Mary Ann in Autumn A Tales of the City Novel

There is hardly anything as nostalgic for me as the "Tales of the City" series, and this eighth novel reunites us with Mary Ann, Michael, Anna Madrigal and DeDe, while also bringing up surprising connections to the first novel. Armistead Maupin still has it! Which is a relief, since "Michael Tolliver Lives", the preceding novel that restarted the series, was not as great as it could have been, mostly because of it's first-person marathon that focused on Michael alone. It did give us Ben, Jake and adult Shawna though, characters who also get their decent amounts of spotlight here. One of the interesting aspects is how much I sympathize with Shawna's feeling of abandonment on the part of Mary Ann, which was my exact sentiment at the end of "Sure of you", but Mary Ann does get her fair share of development as well. Regarding what could be called the central mystery of the book: There are several strands that are easily picked up, but there is the occasional shocker that Maupin serves with gusto, and they are delightfully devastating for long-time fans of the series.