Final Orbit, Chris Hadfield (Random House Canada, 416 pages) <\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Final Orbit, Chris HadfieldSupplied<\/p>\n Chris Hadfield has had it all, in life and in fiction. What could be more exciting than outer space? How about three dead astronauts, a space station in disarray and a rogue Chinese spaceship headed to do damage to the remains of the mission. That\u2019s the barest description of the plot in this terrific end to Hadfield\u2019s trilogy of space thrillers.<\/p>\n Our hero is astronaut-turned-NASA-flight-controller Kaz Zemeckis. It\u2019s 1975 and a NASA rocket with three Americans heads to the space station planning to dock. Kaz is on Earth monitoring and he has a bad feeling. Then the mission, literally, explodes and the three men die. What went wrong? Was it sabotage? By whom? <\/p>\n Books we’re reading and loving in October<\/a><\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot more going on here but you have to read the book to uncover it.<\/p>\n As always, with Hadfield, there\u2019s much technical talk as well as insider peeks at what life as an astronaut and time in space are really like. Hadfield explains in simple terms just how space travel works and he doesn\u2019t let the technical jargon overpower the story. <\/p>\n While the crime is in outer space, bad things are happening on Earth, too, including an attempted presidential assassination and a kidnapping. These two aren\u2019t really germane to the excellent space plot but they don\u2019t detract from it, either. This may end Hadfield\u2019s Zemeckis space novels but I hope it\u2019s not his last thriller. <\/p>\n Buy<\/p>\n The Haunting of Paynes Hollow, Kelley Armstrong (St. Martin\u2019s, 288 pages)<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n The Haunting Of Payne Hollow, Kelley ArmstrongSupplied<\/p>\n Ontario\u2019s own Kelley Armstrong has succeeded where dozens of other authors have failed. I confess to thoroughly enjoying her supernatural mystery novels. That\u2019s primarily because she doesn\u2019t let the supernatural elements overshadow a good old-fashioned whodunit plot and that\u2019s really the case in The Haunting of Paynes Hollow where we have a very cold case and a very warm revival. <\/p>\n Samantha Payne\u2019s father died by suicide when he was accused of a vicious murder of a child. The witness was his own father, who found him burying the body, wearing bloody clothing. Fourteen years later, Samantha\u2019s grandfather is dead and he\u2019s left her the valuable waterfront cottage where the crime happened. The kicker? He doesn\u2019t believe his son was the murderer, despite what he saw, and to claim the property, Samantha, who does believe her father was guilty, has to live in the house for a month. <\/p>\n Naturally, creepy things happen and ghosts crawl in the night, but the murder was committed by a flesh-and-blood killer who\u2019s still evading the law and that means Samantha herself is in danger and not from a spectre. Excellent book for a cool weekend at the cottage. <\/p>\n Buy<\/p>\n A Killer Motive, Hannah Mary McKinnon (Mira, 400 pages) <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n A Killer Motive, Hannah Mary McKinnonSupplied<\/p>\n A good psychological suspense novel is hard to find but Canadian author Hannah Mary McKinnon continues to turn them out and A Killer Motive, with an intriguing puzzle and well-drawn characters, is one of her best so far. <\/p>\n Stella Dixon sneaks her teenaged brother out of the house. The pair is headed for a beach party. Drinking, toking, a little light sex, all part of summer under the stars. But this party goes all wrong and Stella\u2019s brother disappears. Years pass and there\u2019s no clue as to what happened. <\/p>\n Six year later, Stella\u2019s family has never recovered from that night. Stella, herself, is laden with guilt. To deal with the loss, she\u2019s started a podcast, A Killer Motive, to reach out to other people who have lost a loved one. Then Stella goes on radio and says that if she had just one clue, she\u2019d follow it to the centre of the crime and find justice for her brother and some respite for her family. <\/p>\n No one is more surprised than Stella when a listener takes this as a challenge. But the clue is part of a game. If Stella wins, she gets the clue. Is this a cruel joke? It takes another disappearance for Stella to realize that someone, somewhere, is using her, but why? And what really happened six years ago? I couldn\u2019t put this one down. <\/p>\n Buy<\/p>\n The Killing Stones, Ann Cleeves (Pan Macmillan, 384 pages) <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n The Killing Stones, Ann CleevesSupplied<\/p>\n Best news ever is that Jimmy Perez is back. He has a new wife and a new location and is about to become a father. And he\u2019s still investigating murder. Relocated to Orkney, still in the Scottish islands, he\u2019s as intense and clever as ever.<\/p>\n The dead man is Archie Stout, one of Perez\u2019s oldest friends, The corpse is placed in a Neolithic cemetery and the weapon is an ancient stone covered with runic symbols. Jimmy\u2019s wife, Willow, is the real detective in charge of the case but it\u2019s personal with Perez and, as he uncovers the secrets of his old friend\u2019s life, he finds that he didn\u2019t know Archie as well as he thought. <\/p>\n As always with Ann Cleeves, the history and landscape of the setting are as much a character as the people in this novel. With a new setting and family, Perez is revived as a series and the plotline \u2013 always good in Cleeves \u2013 is as twisty as any reader will want. <\/p>\n Buy<\/p>\n The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer, Ragnar Jonasson, translated by Victoria Cribb (Minotaur, 320 pages) <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer, Ragnar JonassonSupplied<\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t already discovered Ragnar Jonasson\u2019s clever Hulda series, also known as Dark Iceland, you might know his television work, the CBS series The Darkness. He is a devotee of the golden age of mystery and the puzzle plot. The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer is a little masterpiece of puzzles, clever characterization and devious red herrings. <\/p>\n The missing woman is Elin S. Jonsdottir, famed Icelandic novelist who tilts a bit toward the real-life disappearance of Agatha Christie. Elin wrote 10 bestselling books and then stopped publishing. What happened? Now, she\u2019s disappeared and it\u2019s up to Helgi, a young detective, to find her. As Helgi delves into Elin\u2019s past he discovers there\u2019s much more to her story, which is as complex as any of her own plotlines. <\/p>\n This book is gorgeously written with all the elements one expects from a superior puzzler. If you like this one, you\u2019ll want to read all of Jonasson\u2019s earlier books. <\/p>\n Buy<\/p>\n A Season for Spies, Iona Whishaw (Touchwood, 192 pages) <\/p>\n