SONGS FOR THE MISSING by Stewart O'Nan, 2008.

Reviews for this book were good, so when I saw it the other day and decided I needed to read a contemporary story, I went with this. It's set in a small town in Ohio near Lake Erie. Kim Larsen, a teenage girl who, the summer before she is leaving for college, simply vanishes between the time she left her friends at the river and the time she's due for work. Disappears into thin air. The people closest to her do everything to find her: search parties are formed, TV appearances made, fund raisers held, and private investigations unearth secrets, and everyone struggles to keep hope alive. But as time passes and her disappearance becomes old news, the story then becomes a portrait of how those left behind cope with the unexplained loss of a child. Kim's parents and sister each call on hidden strengths to survive the tragedy and move forward, and her best friends and boyfriend follow different paths to come to their own conclusions about their own parts in the awful drama and how to live with it. A heartwrenching, suspenseful, and believably written book.

MATCHLESS: A CHRISTMAS STORY by Gregory Maguire, 2009.

I scooped this up and read it very quickly. It's a very short book, complete with illustrations by the author. Basically, it's the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale, "The Little Match Girl", retold as only Maguire could do it. His story concerns a poor boy, Frederik, who yearns for a better life for himself and his mother, and discovers how his brief interaction with the little match girl leads him to that better life. Maguire manages to very deftly relate the original story, while intertwining it with his own creation, in the process producing a new little fable of inspiration and hope. Originally written for and read aloud on NPR, this will likely become another Christmas classic.

Last night I finished reading:

THE BIBLE SALESMAN by Clyde Edgerton, 2008.

Edgerton is one of my favorite Southern writers. From the time I read RANEY, I have enjoyed his sense of humor and his writing style. This particular novel concerns a car thief, Preston Clearwater, who picks up a young Bible salesman, Henry Dampier, and makes the innocent faced, somewhat naive kid his partner in crime. Set mainly in the post-World War II South, Edgerton includes plenty of down-home language and customs and foods and plot twists and odd characters (the old lady who throws her voice so that her cats talk is hilarious) to keep the reader interested. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys good Southern storytelling.

THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT by Barbara Vine, 2008.

I finished this last night, a rather odd book that intrigued me enough that I kept reading. The story involves an unmarried British MP named Ivor and his marrried mistress, Hebe, who enjoy sex games. For her birthday, he arranges for her to be kidnapped, bound and gagged and delivered to his home. However, there is a terrible accident, and Hebe and one of the kidnappers are killed, and Ivor fears a political scandal that will break over his head. Over time, there are threatening letters, hints, and incidents that play into his fear, and involve other characters and their agendas. A good psychological tale, with interesting characters and motivations, dark desires, and obsessive behavior. This is a slowly unfolding story that reveals bits that eventually come together to form the whole complex picture. If you're into this type of suspense, this is worth the time. Barbara Vine is aka Ruth Rendell.