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Finished a number of books in the last week: 1. Aggie Blum Thompson, Such a Lovely Family. Okayish. I liked the Bethesda-adjacent setting but throughout the whole book I was shouting at the characters to lawyer up and stop yammering away to the police.

2. Richard Chizmar, Killing the Boogeyman. 3rd in the series. Enjoyed how Chizmar the author skewers true crime, and at least in this book Chizmar the character reckons with how much he has spawned a serial killer-worshipping industry. Didn’t like the leaning into the supernatural elements at all

3. Sophie Hannah, No One Would Do What the Lamberts Have Done. Read it on the strength of a back-cover blurb about twists and comedy, but this was too aggressively Quirky. Finished it out of sheer stubbornness, worst book of the week

4. Jemimah Wei, The Original Daughter. Now this I loved. I have my biases: not only is this set largely in Singapore, it’s set in Fengshan, where I grew up. And she captures the milieu of the area well. It’s heartbreaking though at the end, as Genevieve’s stubbornness turns out to be self-immolation