Handbags, Books...whatever: Your Favorite Book and Book welcomes author Lis Angus - How Wonderful Writing and Editing Brings Characters to Life

About Your Favorite Book:

 As long as he has good wifi, Jackson Brodie can run his private investigations business from just about anywhere. As the novel opens—Atkinson’s fifth book featuring Brodie— he’s in a coastal village in Yorkshire, rather bored with his current assignment and meanwhile coping with a sullen teenage son. Then he falls over a cliff while trying to prevent a suicide.

Brodie is easily distracted and doesn’t actually do a lot of detecting. In fact, much of the book takes place without him.  A complicated plot unfolds, with characters involved in sex trafficking, child abduction, criminal conspiracy, and more.  Intertwining story lines  include:

·       A convicted pedophile who may soon get parole, and is rumored to be about to name a “Mr. Big” who was never identified as part of the pedophile ring;

·       Two aging performers – a foul-mouthed comic and a drag queen – who entertain tour group audiences nostalgic for the nineteen-eighties;

·       A group of golfing friends with a secret source of income;

·       A young mother with a dark background, determined to keep her daughter and stepson safe;

·       Two young Polish girls who think they’re coming to the UK to work in an upscale hotel;

·       A client who wants Jackson to keep finding additional proof that her husband is unfaithful;

·       A former dominatrix who’s happy to act as a honey trap, though she’s “more hornet than honey bee;”

·       Two sets of police officers whose separate investigations suddenly converge.

If this sounds confusing, it’s saved by Kate Atkinson’s wonderful writing and her ability to bring characters to full life in a page or two (an ability she honed as a short-story writer before turning to novels.) I’m a big fan of Atkinson’s—I’ve read all of her books, and I love every one of them.

About Your Book:

Ottawa psychologist and single mother Susan Koss discovers that a strange man has been following her twelve-year-old daughter Maddy. She fears he’s a predator, but it’s worse than that. The man, Daniel Kazan, believes Maddy is his granddaughter, abducted as a baby, and he’s obsessed with getting her back.

Susan insists on a DNA test to disprove Daniel’s claim, but the result is one she can’t understand or explain: it says she’s not Maddy’s mother.

Then Maddy vanishes. Susan’s convinced Daniel has taken her, but he has an alibi, and two searches of his house turn up nothing. The hunt is on—police are on full mobilization, and Susan fears the worst.

 

About the Author:

Lis Angus is a Canadian suspense writer. Early in her career, she worked with children and 

families in crisis; later she worked as a policy advisor, business writer and editor.  Her novel, NOT YOUR CHILD, was second-place winner in the 2021 Daphne du Maurier Mystery/Suspense awards, and was published by The Wild Rose Press in April 2022. Lis now lives south of Ottawa with her husband.

Answer these questions:

Red, White or Blue? I’d say “red”—but then I remember that my kitchen is full of blue accents.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter? Spring, for the joy of things coming back to life. And fall, for the last warm breezes and crisp leaves before winter arrives. (Are you sensing that I like to pick more than one thing?)

Cake or Pie? Haha—I could pick both again. But I’ll say “pie.” Pumpkin pie with whipped cream s the perfect dessert. (Only in the fall, though!)

Coffee, Tea, or Champagne? Coffee, without doubt. Dark and black, in a large mug.

Country music or Michael Buble? Neither. How about Simon and Garfunkel?

Pencil or Pen? Pen. A nice smooth-flowing fineline sharpie is perfect.

 

Find out more at:

Find Not Your Child at: Vendor

Find Lis Angus at: Website