April Picks

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty. Set in Sydney, Australia, this novel follows the lives of three women whose paths intersect in unexpected ways. One of the women, Cecelia, discovers a letter in her home one day from her husband while he is away traveling. It is labeled that it should only be opened upon his death. Cecelia opens it anyway, unlocking a secret that shakes her world and could turn her happy family on its head. Moriarty weaves a humorous yet thrilling tale of very appealing, relatable characters who are unknowingly connected to each other through the information that Cecelia discovers. An absolute must read!

The Smart One by Jennifer Close. This novel tells of the Coffey family and the three adult Coffey siblings who begrudgingly find themselves living back at home with their parents due to their differing circumstances. Martha Coffey is a nurse turned J. Crew employee who feels lost after graduating and working in her field - life ahead of her feels like “one big, empty white space”. Claire Coffey has broken up with her fiancé and is becoming buried under debt while living in her New York City apartment. And the baby of the family, Max, along with his girlfriend Cleo, is in his final year of college and hiding a secret from the family. Jennifer Close develops her characters wonderfully and draws the reader in with her wit and plot.

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. This novel takes place in 1922 and tells the story of spinster Frances living with her refined mother in England. The two women are mourning the deaths of Frances’s brothers during World War 2. After Frances’s father dies and leaves them in debt, they are forced to take in lodgers to make ends meet. In come a young couple named Lillian and Leonard who stir things up in the household and awaken dangerous feelings and desires in Frances. Waters paints a vivid picture of the times and leaves the reader on the edge of one’s seat!

Defending Jacob by William Landay. Andy Barber is an assistant District Attorney assigned to investigate the murder of a fourteen-year-old boy. The boy was a classmate of Andy’s son Jacob and was found stabbed in the park. Andy initially suspects a locally known pedophile but begins to learn of some animosity between Ben, the murdered boy, and his son Jacob. To complicate things further, Andy finds a knife hidden in Jacob’s room that he decides to dispose of himself without revealing its existence. Andy is then pulled off the case when a fingerprint belonging to Jacob is found on the inside of Ben’s sweatshirt. A story that tell the complicated relationships between parents and children and explores what a parent might do when faced with the unthinkable.