Read the Write - 21/5/26

Well I think I need to speed up my reading - I'm still ahead of schedule but I don't think I've been reading as much and the books are piling up!

I finished this last week and I was impressed with it as a debut novel. 

"When teenager Nora Sheehan fatally shoots her brother Nico in their family home one evening, her parents’ lives are left shattered. Nico had been diagnosed with a terminal illness – was what Nora did an act of mercy, or something far darker? And what will happen to her now, alone in a juvenile detention centre awaiting trial, unable or unwilling to speak?"

The book follows Nora and her family as they navigate the US legal system and deal with their grief.  Angie and David feel like they have lost both their children as Nora is facing the prospect of a long jail term.  Initially they rely on a local lawyer, Martine Dumont but she calls on her son Julian to take on the case as he is a high powered defence lawyer working in New York.  He is also the ex-partner of Angie and their parting was far from amicable.

Additionally, there are lots of secrets between the characters, some which are revealed early on, others later.

The story is well told and the focus is definitely more on the aftermath of the shooting, and the history between Angie and Julian rather than why Nora shot her brother.  Personally I would have liked to have had more insight into what was going on inside Nora's head leading up to the shooting.  But the lack of that didn't spoil it for me. 4 stars for me.

I'm currently reading:

This was the choice of the afternoon book club and it's a re-read for me, although it was a long time ago so I don't remember it that well, other than that I liked it first time around.

On my bedside table I also have this one:

which I picked because it was a magazine recommendation and it ticked the "published in 2026" prompt on the 52 Book Club challenge but Penitence ticks that box too so I might have to get a bit creative.

I also need to pick up this one from the library as it's the next pick for the evening book group:

I'm not sure I can fit this one to a prompt but maybe when I've read it I'll be able to work it in somewhere.

After this one we're going to read Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell which feels fairly recent to be on the library list but then I checked and found it was first published in 2020.  Time is going too fast!