Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...
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Her Last Letter by Nancy C. Johnson

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I really just stumbled on this book and it was so exciting and thrilling, I could not really put it down. I am registered for receiving information on e-books by Bookbub. The offer either free or very cheap e-books in various categories. This was the first one I bought for 0.88 €! And it was so good.

It starts with Gwyn finding a hidden letter from her dead sister. Since it is already on the first page I will quote it here:

I'm so scared. He knows! And God if my sister knew I've been screwing her boyfriend she'd kill me anyway. Why in hell did I get into this whole situation? I've got to tell someone or I could end up dead ... like the last one. The look in his eyes when he told me about her was totally unreal. I don't think he was making it up, but he could have been, just to scare me. Maybe the best thing is to leave. Hope he calms down and forgets about it. Not likely, if he found the box. I've looked for it everywhere, and someone was in the house messing with things. God, what now? I'll think of something. I have to.
Later...I hear someone downstairs.

 Can't start more exciting than this. The story is told from Gwyn's point of view. Both her and her sister are now married. There are several suspects that could fit in to the description in the letter; the two husbands, a former boyfriend to Gwyn, the boyfriend to Kelly (the dead sister) who was suspected but disappeared and have not been found since then (two years ago).

The atmosphere of the book is somewhat 'Hitchcockian', or like the film Rebecca. Everybody is acting strange, everybody seems suspicious and it is not until the very end that the culprit is revealed. I could not even guess who it was. An excellent book, even if the end sum-up did not come up to the rest of the book, I would be happy to read anything else by Johnson. As far as I can see, she has written another book called Twice Cursed. Might have to try that one too!

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