Monday, December 26, 2016

Twelve great books that deserved more buzz in 2016

The Newsday staff tagged twelve great books that deserved more buzz in 2016, including:
The Gloaming by Melanie Finn

A tiny press has published a psychologically astute thriller that belongs on the shelf with the work of Patricia Highsmith. In the opening paragraphs, the narrator in Switzerland has discovered her husband’s infidelity, and the shock of the deception leads to a lethal car accident. For reasons that only gradually become clear, she decamps to Tanzania. Alternating chapters between two continents, the book is brilliant on the pervasiveness of corruption and the murkiness of human motivation. When the narrator disappears, five of the characters she has encountered take over the story, which ends with an existentially perfect flourish. Here is a page-turner that leaves its reader wiser.—KAREN R. LONG
Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue