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The Hidden Keys (Quincunx 3/4), by André Alexis (2016 ??)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️?

Premise: A thief is drawn into a series of heists intended to solve a puzzle about gifts given by an eccentric billionaire to his grown children.

Review: This wasn‘t at all what I was expecting it to be. It‘s a fun heist story with a satisfying mystery.⬇️

A puzzle book, featuring multiple heists, written by a prize winning author of literary fiction, set in Toronto? Yes please!

Willow Azarian is an heiress with a drug addiction. She is certain that the gifts her father left his five children point to treasure, so she enlists the help of Tancred Palmieri, thief with a code, to steal the items and follow the trail. But they are not the only ones searching...

“The city had been built by people from innumerable elsewheres. It was a chaos of cultures ordered only by its long streets. It belonged to no one and never would, or maybe it was three million cities in one, unique to each of its inhabitants, belonging to whoever walked its streets.“

Such a perfect description of Toronto. I'm loving how much the city is a part of the opening of this book.

I began rereading THE HIDDEN KEYS this morning while the boyos frolicked outside. It‘s just what I needed to lift my spirits after this wretched snowfall.

I love it when I find a book from my wishlist! The thrift store coughed up a signed copy of my favourite André Alexis novel. I‘m bummed they raised their book prices, but this was still a good buy at $2.

Loved this! A rich narrative centred on the solving of a complex riddle, the intersection of the lives of the most privileged and the most marginalized, deep love among families and friends, and a good splash of humour. The writing is beautiful, evocative, and makes the characters come alive. Major bonus is that it's set right in my #Toronto neighbourhood (my street is in the first chapter!)
#Covercrush #Booked2020

Enjoyed the first half, then it just faded away for me and I couldn‘t wait to finish. #moremehthanyeah

I was pleased to see so many Canadian authors at the Women‘s Bookshop in Auckland, including André Alexis in a HC edition I‘d never seen before. I spotted 7 Canadians in a wall display of 50 recommended women authors.

You know that thing where you fall passionately in love with a book, and you quickly figure out it's partly because it's aggressively committed to its setting and partly because it reminds you of the way a couple of other books you love smell even though it only has the barest connections to those earlier texts? And you have no interest in analyzing your love any further?

That's me with this masterpiece. Read it, please.

I was excited to read this. A puzzle book, mystery with exciting sounding characters, good reviews. I was bored, almost gave up on it bored. I wasn't emotionally invested in the characters and the puzzle was disappointing. Just mehh?

Where I read...dishwasher shot is a bonus. #riotgrams #readingchair #mine #day2

#seasonsreadimgs2016 These are the #diversebooks that I am currently reading. Ebook from the library, ebook from Scribd, hardcover from the library, and Audible. I'm enjoying all of them so far!

On the Sabbath, they forced their children to church, cuffing the kids to keep them quiet, listening to hymns at home on a stereo whose speakers were so blown that, even at low volume, it was like listening to saintly tractors.

Tancred thought of Mount Pleasant as a kind of hospital, an extreme hospital, if you like. Its occupants were obviously beyond medicine, but the cemetery was so quiet, its atmosphere so serious, it was as if the dead depended on silence the way patients do: for sleep, for rest.

At #VWF16, Alexis said this was a retelling of Treasure Island. It reminded me of The Da Vinci Code, except with more elegant writing, and the clues started with a Japanese screen instead of the Mona Lisa, and Toronto instead of Paris. Okay, so not that similar... What I know for sure: it was great!

I don't know why people don't worship chance. It's as powerful as any of the gods and it doesn't need money, doesn't punish, doesn't care what you eat on Friday. I'm not a believer, but if I was going to be, I'd worship chance. You could have churches that looked like dice.

The city had been built by people from innumerable elsewheres. It was a chaos of cultures ordered only by its long streets. It belonged to no one and never would, or maybe it was three million cities in one, unique to each of its inhabitants, belonging to whoever walked its streets.

The neighbourhood, which had once been factory-filled and ominous at night, was now like a bad dream of condos and young people with dogs. It was unpleasant in a new way, having been turned into a kind of warren: no place for parking, no open spaces, no view of the lake, no capacity to accommodate the numbers rushing in to buy shoddy condominiums.

At #VWF16 Andre Alexis spoke about the process of becoming a writer, which included learning which ideas were the kind he could work with and which ideas were better left to Beckett. He said The Hidden Keys began with the idea of divine presence. I'm reading it now and so now part of my brain is alert for signs of divinity. 🤔

Tea to kickstart another busy day at #VWF16. Authors I'll see today:
Andre Alexis
Marni Jackson
Catherine Leroux
Susan Perly
Peter Behrens
Yaa Gyasi
Madeleine Thien
Colson Whitehead

Oh yeah!

4 excellent books now out!! 🎉💙📚

I'll just keep this on my lap and see how much sneak reading I can get away with today...

My good friend & book publicist, Erin Kottke, passed me an ARC of this book. It was a mystery and a treasure hunt, but also a book about family and identity. I enjoyed its pacing and language. It was also the only book I took on a short trip. Would recommend.