A Bridge Across the Ocean

Author: Susan Meissner
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2017
Pages: 384
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: February, 1946. World War II is over, but the recovery from the most intimate of its horrors have only just begun for Annaliese Lange, a German ballerina desperate to escape her past, and Simone Deveraux, the wronged daughter of a French Resistance spy.

Now the two women are joining hundreds of other European war brides aboard the renowned RMS Queen Mary to cross the Atlantic and be reunited with their American husbands. Their new lives in the United States brightly beckon until their tightly-held secrets are laid bare in their shared stateroom. When the voyage ends at New York Harbor, only one of them will disembark.

Present Day. Facing a crossroads in her own life, Brette Caslake visits the famously haunted Queen Mary at the request of an old friend. What she finds will set her on a course to solve a seventy-year-old tragedy that will draw her into the heartaches and triumphs of the courageous war brides - and will ultimately lead her to reconsider what she has to sacrifice to achieve her own deepest longings.

Review: Meissner is one of my favorite historical fiction authors. Her characters speak to me and the time period comes alive. There's a supernatural element in this novel, but I bought into it. I picked this novel up intending to read a few chapters before I took a shower, and ended up finishing it one night.

My grandparents were the Greatest Generation and I often think of my grandmothers when I read books set during this time period. The 1940s was a decade of both the worst of humanity and the best.

Susan Meissner Novels
As Bright as Heaven
Map to Paradise
Only the Beautiful

Memory Man

Author: David Baldacci
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2015
Pages: 432
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Amos Decker's life changed forever - twice. The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington to ever play in the NFL. But, his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field forever, and left him with an improbable side effect - he can forget nothing.

The second time was at home nearly two decades later. Now a police detective, Decker returned from a stakeout one evening and entered a nightmare - his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law had been murdered.

His family destroyed, their killer's identity as mysterious as the motive behind the crime, and unable to forget a single detail from that horrible night, Decker finds his world collapsing around him. He leaves the police force, loses his home, and winds up on the street, taking piecemeal jobs as a private investigator when we can.

But over a year later, a man turns himself in to the police and confesses to the murders. At the same time a horrific event nearly brings Burlington to its knees, and Decker is called back in to help with this investigation. Decker also seizes his chance to learn what really happened to his family that night. To uncover the stunning truth, he must use his remarkable gifts and confront the burdens that go along with them. he must endure memories he'd rather forget. And he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Review: My coworker and friend gifted me this book for my birthday. Baldacci is her favorite author and she was surprised that I've never read him. Subconsciously I don't read many male authors, I read even fewer serial authors, and I don't gravitate to mysteries. I have to say, I loved this book. It's intense. I had to set it down and walk away at different times to pull myself out of the story.