Weekend picks for book lovers
What should you read this weekend? Paste BN's picks for book lovers include several new mysteries, including Crime of Privilege, inspired by Kennedy family scandals.
Crime of Privilege by Walter Walker; Ballantine, 413 pp.; fiction
Crime of Privilege, a portrait of guilt and redemption, combines elements of two episodes in Kennedy family history: William Kennedy Smith's rape trial and the Martha Moxley murder.
George Becket, a peripheral friend of the politically powerful Gregory family, witnessed a sexual assault in the 1990s and missed his chance to do the right thing.
Now a prosecutor in Cape Cod, haunted into a life of isolation by his memories of the event, he has a chance to find a still darker truth about the people he once helped shield.
Paste BN says *** ½ out of four. "A subtle, well-paced thriller... Walker is a nuanced and emotionally convincing writer."
Skinner by Charlie Huston; Mulholland/Little, Brown, 389 pp.; fiction
Skinner is a brutal, efficient bodyguard who was left emotionally frozen by a childhood spent in a clear box, under constant observation by his parents. Now an adult, his latest asset is Jae, a roboticist who may be able to forestall a cyberterrorist attack.
Paste BN says ***. "A gripping read...like Olen Steinhauer by way of William Gibson."
The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett; Viking, 368 pp.; fiction
The mysterious tale of a battered antiquarian book that may link a widower, Paul Byerly, to both his late, beloved wife Amanda, and to the greatest of English writers, Shakespeare.
Paste BN says ***. "Lovett tells his story with ease, charm, and a faith in his characters."
The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson; Henry Holt, 877 pp.; non-fiction
In the final volume of his "Liberation Trilogy," Atkinson offers a history of World War II in Western Europe between D-Day and the fall of the Third Reich
Paste BN says *** ½. "Great characters, vivid details."
Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld; Random House, 397 pp., $27; fiction
Sisterland centers on psychic twin sisters – one of whom has embraced her gifts, and the other who tries to be a "normal" suburban wife and mom.
Paste BN says *** ½. "Wise and often wickedly entertaining."
Contributing reviewers: Charles Finch, Rick Hampson, Kevin Nance