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I usually only end up reading books on my beach vacation; this first one I actually read (by the pool, lol) early in August because it was overdue at the library and I needed to get it read and couldn't wait until the end of the month.

Sandwich by Catherine Newman It's a story about a woman in the midst of menopause, on a vacation in Cape Cod (likely Sandwich, which is where my grandfather was from). She's at the stage in her life where she has aging parents and kids - the 'sandwich' years. Though her kids are older, the youngest in college. I really liked it, probably because I could definitely relate - I'm getting there with menopause and while Jack is younger, I have the aging parent too. I'd recommend it.

Now on to the beach reads, which were very scant this year. I usually end up reading 4 or 5 books, this year I completed one and worked on reading another one that I've been allegedly reading since last year. I did start another book but it didn't grab my interest. I should have brought Matthew Perry's autobiography with me.

Anyway:

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera It's about a woman who was accused of murdering her best friend but doesn't remember anything about the night it happened; five years later a podcaster starts a series on the murder and upends her life. I liked it. Quick read (I finished it day one), part murder mystery part dealing with her life.

The Man From the Train by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James This is a nonfiction account of a series of murders that occurred in the first 20 years or so of the 1900s. The author was working on a series of murders from the center of the country that occurred around 1911 and eventually broadened the scope and tied together nearly 100 murders that he believes were committed by the same man. The pattern of the houses being near train tracks, using the blunt edge of an axe (usually one that belonged to the homeowner) and killing the entire family matched multiple murders. The book starts with the Villisca (Iowa) Axe murders from 1912 and then goes to murders that occurred in the Appalachia, in Virginia and West Virginia, and throughout the country. Most were never connected to each other. It's a good book but it's a lot to get through. I keep putting it aside and going back to it. The author also claims to have figured out who the killer was, though I haven't gotten to that part yet. I heard about the book on the My Favorite Murder podcast; one of the hosts, Karen Kilgariff, was reading it and recommended it.

American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson So far this one really hasn't grabbed my interest. I know of Winkler Dawson from being on the My Favorite Murder podcast; she also does two herself, called Wicked Words and Buried Bones (the second with Paul Holes, a retired detective mainly known for his work on the Golden State Killer case). It starts out kind of dry so I think I need to give it another chance.

I'm not going to list the ones I have had sitting around half read for years, lol.