two murders for which she was never convicted. The police are convinced she is dead. After she has been missing for a year, her heirs, a niece and nephew, are directed by her will to go to her house and read a manuscript Cassandra has left for them. The manuscript will reveal a password which must be used to get the rest of their inheritance. The bizarre stories they find in the manuscript may or may not reveal things about their aunt’s life.
One legend of country music writes about her friendship with another in “Me and Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust” by Loretta Lynn. Not much different in age, Patsy Cline was already a legend while Lynn was a near unknown and just beginning of her career when they met. Yet the two formed a deep friendship which greatly influenced Lynn’s life, despite being cut short after two years by Cline’s death in a plane crash.
