Anjali Banerjee

What first drew me to this book was protagonist Phoebe Glassman’s job as a mortuary cosmetologist, someone who makes the decedent (new word for me!) look how they did in life. That’s something I could NOT do, but I find it fascinating. The funeral home where Phoebe works specializes in “green burials,” the eco-friendly alternative to traditional cemeteries, which is something else I’d recently discovered. Again, fascinating!

When the body of a woman looking exactly like Phoebe show more arrives at the mortuary, she ends up down a rabbit hole investigating this identical stranger’s past. This book is also about the heavy burden of her grief from losing her husband and daughter a few years earlier. IN ANOTHER LIGHT is a suspenseful mystery and journey of coming to terms with the past. It’s a very quick, engrossing, and emotional read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

After Nightfall from A.J. Banner is a bit of a slow-burn psychological suspense novel. If you're looking for a thriller rather than a suspense novel you might want to save this one for when you feel like the methodical pace of a psychological suspense story rather than the quick forward momentum of most thrillers.

Like any story that includes a mystery the number of possible suspects is both high and very well established. Well into the book you will be able to make a plausible case for show more almost every person. Which means, of course, that at at least one point you were right. Just don't confuse that with "knowing" who did it early in the book, no one will believe you.

The novel moves in jumps to a certain extent. It seems like we are simply learning more information that keeps the list of suspects long then something happens that makes one of them stand out. Then we learn more and the other suspects begin to look possible again then something new happens to throw suspicion in yet another direction. For some, the periods of learning information, the part where the psychological part of the psychological suspense is established and amped up, feels slow. It isn't slow but if you don't care to learn about the characters then you probably should steer clear of psychological novels, whether suspense or thriller, since the psychological part requires background and attention to minutiae. That is how the state of mind of a character is established and played with.

I don't have the same problem with the end as some people. The mystery was solved. I tend to like not having every single other issue fully and completely resolved as long as the main mystery is taken care of. Throwing doubt into other aspects of the story, and especially what will happen after the book ends, allows the reader to exercise some creative control. If you don't want to use your creativity and just want everything wrapped up with a bow, well, the ending might bother you. But the rest of the book is, I think, good enough to still make it worth reading for you.

I think I covered who might enjoy, or not enjoy, the book in the previous paragraphs. I was actually torn between 4 and 5 stars but opted to round up because so many of the negative ratings seemed to be upset for the book not being what it never set out to be. When people resort to such hyperbole, especially when it is in many of their "reviews" or they only read a few pages but feel knowledgeable enough to rate and review the entire book, they can easily be discounted. Like any book this won't please everyone, but ignore the overblown hyperbole, both positive and negative, and pay attention to the ones that actually seemed to engage with the book.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads. show less

Fast, Twisty Read With Plenty O' Drama. Once again Banner delivers on managing to pack quite a tale into a relatively short (260 ish page) package. Here, her personal passion for old typewriters (shared by Tom Hanks, fwiw) shines through, and she manages to essentially wrap an entire story around this anachronistic device that yes, was still being used by some as recently as 2004, when the "before" period of this book was set. Was it the dominant form of communication then? No. But remember: show more the smart phone was still 2-3 years away, as dated by Apple's introduction of the iPhone in 2007. So it wasn't as though communication had been completely revolutionized yet at that point either. The twists here come at a rather frenetic pace once they start, and the tension is particularly well paced, starting out rather slow as we first enter the world, before ramping up slowly and consistently before getting to a few peaks and troughs leading into the climax. Overall yet another excellent work by Banner, and I for one truly hope she continues to keep writing, as her particular style not being around anymore would be quite a loss for the literary world. Very much recommended. show less

Written for kids but enjoyable by adults, Looking for Bapu is a particularly sensitive and engaging adventure novel about a child coming to terms with the loss of his grandfather. The first-person narrator, Anu, is believable and likable, and I was particularly impressed with the realism with which his thoughts and impressions are portrayed. This is a kid I feel like I know.

In the course of looking for his departed Bapu, Anu goes on some interesting journeys: there's the emotional journey, show more of course, and the intellectual struggle of coming to terms with death for the first time. But the physical journeys around the Pacific Northwest and to the famous "Mystery Museum" (a thinly disguised version of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, on Seattle's waterfront) are vivid and fun. With plenty of humor, Looking for Bapu takes a serious subject and treats it with the respect it deserves while maintaining a lightness of heart that makes this book a positive pleasure to read. show less