We are in the heart of spring, a perfect time of year to curl up with a book outside, and in this review we will look at two new novels, Marble Hall Murders, by Anthony Horowitz; and The Marriage Rule, by Helen Monks Takhar; and a thoughtful book of poetry by Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living.
Marble Hall Murders
By Anthony Horowitz
Harper/HarperCollins Publishers; hardcover, 592 pages; $31.00; available today, Tuesday, May 13th
Anthony Horowitz is a prolific author who may have committed more (fictional) murders than any other living author, across all media, from books to film to the theater. He has written three James Bond novels, Trigger Mortis, Forever and a Day, and With a Mind to Kill, as well as the Sherlock Holmes novels, The House of Silk and Moriarty, There also are the Detective Hawthorne novels, The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death, A Line to Kill, The Twist of a Knife, and Close to Death. His bestselling Alex Rider series for young adults has sold over 19 million copies worldwide. His breakthrough murder mystery novels featuring book editor Susan Ryeland, Magpie Murders, and the follow up Moonflower Murders, were both adapted for TV and aired on PBS. As a TV screenwriter, he created both the award-winning Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA-winning Foyle's War for PBS.
Marble Hall Murders is Horowitz's new novel, a metafictional, standalone mystery. It is another tribute to the golden age of Agatha Christie, and features editor Susan Ryeland, who star in Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders.
Susan has had enough of murder, having edited two novels about detective Atticus Pund, and both times coming close to being killed. She has left her Greek island, hotel, and boyfriend, Andreas, behind, and now she has returned to England and been persuaded to work on a third.
The new "continuation" novel is by Eliot Crace, grandson of Miriam Crace, who was the most highest selling children's author in the world until her death exactly twenty years ago. Eliot is convinced that Miriam was deliberately poisoned, and when he informs Susan that he has hidden the identity of Miriam's killer in his book, Susan knows she once again is in trouble.
As Susan continues to work on Pund's Last Case, a story that is set in an exotic villa in the South of France, she uncovers more and more parallels between the past and present, the fictional and the real world, until suddenly she realizes that she has become a target herself.
It also seems that someone in Eliot's family would not like the book to be written, and they will do anything to prevent it.
The Inspiration Behind Marble Hall Murders, By Anthony Horowitz: "Marble Hall Murders came to life in Crete, Greece, last year when we were on the last day of filming Moonflower Murders (the second in the TV series which aired on PBA this fall). Actor Lesley Manville, who stars as character Susan Reyland in both, mentioned that she would love to do a third season and of course everyone was excited by the idea.
"Unfortunately, there was no third book ready to adapt for TV. Therefore, after a bit of thought, I sat down and wrote MHM which I finished in six months, and then, one day later, began the TV adaptation. I am still working on the script now!
"Readers might also like to know that I have met with five literary estates. I wrote three James Bond novels for the Fleming estate and worked on the Tintin film - I had already met the Herge estate. Writing Poirot on TV brought me into contact with the Agatha Christie estate. I am friendly with he Roald Dahl estate because of my work writing children's books, and of course, I was the first writer to be authorized to do a Shirlock Holmes novel (House of Silk) by the Conan Doyle estate. All five estates are secretly referenced in Marble Hill Murders, but none of them inspired the truly horrendous Crace estate. That came purely out of my imagination.
"I hope you enjoy reading Marble Hall Murders as much as I did writing it!"
The Marriage Rule
By Helen Monks Takhar
Random House; paperback, 320 pages; $18.00; available today, Tuesday, May 13th
Helen Monks Takhar worked as a journalist before she became an accomplished author of the novels Precious You, Such A Good Mother, and Nothing Without Me. She is also the joint managing director of the production company Second Generation with her husband, screenwriter and executive producer Danny Takhar.
The Marriage Rule is Takhar's new book, and it is a propulsive domestic thriller focused on what it takes to keep marriages together, as well as what can tear them apart. It is a Random House Book Club edition, complete with an author's note and a discussion guide.
Elle is nine months into being a mother, and she is struggling at the moment. She is confronting being sidelined at work, while fighting to be comfortable in her post-baby body, which is not unrelated to the pressure she is feeling to be intimate with her adoring husband, Dom.
The question Elle faces is, why does everything feel so hard, even when Dom is such a helpful, hands-on father, and an always-attentive husband?
Elle finds solace in her colleague Gabriel to get through the day, and her nights are filled with red wine. This worked for awhile until she woke up bleary-eyed in a hotel room next to a man who is not her husband. Then, as she assesses the scene, and the emotions that came with it, she discovers that he also happens to be dead.
Then, Elle is faced with the predicament that Dom is the only one tho can get her out of this hotel with her future intact. She also knows that if she followed The Marriage Rule - the one thing she was told to do to keep a marriage thriving - she would never have wound up next to the dead man.
This thrilling tale is presented as a three-week saga, and Takhar writes in such a vivid way that gives it a cinematic feel, making it all the more compelling.
I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living
By Josie Balka
S&S/Simon Element; hardcover, 176 pages; $22.99; available today, Tuesday, May 13th
Josie Balka is a broadcaster, voiceover artist, and poet, who is the author of Loves of Our Lives. She has worked for some of the largest media companies in North America as an on-air personality after she received her diploma in radio, television, and film from Niagara College. The Toronto native who now resides in Calgary, Canada, can often be heard recording viral poetry in her sound-proof closet.
Balka's poetry has quite a following, from celebrities including Drew Barrymore, Paris Hilton, and John Stamos, to her viral TikTok audio, which has over 12 million views, and has spawned thousands of videos across social media that urge people to remember what's truly important.
"Josie's poems have been my compass through life's highs and lows," Stamos writes. "She writes with the soul of someone who's lived a thousand years, yet her words are so grounded, so relatable, they feel like they were written just for you...they're road maps and lifelines, pieces of wisdom you'll want to carry with you."
I Hope You Remember is Balka's first book of poetry, with poems that have never been shared before, as well as those that have been previously published. These are poems that will hit home, as they focus on universal experiences such as family relationships, love, grief, body image, jealousy, apathy, nostalgia, and above all, she leaves you with hope and the willingness to change your life.
Balka writes in the introduction: I hope when you read this book...
You remember an emotion you forgot about. I hope it hurts your feelings and mends them all at once. I hope the mention of mid-November makes you feel haunted in ways that are both good and bad. I hope the pages about grey days and wet sidewalks make you think of someone in particular. I hope you've forgiven them. I hope reading this book feels like waking up from a nap in the dark, alone in your room, your nose cold from a cracked window you forgot to close. I hope it makes you think of the smell of your childhood home, and the way your bare feet feel on a warm summer sidewalk. I hope it makes you realize how much you've been through, how many of your fears will never come true, and how you've already survived all the ones that have. I hope it helps you escape to a simpler time, and I hope it makes the hard times seem a little easier, if only for a moment.
Mostly, I hope it makes you remember.
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