It is always interesting to have an unusual narrator. It offers a very different perspective, for example, if a dead girl to narrates what happens after her death, or for an unreliable narrator to string you along until the final page, but when I realized that one of the narrators in Remarkably Bright Creatures was an octopus, that was certainly surprising! But despite the unusual narrator or maybe because of the the unusual narrator, this book held my attention to the very end!
Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus, was rescued from the sea with a couple of appendages cut or damaged. Since he could not survive in nature, he was brought to the Sowell Bay Aquarium.
Tova Sullivan, began working the night shift at Sowell Bay Aquarium after her husband died, cleaning the floors and wiping the glass so visitors will be able to see the exhibits the next day. Keeping busy, she has learned, helps keep the grief at bay, something she has had to do ever since her eighteen year old son disappeared in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.
Tova and Marcellus, both lonely, form an unlikely alliance. Tova knows Marcellus sometimes escapes out of his tank to explore, but instead of reporting him, Tova helps him coverup his escapades. Grateful for this act of friendship, Marcellus decides that he must help Tova uncover the mystery of her son’s disappearance even if this might take every ounce of strength and cunning left in his old body.
Remarkable, tender, and surprising, this book is something to treasure. The curmudgeonly Marcellus, and the standoffish Tova are quite a match! And yet Van Pelt weaves a story of two unlikely friends and a mysterious disappearance into a story of how we can find love, respect and family under the unlikeliest of circumstances.
Brenda”s Rating: *****(5 Out Of 5 Stars)
Recommend this book to? Everyone!
Book Study Wrote? Yes!
Read in e-library format.
Kit Carradine is a British novelist who writes about spies. HIs books are so popular that he has been asked to present at an international book festival scheduled to be held in Marrakech, Morocco. This is a great honor and Kit hopes that he will also be able to also do some research for his next book since Morocco has a long history of international intrigue. But when he is approached by MI6 to do a little bit of work on the side for Queen and Country, suddenly, reality and fiction collide. Of course, Kit is intrigued and wants to help and what they are asking him to do doesn’t seem all that hard-give a book to one of their agents and if possible pass on some money to another. He is also asked to keep a lookout for a Lara Bartok, who is rumored to be attending the book conference.
It is New Year’s Eve and Renee’ Ballard is on the midnight shift. Traditionally at midnight in LA, “a rain of lead” occurs as revelers shoot their guns in the air to celebrate the New Year. This year is no exception, except this time Renee’ is called out to a scene where a hardworking auto mechanic was fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a street party. It soon becomes clear, based on the where the man was hit, that it could not have been from a stray bullet being fired in the air. In fact the bullet i’ linked to another unsolved murder that Renee’s mentor and friend, Detective Bosch worked on.
When Stan Delaney opened the door and found a battered, shivering young woman named Savannah on the front porch, he did not know his life was going to change dramatically. Instead he did what any kind hearted person would do and invited her in. Stan and his wife, Joy, helped Savannah recover from the beating she received from her boyfriend and after she recovered, invited her to stay until she could get back on her feet. The Delaney children, all grown and out of the house, don’t know quite what to make of Savannah, but she seems to be helpful to their parents and she does things the kids might have had to interrupt their busy lives to do, which is helpful to them, too.
Mariana Andros is a successful but troubled group therapist. Mariana’s niece, Zoe, is one of the bright spots in Mariana’s life and that she is going to university in Cambridge just like Mariana, they have an even closer bond. So when Zoe calls to say one of her friends from school has been murdered, Mariana, rushes to her side. There is something disturbing about the way the girl was murdered, and when Mariana finds our that she was a part of a group called The Maidens, that Edward Fosca, a charismatic professor of Greek Tragedy at the university established, her suspicions deepen. However the police, are not interested in her suspicions, and are only interested in doing a cursory investigation.
Sam Joseph, an agent with the CIA, has been looking for someone he might be able to recruit in Syria. He locates a likely candidate- a Syrian Palace official named Mariam Haddad. He makes contact while she is on a diplomatic mission to Paris. But when an American spy suddenly disappears in Damascus, the recruitment must be quickly consummated and the forbidden relationship that has blossomed between Joseph and Haddad put on hold so they can find and rescue the captured spy.
M is a writer. At one time he published a bestseller but has struggled since then to match that first success. Based on the real life disappearance of a teacher who had a brief affair with a student, M’s novel became a runaway bestseller in the Netherlands and internationally as well. But that was years ago and M is declining both as a writer and mentally. His latest book is barely being noticed, he is having trouble with his publisher, he is becoming forgetful and he finds himself saying controversial things or revealing private details in interviews which embarrassment and unwanted publicity. Even more concerning, his neighbor seems to be more than normally interested in the way M wrote that first bestseller.
Sam Gaddis, a recently divorced British academic, is in debt and needs tuition money for his daughter’s private school. His only new source for funds is to write a bestseller. Unfortunately his last book on Russia, although well received by academia, did not sell any where close to the volume needed to meet his current financial needs. In this moment of crises, Sam gets a call from an investigative journalist who he has helped in the past, asking if he would like to collaborate with her on a new book about a possible sixth member of the notorious Trinity spy ring, who included Kim Philby and Anthony Blunt. Elated at the possibilities, both academically and financially, Sam jumps at the chance. Unfortunately, within hours of their meeting, and before they have been able to share much information, the journalist is found dead of an apparent heart attack.
Our narrator is an interpreter who has just landed a very important job at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Although unnamed, we quickly begin to know her intimately as she reveals her desire to escape New York and her family and her relief in landing this job. We see her interact with her colleagues and her friend, Jana and as well as her growing attachment to her married, but separated, boyfriend, Adrain. We are also pulled into her work in a courtroom in The Hague where she has been assigned to be the interpreter for a former president who is accused of brutal war crimes. She came to The Hague to escape, but as she becomes more intimate with Jana and Adrain and when her work reveals the brutality and banality of true evil, she comes to understand that you cannot really escape what is inside, until you are willing to confront and choose the things you want.
Daisy Jones has an extraordinary voice and wants to sing. The Six, an established band led by Billy Dunne, are just on the cusp of making it big; they just need that special something to catapult them to the top of the charts. The band’s producer thinks Daisy’s voice is just the thing that will make that happen. But art and artists are unpredictable and what looks good on paper and sounds incredible on the radio, can also be threatening and explosive.
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