North of Boston, by Elisabeth Elo

This was an early reviewer book that I found in a Little Free Library almost a year ago. I have no idea who left it there, or whether it was a fellow LibraryThing reader or not. A paperback in good condition.

It was an exciting book, and I enjoyed it, but I would have enjoyed it more without the strong language and occasional "adult" situations.
It begins a few days after the seemingly miraculous and medically unexplainable survival of the protagonist, Pirio Kasparov, in near freezing ocean water for hours after a shipwreck. Pirio sets about sleuthing the circumstances of the wreck, interrupted by her duty to her country in allowing herself to be tested at the Navy Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City, Florida.
One of the challenges to her detective work is determining who is friend and who is foe. Is a former boyfriend, an old flame, on her side or against her? What about the shady stranger who can't tell the truth about why he attended the funeral and wake for Pirio's partner at sea who died in the collision?
Suspense builds as Pirio is kidnapped, and it looks like the end is near.

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

A psychological thriller, a novel based on the facts concerning the murder of the Clutter family in a small town in west Kansas. Includes in depth descriptions and character studies of the victims and of the criminals, as well as of the friends and family members of both, and of the detectives.
I was afraid to read this, afraid it would be too disturbing for me, but now that I have read it, I am glad I did. Mr. Capote was an excellent writer. From the beginning I was deeply involved in the lives of the family and of the perpetrators. However, there is some controversy; family members and others who knew Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their children are very unhappy with Capote's portrayal of them. And, there are some discrepancies with the facts of the case, as recorded in court records. I guess we can chalk that up to "poetic license," but I do think that Mr. Capote should have made that clear in his Acknowledgments section.

The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson

Read and reviewed in December, 2009. Given to my son

I just finished reading The Devil in the White City, and I don't know why I put it off so long! It is a wonderfully written book. It reads like a novel, weaving the stories of the two men and the World's Fair together expertly. I usually prefer fiction to nonfiction, but I really enjoyed this one (if "enjoyed" can be said of the grisly details of Dr. Holmes' deeds).

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