Six for the Season - Easter
April is finally here, which means Spring is springing and Easter is just around the corner for those who celebrate. Like any good reader, I use the excuse to celebrate by reading. While Easter isn’t as popular for seasonally-themed books as Christmas, there are a few adult fiction gems out there that feature the holiday prominently.
Here are six titles that may already be lurking on your To Read shelf that will immerse you in fictional Easter weekends:
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
Publisher synopsis:
Welcome to Three Pines, where the cruelest month is about to deliver on its threat. It's spring in the tiny, forgotten village; buds are on the trees and the first flowers are struggling through the newly thawed earth. But not everything is meant to return to life. . .
When some villagers decide to celebrate Easter with a séance at the Old Hadley House, they are hoping to rid the town of its evil—until one of their party dies of fright. Was this a natural death, or was the victim somehow helped along?
Brilliant, compassionate Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec is called to investigate, in a case that will force him to face his own ghosts as well as those of a seemingly idyllic town where relationships are far more dangerous than they seem.
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Publisher synopsis:
Illuminating Peter Mayle's South of France with a touch of Laura Esquivel's magic realism, Chocolat is a timeless novel of a straitlaced village's awakening to joy and sensuality. In tiny Lansquenet, where nothing much has changed in a hundred years, beautiful newcomer Vianne Rocher and her exquisite chocolate shop arrive and instantly begin to play havoc with Lenten vows. Each box of luscious bonbons comes with a free gift: Vianne's uncanny perception of its buyer's private discontents and a clever, caring cure for them. Is she a witch? Soon the parish no longer cares, as it abandons itself to temptation, happiness, and a dramatic face-off between Easter solemnity and the pagan gaiety of a chocolate festival.”
Thick As Thieves by Sandra Brown
Publisher synopsis:
The week leading up to Easter twenty years ago in the dead of night, four seemingly random individuals pulled the ultimate heist and almost walked away with half a million dollars. But by daybreak, their plan had been shot to hell. One of them was in the hospital. One was in jail. One was dead. And one got away with it.
Arden Maxwell, the daughter of the man who disappeared all those years ago—presumably with the money, after murdering his accomplice—has never reconciled with her father's abandonment of her and her sister. After countless personal setbacks she decides to return to her family home near mysterious Caddo Lake, and finally get answers to the many questions that torment her. Little does she know, two of her father's co-conspirators—a war hero and a corrupt district attorney—are watching her every move.
Read my review here.
The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
Publisher synopsis:
Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret — something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .
Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all — she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly as her preparations for hosting a large upcoming Easter lunch. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia — or each other — but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.
Easter Bunny Murder by Leslie Meier
Publisher synopsis:
Spring has sprung in Tinker's Cove, and Lucy Stone has a mile-long to-do list. From painting eggs with her grandson, to preparing the perfect Easter feast, to reviving her garden after a long, cold winter, she hardly has time to hunt for a killer with a deadly case of spring fever...
As Lucy gathers a basketful of suspects, she's convinced someone's been hunting for a lot more than eggs, and she'll have to chase the truth down a rabbit hole before the killer claims another victim.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Publisher synopsis:
The story of the dissolution of the once aristocratic Compson family, told through the minds of three of its members, including the imbecilci Benjy - 'the tale told by an idiot.’ In very different ways they prove inadequate to their own family history, unable to deal with either the responsibility of the past or the imperatives of the present. The structure of the book - three monologues followed by an Easter Sunday-set objective account of the family history - operates in the same way as a classical symphony, as each 'movement' reacts against, enlarges and qualifies the others. The title implies a tale 'signifying nothing,’ but this is a ruse - Faulkner's vision is tragic in the full sense of the word. His honesty and his craft separate us from the fate of his characters - by teaching us to understand them he gives us a chance to prevail.
With six such diverse options, surely there’s something on this list to help you hop through the holiday. Which have you already read? What Easter-set books should I include in an update for next year?