Mermaid by Margaret Millar

Cleo Jasper, a beautiful woman in her early twenties drops out of sight while attending an exclusive school for the learning disabled. Shortly before her disappearance, she had wandered into the law offices of Tom Aragon, the engaging young hero of "Ask for Me Tomorrow" and "The Murder of Miranda". Cleo's older brother Hilton, hires Aragon to find the vulnerable girl and bring her back home. Hilton's dedication to his little sister is tinged with guilt - and perhaps something more - for he has already alienated his wife and son by his devotion to Cleo. In a trailer park, far from the kind of environment Cleo has been used to, Aragon finds the body of her closest friend, a counsellor at the school. The corpse is surrounded by suicide messages, one of them addressed to Cleo. But he doesn't find Cleo, who remains as elusive and as slippery as a mermaid.

An original and entertaining story. 

A Long Way From Home by Peter Carey

Irene Bobs loves fast driving. Her husband is the best car salesman in southeastern Australia. Together they enter the Redex Trial, a brutal race around the ancient continent, over roads no car will ever quite survive. With them is their lanky, fair-haired navigator, Willie Bachhuber, a quiz show champion and failed schoolteacher who calls the turns and creeks crossings on a map that will remove them, without warning, from the white Australia they all know so well. 

A character driven family drama, mixed with a political treatise on how poorly aboriginals were treated by white Australians in the 1950's.  

I was hoping for more on the Redex trials and their adventures on the road.  It got a bit too deep and meaningful.

Death Brims Over by Barbara Jaye Wilson

Meet Brenda Midnight. She's a savvy young designer with her own hat shop, who has never even thought of chasing crooks. But when crime invades her cobblestone Greenwich Village neighbourhood and the cops don't have a clue, Brenda has to drop everything, including her hats, to catch a thief... and a killer.

There's big money to be made if Brenda and her dress designer friend Carla can create the high society wedding of the year. Carla's covering the bride and her maids with dresses to die for, and Brenda's doing the hats. But just as Brenda's finishing the last of the exquisite headgear, she's held up by a woman in a hot pink suit, who escapes with the entire collection. Brenda takes off after her high-priced hats and runs straight into her friend Carla - dead! It's bloody murder - but Brenda can't convince the men in blue that they should be chasing the mysterious lady in pink - who may have come up with her own design... for murder.

Too silly for my liking - zany people, dumb cops & ridiculous plots. Even the interaction between Brenda & her friends & beaux annoyed me. There were parts of the story that I liked, but each time I found myself enjoying it it was overshadowed by more silliness. One has to suspend disbelief to read a cozy, but not usually to this extent. 

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen

When a severed arm is discovered by a couple on honeymoon in the Florida Keys, former police detective - now reluctant restaurant inspector - Andrew Yancy senses that something doesn't add up. Determined to get his badge back, he undertakes an unofficial investigation of his own.

Andrew's search for the truth takes him to the Bahamas, where a local man, with the help of a very bad monkey (who allegedly worked on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies) is doing everything in his power to prevent a developer from building a new tourist resort on the island, with deadly consequences . . . 

Hugely entertaining, twisted and laugh-out-loud funny. 

The Enchanted Island by Ellie O'Neill

When Maeve O’Brien’s boss sends her to a dreary old island to finalise some paperwork, she couldn’t be happier. It’s the big career boost she needs – and besides, life isn’t so great on the home front in Dublin.

Maeve’s reception on Hy Brasil, a remote island off the west coast of Ireland, couldn’t be any more hostile. It’s as if the place itself wants her gone.

But nothing’s going to scare Maeve off, even if she does miss her credit card and her one-night stands. She’s determined to track down Sean Fitzpatrick, whose signature on the paperwork is going to transform the island.

And yet, somehow, life begins to change. It might be miserable and treacherous on Hy Brasil but it’s also beautiful and strangely seductive. Maeve’s never felt better. And there’s also Killian, the dreamy islander with green eyes, who’s stirring up all kinds of feelings in Maeve.

But something’s brewing, and Maeve’s going to discover just how far people will go to protect the ones they love.

Disappointing.  It didn't live up to the promise of the first chapter. I didn't like the self-absorbed, childish characters and by the end of the book I really didn't care what happened.

Leaving Time by Jodi Piccoult

Teenager Jenna Metcalf was just three years old when her mother disappeared from an elephant sanctuary. Ten years later, she takes up the search for her mother, Alice, by studying Alice’s decade-old journals on grieving elephants. The research itself is fascinating, the hints about Alice’s disappearance are compelling; but Jenna cannot find her mother on her own. By enlisting the help of a formerly famous—now infamous—psychic, as well as a down-and-out private detective whose career went south during the botched investigation of Alice's disappearance, Jenna forms a sort of new family to help her in her quest.  

This was a fabulous read. The entire plot is heavily centered on elephants - how they grieve and how they mother. It ties in so well to the human drama, that the elephants aren't a background, but they're just as vital in their personalities as the people are.

A mix of thriller, mystery, family drama, love story and more. 

The best Jodi Picoult book I've read for a while.  Not as emotionally devastating as some of her other books and the elephant parts of the story were fascinating.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. 

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office.

Beautifully written and with a dry humour this book is about friendship and human connection and how one small act of kindness can change a persons life.