Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

You know what? Instead of my usual review, here are a few random thoughts and feelings about Anxious People by Fredrik Backman:

• Oh, wow.
• This is different.
• Good different.
• Like, extremely good.
• The voice and writing style is like that of Jonas Jonasson (The Hundred Year Old Man Who...).
• Easy to read, yet with chewy issues to sleep on.
• I keep wanting to quote from it:
• “Anyone can nurture a myth about their life if they have enough manure, so if the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, that’s probably because it’s full of shit.”
• “Parents are defined by their mistakes.”
• “Because the people we argue with hardest of all are not the ones who are completely different from us, but the ones who are almost no different at all.”
• “Parenthood can lead to a sequence of years when the children's feelings suck all the oxygen out of a family, and that can be so emotionally intense that some adults go for years without having an opportunity to tell anyone about their own feelings, and if you don't get a chance for long enough, sometimes you simply forget how to do it.”
• Oh, you want to know about the story line? It's about a bank robbery and a hostage situation, but it's a comedy, not a drama. It's fantastic. And then it gets better.

Fifty-fifty by Steve Cavanagh

Fifty-fifty by Steve Cavanagh features the much-anticipated return of Eddie Flynn (Book 5 in the series). Eddie is an ex con artist who is now a lawyer, so not much change of a profession there (with apologies to my aunt, uncle, brother in law, sister in law, and potentially my children). Paired up with judge Harry Ford, they constitute one of my favorite crime fiction duos. 

The Eddie Flynn books just get better and better. This one is a perfect combination of plot, character development, topical issues and plain good old storytelling. 

Read it. Even if this is to be your first Steve Cavanagh, read it now. You can catch up in reverse order. 

Blurb:

Two sisters on trial for murder. Both accuse each other.
Whom do YOU believe?

Alexandra Avellino has just found her father's mutilated body, and needs the police right away. She believes her sister killed him, and that she is still in the house with a knife.

Sofia Avellino has just found her father's mutilated body and needs the police right away. She believes her sister, Alexandra did it, and that she is still in the house, locked in the bathroom.

Both women are to go on trial at the same time. A joint trial in front of one jury.

**** SPOILER ALERT ****

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

But one of these women is lying. One of them is a murderer. Sitting in a jail cell, about to go on trial with her sister for murder, you might think that this is the last place she expected to be.

You'd be wrong.