The Literate Kitty

Some of the biggest milestones in life are exciting and bittersweet at the same time.  Take high school graduations. The prospect of freedom is a siren’s call to soon-to-be grads... while the idea of leaving behind the known quantity of old friends and family may be both scary and sad. One thing that rarely crosses most new graduates’ minds, though, is their own deaths. Yet that’s the very tragedy at the beginning (and heart) of Ann Cleeves’ latest novel of suspense,  The Dying Light .   When Detective Matthew Venn gets called to a young woman named Lottie’s scene of death—a tragedy which occurred in a problematic location, to put it mildly—he’s rightfully on edge. The body was found in the swimming pool of a holiday home in the Devon countryside (not ideal)—owned by Paul Armstrong, a controversial politician on the rise. Paul and his family—wife and two young sons—found the body shortly after arriving at the mansion, where they planned to meet daughter Hannah and her sch...

A popular true-crime podcaster—with secrets of her own—who focuses on unsolved crimes.   A confused, late-20s woman—recovering from a terrible accident, and grieving a pair of losses—whom the podcaster approaches about the latest story she wants to share with her eager subscribers.   An angry father, who doesn’t really understand his daughter—her choices, who she is—but is dead-set against her participation in the podcast, knowing what it will do to their family.   A grandfather—now dead—forced to leave his beloved hometown in Iceland some forty years ago and relocate to far-off California with his young son, following the tragic deaths of his wife and infant daughter.   And the small Icelandic town—Bifröst—where the tragedy still, somehow, feels fresh.    And... where another horrible event may even now be taking place.   The stage is set for Melissa Larsen’s latest mystery/suspense,  The Lost House .     When a little boy found the bod...