MAY BE GOOD

Big fiction releases this May...Richard Russo's follow-up to his 1993 novel, Nobody's Fool and a new novel by popular author Laura Lippmann top the lists.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Gift a book..They never go out of style!

Wilde Lake Laura Lippmann There's something amiss in the planned community of Wilde Lake, Maryland, where Luisa (Lu) Brant has taken over the state's attorney position long held by her widowed father. With echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird, Lu is drawn back to a 1980 case in which an African-American student was accused of raping a white girl at a high school graduation party. Lippman spins the threads of this multigenerational story in an uncanny way. Highly recommended. (Review by Bookpage.com)

Everybody's Fool

Richard Russo

When Doug Raymer, chief of police of the forlornly depressed town of North Bath, N.Y., falls into an open grave during a funeral service, it is only the first of many farcical and grisly incidents in Russo's shaggy dog story of revenge and redemption. Among the comical set pieces that propel the narrative are a poisonous snakebite, a falling brick wall, and a stigmatalike hand injury. North Bath, as readers of Nobody's Fool will remember, is the home of Sully Sullivan, the hero of the previous book and also a character here.

 Self-conscious, self-deprecating, and convinced he's everybody's fool, Raymer is obsessed with finding the man his late wife was about to run off with when she fell down the stairs and died. He's convinced that the garage door opener he found in her car will lead him to her lover's home. 

Meanwhile, he pursues an old feud with Sully; engages in repartee with his clever assistant and her twin brother; and tries to arrest a sociopath whose preferred means of communication are his fists. The remaining circle of ne'er-do-wells, ex-cons, daily drunks, deadbeats, and thieves behave badly enough to keep readers chuckling. The give-and-take of rude but funny dialogue is Russo's trademark, as is his empathy for down-and-outer.

Read the review in The May 7th Sunday New York Times.