Six Years by Harlan Coben

    I think, for me, Harlan Coben's greatest skill is making me care about his protagonist. Jake Fisher, a professor teaching at a small but prestigious college, is someone I like.  He does his job well, follows the rules and lives a quiet life with only one major flaw in it. He can not forget the love of his life, Natalie Avery, who left him suddenly to marry another man, asking him to please leave them alone. Sure, they had not known each other for very long, but their relationship had seemed perfect. He did not understand and has never gotten over it.

    Six years later he sees the obituary for Todd, Natalie's husband, and attends the funeral.  The grieving widow is not Natalie. Jake is puzzled, tries to find Natalie, hoping to understand and reconnect. But no one remembers her. The art retreat where they met is no longer there and no one remembers it ever existed either. But Jake will not give up.  Even when he is threatened, kidnapped, shot at, beaten and arrested.

    The plot was twisted, exciting, and hooked me. (Okay, as always, Coben's plot is a little far fetched at times, but you don't mind. Really.) Jake's best friend, Sebastian, is interesting.The miner characters are also likable, unless they are bad guys, and then they are very sleazy and ruthless.

    A fun read with a satisfying ending.

The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fey

    I don't do a review on every book I read. Some are done well enough to finish but have no lasting hold on me. Kim Fey's debut novel was one of the good ones.  The book takes place in 1925. Fey's writing style was somewhat reminiscent of the writing of that time also. Not sure why, but something in her writing had that feel.

    The story begins with Irene Blum being passed over for the position of the new curater at the Seattle Brooke Museum. She has spent her life in that museum.  First as a child being brought to the museum by her father and then with the wealthy collector Henry Simms as her champion, she had worked along side Professor Howard, the long time curator.  Doing much of his work and research, but always giving him the credit, the Professor had assured her that the curator position would be hers at his retirement. It did not happen.

     Years before, in her fathers belongings, Simms had found an old diary. This diary written by a long ago missionary, has clues and a map of an area in Cambodia that could lead Irene to to the discovery of ancient scrolls. Scrolls that could lead her to recognition and success in her field.  With Simms' encouragement and  money, Irene might redeem her carrier.  But Simms insists Irene recruit the help of Simone Merlin, wife of a communist reformer now living in Shanghai. Simone was raised in Cambodia.

    Half of this book is a little slow with a long lead-up to the expedition and adventure part of the story.  Many characters introduced and the atmosphere and climate - political as well as tropical- carefully described. But once the main characters are established and they set out to find the scrolls, this book really held me. I did not always like Irene, but I always admired her.

    This was unlike any of the books I have read recently and I thoroughly enjoyed all of it.  Even the slow beginning. I look forward to more fiction from Kim Fey.