361

361, by Donald E. Westlake. First published in 1962, this is an old-fashioned, hard-boiled revenge novel. Unfortunately, the exposition is clumsy and the dialog is stilted. Grade: C

A Spot of Bother

A Spot of Bother (2006) by Mark Haddon. George Hall is a stiff-upper-lip Englishman who finds himself unaccountably having a nervous breakdown. Meanwhile, his wife, Jean, is having an affair; his daughter, Katie, is getting ready to marry a man whom George and Jean don't approve of; and his son, Jamie, is having a crisis with his gay lover. Haddon, author of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," has produced another engaging, amusing book. Grade: A-

Bust

Bust (2006) by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr. Bruen and Starr plumb the shallows of a series of amoral characters in this crime novel. While the language is hard-boiled, the underlying story is funny, with each character deluding himself or herself about the likelihood of success of their hare-brained schemes. I couldn't put it down. Grade: B+

Little Children

Little Children (2004) by Tom Perrotta. Men and women struggle with various aspects of suburban parenting in this novel. Stay-at-home dad Todd and stay-at-home mom Sarah meet on the playground and fireworks ensue. Meanwhile, the community where they live is disrupted by a retired cop's outrage over a sex criminal who has come to live in their midst. The story is well told and the book is readable, but I found the ending a bit anticlimactic. Grade: B

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

The Memory Keeper's Daughter (2005) by Kim Edwards. Dr. David Henry and his wife, Norah, are caught in a blizzard as she goes into labor. They can't make it to the hospital, so they stop at his clinic, where they are met by his nurse, Caroline Gill. Dr. Henry performs the delivery himself, and twins are born. But to the doctor's dismay, one of the twins -- a girl -- has Down syndrome. In a split second, he makes the decision to have the nurse take his daughter away to a home "for the feeble-minded." He tells his wife, who was anesthetized, that the girl was born dead. Thus is born a lie which lasts a quarter century and gradually tears a family apart. It's a poignant, moving and fascinating story. Grade: A