Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

Wow, another great read! I am on a roll! So this book is a bit like "These Things Hidden". It's kind of a murder mystery novel.
In the 1970's, Larry and Silas were childhood pals from 2 different worlds. Larry, the son of middle-class white parents and Silas, the son of a poor black single mother. Then Larry takes a girl to the drive-in and she is never heard from again. He doesn't confess and was never charged, but lives as a recluse as he is presumed guilty by the entire town.
Now twenty years have passed and another girl has gone missing forcing these unlikely friends to come across each others paths once again.
This is another book that I would recommend to most. It does have a very foul-mouthed character in it, so I would advise that you be able to handle language. Some sexual and rape references as well. Overall a very good book. I own this one and plan to read more of Tom Franklin's novels.

Not Without My Daughter

Imagine being taken to a foreign country where you couldn't speak the language, adapt to the customs or even walk the street without fear. Where you are treated as nothing and have no way of getting home. This is the true story about a women taken on a short trip to Iran with her Iranian husband and her daughter. This book is quite long and goes through her grueling agony of trying to flee her captors. It is a pretty clean book but has some violence. I read it for my book club and don't know that I would read it again. But I have never been more fond of my toilet than after reading the horror stories of Iranian bathrooms:( It really made me appreciate being an American. This book is suitable for anyone. If you are curious about Iranian culture or treatment of women, this is pretty straight forward.

The Soldiers Wife

I like this one. I wasn't sure what to expect, but saw that it takes place on Guernsey and I couldn't help but read it. (And plan my next vacation to this paradise.)
So this book is also about the German Occupation of the island. While her husband is off fighting at war, this mother and caregiver finds herself in love with a German soldier. This is a story of love and compassion, war and adapting to it. It was well written with good characters. It is pretty clean being about the passions of war. Its sensual scenes are brief and not very detailed. I may still not recommend it to younger readers, but only because its topics are adult in nature. I would probably read it again. It held my attention to the end which I am torn about. Someone please read this so we can chat.