MostlyFiction Book Reviews » Psychological Suspense We Love to Read! Sat, 02 Apr 2011 22:46:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 A LONELY DEATH by Charles Todd /2011/a-lonely-death-by-charles-todd/ /2011/a-lonely-death-by-charles-todd/#comments Sun, 23 Jan 2011 14:41:44 +0000 Judi Clark /?p=15605 Book Quote:

“I’m writing to say good-bye. My decision has been made and by the time you read this, there will be no turning back. I have tried….But the war changed me, it changed my family, it changed everything, and finding my way again to what I knew before isn’t possible.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky  (JAN 23, 2011)

A Lonely Death, by Charles Todd, is one of the most haunting mysteries in the Inspector Ian Rutledge series. The year is 1920 and the First World War has taken an enormous toll on the young Englishmen who naively went off to battle, expecting excitement and adventure. What they found, instead, was terror and violent death. Those who returned were often shell-shocked and/or physically maimed; their families suffered along with the damaged soldiers.

Rutledge barely made it through the war. He was nearly buried alive, and at times, wishes that he had never been rescued. He was severely traumatized by his horrific experiences and bears boundless guilt for his role in sending his men to their deaths. One deceased Scottish soldier named Hamish MacLeod still gives Ian no peace. Rutledge walks around with the young Highlander’s voice, “relentless and unforgiving,” resounding in his head, chiding him, giving advice, and reminding Rutledge that he does not deserve to live a normal life.

At least his work gives Rutledge some respite from his despondency. After he sees off Chief Inspector Cummins, who is retiring, Rutledge is called to Eastfield, Sussex, where a series of deaths by garroting have left three men dead in nine days. This case will prove to be a crucible that will test Rutledge’s determination and strength of character. He, along with Constable Walker and others, must determine why these particular men were targeted. Did the murders have something to do with events that occurred during the war? The evidence points in a number of different directions and the answers are far from obvious. In addition, Rutledge looks into a cold case that Cummins had always wanted to solve, but could not. This subplot is not particularly realistic, but it is intriguing nevertheless.

The mother and son who collaborate under the name Charles Todd have created a complex novel of psychological suspense with a large cast of memorable characters, evocative descriptive writing, and meticulous attention to historical detail. A Lonely Death is a wrenching story of revenge and sorrow. Charles Todd’s fine work of fiction is not only a commentary on the hellish price of war, but it is also an incisive look at the battles we wage each day–with our acquaintances, relatives, employers, and even with ourselves. Few emerge from these encounters unscathed. Inspector Ian Rutledge, alas, still has a great deal of healing to do before he can face the future with equanimity.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-5from 41 readers
PUBLISHER: William Morrow (January 4, 2011)
REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Charles Todd
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our reviews of:

A Duty to the Dead

A Pale Horse

A Test of Wills

Bibliography:

Inspector Ian Rutledge series:

Francesca Hatton series:

Bess Crawford, British army nurse:

]]> /2011/a-lonely-death-by-charles-todd/feed/ 0 GIVE ME YOUR HEART by Joyce Carol Oates /2011/give-me-your-heart-by-joyce-carol-oates/ /2011/give-me-your-heart-by-joyce-carol-oates/#comments Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:36:39 +0000 Judi Clark /?p=15466 Book Quote:

“He had appealed to the officer who had discharged him. Don’t send me back to them. I am not ready to return to them yet. I can’t live with civilians. I am afraid that I will hurt civilians. The Lance Corporal was asked why would he hurt civilians of his own kind who loved him and the Lance Corporal said Because that is the only way to stop them loving me sir.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody  (JAN 17, 2011)

Give Me Your Heart, the newest collection of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates, shimmers with violence, actual or imagined. Reading these stories is like hearing footsteps in your home when you know you’re the only one there. They’re like seeing something impossible out of the corner of your eye and being sure that you’ve seen it no matter what your rational self tells you. The stories make your heart race and your eyes open wide in horror. They do not come to us gently. Joyce Carol Oates grabs the reader and pulls him into her unique vision where fear, panic, tension, death, love and murder prevail, often simultaneously. These are horror stories without any element of the super-natural. She’s the real McCoy of this genre.

This collection contains ten stories, many of them about the dark side of needing love. In “Give Me Your Heart,” we hear an ex-lover rant about wanting her lover’s heart – actually and metaphorically. We listen to her as she goes more and more around the bend. In “Split/Brain,” Trudy Gould has been caretaker for her ill husband day and night, spending all her time at the hospital. One day, he demands that she return home to get a journal that he forgot. When she arrives at her home, she recognizes her sister’s car parked there and imagines her troubled, drug-addled and violent nephew in her house. She plays out this scenario in head: she either enters the house and is killed by her nephew or she turns and leaves. What will her choice be?

Some of these stories deal with the obsessive character of love or the feeling that you don’t really know the person you love. In “The First Husband,” a married man stumbles across photos of his wife with her first husband. He can’t get over his jealousy and believes that his wife is hiding something from him. He becomes obsessed with her first husband and this leads to tragic consequences.

The theme that love is dangerous is apparent in almost every story. In “Strip Poker,” a group of older men in their twenties get a fourteen year-old girl to go with them to their lake cabin. They get her drunk and play strip poker with her. The game is tense and on the verge of becoming dangerous. How the girl turns events to her favor is a joy to behold in all its poignancy. In “Smothered,” a troubled woman with a history of drug addiction and rootlessness has recovered memories of her parents smothering and killing a baby girl. This memory is part of a sensational murder case that occurred in 1974. The smothered child was never identified and the murderer was never found. When the police come to question the woman’s mother, she is shocked. The memory appears to be part of a drug-addled incident in the daughter’s teen-aged years. However, the mother feels torn and betrayed as this is just another way her estranged daughter has turned against her.

Sometimes, the most dangerous person is the one that is closest to you. In “The Spill,” John Henry is what we’d now call developmentally disabled or chronically mentally ill. When he is an adolescent, he is brought to live at his uncle’s home as his mother can no longer handle him. It is 1951 and there is no such thing as special education in the rural Adirondacks where this story takes place. John Henry, after repeating fourth grade, is told he can’t return to school. His uncle has him doing difficult farm chores all day. His aunt Lizabeta has a special connection with John Henry while also being very leery of him with her own children. Her emotions start to get twisted up inside her.

“Bleed” is my favorite story in the collection. A boy evolves from closeness with his parents to distance. He leaves his childhood behind him. This is due to two distinct incidents, both involving child abductions and rapes. His parents question him about these incidents, of which he has no knowledge. However, these images continue to haunt him and, as a young man, he finds himself caught up in a nightmare situation consisting of rape and abduction.

These are not stories for the fragile or weak-hearted among us. They are all scary and they all play on our visceral fears and nightmares. Joyce Carol Oates is a master of this. She understands those things we all fear, the nightmares that are common to us all. That these stories do not contain elements of the super-natural is not comforting. It makes them all the more frightening.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 7 readers
PUBLISHER: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (January 7, 2011)
REVIEWER: Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Joyce Carol Oates
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read reviews of more Joyce Carol Oates books:

A Fair Maiden

Sourland: Stories

The Little Bird of Heaven

The Falls

I’ll Take You There

The Female of the Species

Bibliography:

Tales:

Stories:

Written as Lauren Kelly:

Written as Rosamond Smith:

Younger Readers:

Nonfiction:

]]> /2011/give-me-your-heart-by-joyce-carol-oates/feed/ 2 THE POISON TREE by Erin Kelly /2011/the-poison-tree-by-erin-kelly/ /2011/the-poison-tree-by-erin-kelly/#comments Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:00:52 +0000 Judi Clark /?p=15288 Book Quote:

“For I had a guilty secret—or what felt like one at the time, before I knew what guilt and secrecy really felt like.”

Book Review:

Review by Guy Savage  (JAN 10, 2011)

The Poison Tree, the debut novel from British author Erin Kelly, begins with a young woman named Karen driving her child, nine-year-old Alice to pick up husband Rex. This may sound like a fairly routine domestic errand, but the difference here is that Rex has just been released from prison after serving 10 years for murder. The novel’s first chapter is a window into the delicacy of a fractured family’s difficult reunion as parenting roles shift to a thinly structured “normalcy.” The underlying question is why was Rex in prison for murder? Just what happened to put Rex behind bars is slowly doled out to the reader as first-person narrator Karen goes back to the mid 90s when she was a university student at Queen Charlotte’s College and met the intriguing, free-spirit, budding actress Biba and her brother Rex.

Flashback to Karen as a quiet introverted student stuck in a rooming arrangement she dislikes. She’s particularly vulnerable after being dumped by boorish boyfriend Simon–a humiliating move her roommates know about before she does. In addition, university life isn’t what Karen expected, and it’s here that we get the signals of trouble. Her expectations don’t match reality, so she yearns for something to happen. Biba, as it turns out, is the “something,” and she represents the excitement that Karen is not going to find in the classroom. The chance meeting with the glamorous Biba changes Karen’s life–not for the better as it turns out. Karen is introduced to a bohemian lifestyle as she attends parties, experiments with drugs and soon moves in to the home shared by “orphans” Biba and Rex. The moment Biba meets Karen, some unspoken transaction takes place, and it’s clear that Biba is the sort of person who doesn’t understand the meaning of boundaries:

“I don’t understand why you don’t want to act. Because whatever happens to you, however awful it is, or even wonderful experiences, you can get through it by thinking, hold on to this, remember what it felt like, I can use that one day. You can’t be a truly brilliant actor if you’ve had no life. That’s why I want to do everything, taste everyone. Don’t you see? Because the more reserves I have to draw on the more I can do as an actress. In fact…” self-awareness seemed to strike, and she put on a pompous, gravelly voice, “one owes it to one’s craft to live an extraordinary life and sensational life.” I laughed, relieved that she’d broken her own tension, and saw my opportunity to change the subject. I had to pull this conversation down from the sky if I was going to contribute to it.

Karen is a blank screen, and so while it’s perfectly clear that she’s impressionable and easy to lead astray, she’s also not a particularly interesting character. There’s a romanticism in Karen that fails to be ignited by her studies, and I failed to be ignited by Karen. Some of this can be attributed to her early comment that she feels “initial disappointment at not being able to waft through quads in crinoline.”

Karen, Biba and Rex, appear to be parts of a whole–splintered characters who incubate disaster when conjoined by fate or circumstance (I’m thinking murderers Leopold and Loeb here or serial killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley). So once the unhealthy relationship between these three characters charges up, it’s not difficult to guess where this is going. A very creepy atmosphere rapidly develops and is seems inevitable that it will end badly.

The novel reminds me very much of Ruth Rendell’s (writing as Barbara Vine) The Fatal Inversion, but without the same degree of tension. Unfortunately the novel is slow to heat up, and although the story, doled out in chunks by Karen, should be a device that builds suspense, the opposite is true.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-5from 11 readers
PUBLISHER: Pamela Dorman Books (January 6, 2011)
REVIEWER: Guy Savage
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Erin Kelly
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Barbara Vine

Matala by Craig Holden

Bibliography:

]]> /2011/the-poison-tree-by-erin-kelly/feed/ 0 THE ART OF LOSING by Rebecca Connell /2010/the-art-of-losing-by-rebecca-connell/ /2010/the-art-of-losing-by-rebecca-connell/#comments Sat, 02 Oct 2010 02:29:26 +0000 Judi Clark /?p=12580 Book Quote:

“She’s there inside me somewhere, but I don’t want her there. I want her here, so badly I can taste it, the acid tang of need sickeningly fresh and surprising every time. The face in the mirror is blurring before me and suddenly it doesn’t look like either of us. It doesn’t look like anyone I know. I blink the tears away. I whisper my own name to myself, wanting to hear it as she used to say it. Louise. It’s not the same, never the same.

I step back from the mirror, addressing myself in my head. You thought that this would be enough – to see him, to satisfy your curiosity. You were wrong. Nothing you can do will bring her back, but you have the right to know. This man murdered your mother. You need to understand why.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody  (OCT 01, 2010)

Rebecca Connell has written a finely fraught literary thriller and romance in her debut novel, The Art of Losing. It examines the legacy of loss and betrayal and the extent to which a person will go to seek out the truth.

Louise was ten years old when her mother died in a horrible automobile accident. She believes that Nicholas, her mother’s lover, is responsible for her death. Louise decides to infiltrate Nicholas’ life in order to find out the truth. When she is in her twenties, she changes her name to Lydia, her mother’s name, and heads off to Cambridge to find Nicholas who is a lecturer in a college there. Her first plan is to sit in on one of his lectures in order to get a feel for who he is. Serendipitously, at the lecture she meets his son, Adam, and he takes a liking to her. They begin to see each other and party together. She also goes to a cafe that she knows Nicholas frequents. She meets him for a brief moment and ends up crying.

Adam is a college student but “Lydia” is not. She is wholly involved in finding Nicholas and learning about her mother’s death and their relationship. When the college term ends, Adam invites “Lydia” to stay with his family during the break. How much more convenient a setting can that be for her! She notices, when introduced to Adam’s parents, that they cringe when they hear her name. They comment that it’s an unusual name but their reactions are like it’s a frightening and sorrowful memory from the past. “Lydia” keeps a straight face, not divulging any emotions. She and Adam share a room and she proceeds to infiltrate the family.

The novel is told in alternating chapters from the viewpoints of Nicholas and Louise. The chapters are also from different times in the relationship between Nicholas and Lydia. The reader finds out that Lydia was married to Martin when she met Nicholas but that they began their affair anyway. Their affair was passionate and on-going for several months. Nicholas wants Lydia to leave her husband, Martin, and be with him. She, however, decides to stay with Martin. Lydia and Martin move away and it is several years before Nicholas and Lydia cross paths again. Meanwhile, Lydia has a child, Louise, and she and Martin settle in Cambridge where Martin teaches. Nicholas also marries but he can’t let go of Lydia’s memory. He and his wife Naomi have a son, Adam. Ironically, they also live in Cambridge where Nicholas lectures.

On a casual walk in Cambridge, Nicolas runs into Adam and the two couples meet for dinner. The affair recommences with disastrous impact for the two families. Nicholas and Lydia respond to to one another like moths to a flame. Martin and Naomi are two innocents caught up in their partners’ frenzy.

As the novel takes up with “Lydia” in Nicholas’ home, Nicholas chooses to tell her the whole story of the affair, not realizing that she is Lydia’s daughter. He feels comfortable opening up to a perceived stranger. The story takes all kinds of twists and turns, making it eerie and unsettling. It has a gothic feel to it.

The book is a real page-turner and an excellent read. It is hard to put down because the thrill of what’s next beckons with each page. Connell has the knack for holding the reader’s interest and it’s hard to believe this is a debut novel. I look forward to more of her work.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 1 readers
PUBLISHER: Europa Editions; Reprint edition (September 28, 2010)
REVIEWER: Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? Not Yet
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Rebecca Connell
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt

An interview with Rebecca Connell

His Futile Preoccupations review of The Art of Losing
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: More psychological thrillers:

Matala by Craig Holden

The Point of Fracture by Frank Turner Hollon

The Dead Lie Down by Sophie Hannah

Bibliography:

]]> /2010/the-art-of-losing-by-rebecca-connell/feed/ 0 THE PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY by Gianrico Carofiglio /2010/the-past-is-a-foreign-country-by-gianrico-carofiglio/ /2010/the-past-is-a-foreign-country-by-gianrico-carofiglio/#comments Sat, 14 Aug 2010 23:01:38 +0000 Judi Clark /?p=11375 Book Quote:

“I had a vague idea, just as I was vaguely aware that I was about to cross a threshold that night. Or maybe I’d already crossed it.”

Book Review:

Review by Guy Savage (AUG 14, 2010)

The Past is a Foreign Country from former anti-Mafia prosecutor, Gianrico Carofiglio is primarily a psychological tale. While the novel contains a crime story, the main focus, and perhaps even arguably the main crime, is the complete and utter corruption of one human being by another.

Giorgio is a serious young man, a law student dedicated to his studies and committed to his long term girlfriend, but his life changes radically when he’s befriended by the charismatic, good-looking Francesco. They meet at a party when Giorgio intervenes in what threatens to develop into a full-blown beating, and then gradually the two young men form a dangerous relationship. Francesco is a cardsharp, and he introduces Giorgio to his criminal lifestyle. Soon Giorgio partners with his “mentor” Francesco to spend endless nights bilking suckers in the seedy back rooms of bars and clubs. Giorgio’s moral code is systematically stripped away as he finds himself eased into an exciting life of gambling, booze, drugs and casual sex with bored women.

Giorgio’s corruption is an insidious process, and at first Giorgio isn’t even aware that’s it’s happening. When he does realize it, the recognition is punctuated with denial. He’s distanced from everyone who loves him and just like any addiction, he’s in too deep to be able to get out….

While Francesco begins as Giorgio’s mentor, it’s clear that Francesco’s designs on Giorgio are motivated by power and control. Giorgio is seen as a hollow human being who’s swayed by Francesco’s Ubermensch-inspired bizarre moral arguments. Here’s Francesco arguing why cheating at cards isn’t immoral:

“People manipulate and are manipulated, cheat and are cheated constantly, without realizing it. They hurt other people and are hurt themselves without realizing it. They refuse to realize it because they wouldn’t be able to bear it. A magic trick is an honest thing because we know in advance that the reality of it is different from the appearance. And in a way, on a universal level, cheating at cards is honest too. I mean, we’ve taken control of the situation away from pure chance and put it in our own hands. I know you understand. That’s why I chose you. I wouldn’t say these things to anyone else. We’re challenging the mindless cruelty of chance and defeating it. Do you understand? You and I are violating commonplace rules and choosing our own destiny.”

If you’ve ever wondered how the demonic partnerships of people like Leopold and Loeb or Ian Brady and Myra Hindley got started, then you’ll be interested in The Past is a Foreign Country. Ultimately this is a novel that examines the issue of identity and its relationship to morality. The process of maturing includes discovering exactly what one is and isn’t capable of, and in this story, Giorgio’s sense of self is gradually eroded by the much stronger-willed, Francesco. Under Francesco’s tutelage, weak-willed Giorgio becomes his “mentor’s” doppelganger and his willing pupil. While the reader may experience some frustration at Giorgio’s inherently weak nature, the story is riveting. The tale gathers momentum with shades of foreboding and the irresistible fascination of watching an imminent train-wreck. Carofiglio pulls the various threads together for an explosive collusion course in this elegant Italian crime novel. (Translated by Howard Curtis.)

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 4 readers
PUBLISHER: Minotaur Books; 1 edition (July 20, 2010)
REVIEWER: Guy Savage
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Gianrico Carofiglio (in Italian)

Wikipedia page on Gianrico Carofiglio
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Reasonable Doubts

Bibliography:

Stand-alone fiction:

]]> /2010/the-past-is-a-foreign-country-by-gianrico-carofiglio/feed/ 0 BEAUTIFUL MALICE by Rebecca James /2010/beautiful-malice-by-rebecca-james/ /2010/beautiful-malice-by-rebecca-james/#comments Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:01:44 +0000 Judi Clark /?p=10911 Book Quote:

“…But what I really mean is Poor us. All three of us have had terrible things happen – murder, cancer, abandonment – and for the first time I’m tempted to tell Robbie about Rachel. It’s not sympathy I want but the credibility that comes with having faced and lived through something tragic. I can say that I understand, and I do, but to Robbie and Alice – who know nothing of my past – my words would sound hollow……I say nothing.”

Book Review:

Review by Maggie Hill (JUL 30, 2010)

It is important to set the parameters, or the standards, of a Young Adult novel right up front when reviewing one in a public forum. The Young Adult novel is a genre that allows authors to explore edgy content within the typical bathos of teen self-consciousness. If a novel is to be successful in this market, it must ambitiously try to underscore topics such as murder, sickness, abuse, heroin addiction, suicide, sexuality – pretty much any topic with an “edge” – and have a central character that is either surrounded by the subject, or is going to potentially be lost to the subject. Take Romeo & Juliet, minus out the words of William Shakespeare, put it in first person narrative form – let’s let Romeo be the narrator – and you will be soundly situated in a Young Adult novel.

In general, these novels tend to be action-oriented, filled with personal drama, and focused almost exclusively on a difficulty that one character experiences. Because the genre’s goal is to dramatize a topic and render an ultimate (usually, moral) denouement, chapters are generally short and can read like scenes from a television show or play. Good examples of this genre make liberal use of dialogue, realistic setting, and character archetypes (i.e. the mean girl, the bad boy, the messed-up-by-sadness protagonist).

All of this is by way of introducing Beautiful Malice, a YA novel by first-time author Rebecca James. The novel centers around, and is told by, a high school student who has been a witness to, and victim of, her sister’s murder. On the heels of this tragedy, she relocates to another town and takes a new name. There, she keeps to herself and keeps her secrets and self-blame safe. Until she meets the larger-than-life, beautiful, magnetic Alice, who befriends her. Alice makes Katherine, the narrator, her best friend. Although Katherine is striving to just be unnoticed and live a quiet last year of high school, Alice’s friendship spins her into a web of psychological torture as only a teenage girl can experience it.

The topic of this novel is murder; specifically, the repercussions of a terribly normal mistake suddenly crashing into someone else’s malicious intent. Thrown into the mix is promiscuity, teen pregnancy, mistrust of adults, and a world in which teenagers must find their own way. It’s a page turner.

This novel is a successful YA novel for all the reasons mentioned above. For an adult, there are limits to what we will accept as drama. However, for the audience that this novel seeks, it deserves to be noticed and read.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-3-5from 17 readers
PUBLISHER: Bantam (July 13, 2010)
REVIEWER: Maggie Hill
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Rebecca James
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: More YA:

Lucy by Laurence Gonzales

Twilight by Stephanie Meyers

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Bibliography:

]]> /2010/beautiful-malice-by-rebecca-james/feed/ 0 THE LIE by Petra Hammesfahr /2010/the-lie-by-petra-hammesfahr/ /2010/the-lie-by-petra-hammesfahr/#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:36:49 +0000 Judi Clark /?p=10031 Book Quote:

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Book Review:

Review by Guy Savage (JUN 11, 2010)

Imagine for a moment that you have no money, no job and no prospects when you meet someone who could be your double. This twin version has everything you don’t: a huge bank account, a luxury villa, a flashy sports car, and a loving, attractive husband. What would you do if your double offered to pay you to trade lives for a few days?….

This is exactly the scenario in German author Petra Hammesfahr’s thriller The Lie. Down-on-her-luck, Susanne Lasko is applying for yet another job when she finds herself face to face with a woman who could be her twin:

“In her external appearance the young woman who suddenly appeared before her was not identical with her. She was her height and had her figure, her eyes, her mouth. And it was her face—but with perfect makeup and framed by fashionably styled hair. The woman’s hair was a rich brown and considerably shorter than the sun-bleached mop coming down to her shoulders. Her double was wearing a light-grey, pinstripe suit with a white blouse.”

The similarities between the two women serve to highlight Susanne’s shabbiness; her old clothes have seen better days, and she’s badly in need of a haircut. On top of that, the other woman, Nadia Trenkler, is expensively dressed complete with designer accessories. Nadia seems to want to make Susanne’s acquaintance. Is she motivated by charity, friendship or something more sinister?

Peculiar things begin to happen in Susanne’s life. Someone appears to be following her, and then she discovers her apartment is bugged. In the meantime, an uneasy relationship is forged between the two women, Nadia and Susanne, and while they look alike, their characters are complete opposites. In a short time, Nadia suggests that Susanne can make some easy money by changing places with her one weekend. Nadia uses the excuse of needing time with a lover, and Susanne, who’s been slowly siphoning money from her mother’s bank account, and who has no other options for making money, agrees.

Of course, if you take one poor woman and place her in the affluent, comfortable life of a much wealthier woman, who’s to say that the poor woman will want to return to her old life. What if she likes the new wealthy life she’s managed to taste for just a few days?

The Lie is really quite intriguing. The novel strained credulity at times as Susanne is remade in Nadia in order to buy Nadia the freedom to enjoy her dirty weekend. After all, it takes more than a hair cut, a sun tan and some fancy new clothes to be able to successfully impersonate someone else, and I was not entirely convinced that Susanne could acceptably impersonate Nadia when the chips were down. Nadia is, after all, a primo bitch–self-confident, self-assured and used to getting her own way. Susanne, in contrast, is a bit of a disaster waiting to happen–as evidenced by her history of employment, frequent headaches, and lack of confidence.

That complaint aside, if you are willing to suspend your disbelief and buy the swap between Nadia and Susanne, then it’s incredibly easy to be swept up by the story. It’s perfectly clear to the reader that Nadia is up to something more than an illicit weekend, but Susanne who has no other options for making money, buys the story. And while Nadia is supposedly off sporting with her lover, this leaves Susanne alone with Nadia’s rather neglected husband. And of course, the expected happens…

The Lie can be classified as a psychological thriller, and apart from the mystery afoot, the novel includes some observations about the behaviour of the wealthy when contrasted to the behaviour of those used to the hard knocks of life. Nadia fully expects to buy Susanne, and Susanne finds herself wondering what life would have been like for her if she’d been cocooned and propelled by money and influence. While Nadia has a great deal of confidence that her schemes will work, Susanne is interested in protecting herself if something goes wrong.

It’s exciting to see several small independent publishers marketing books in translation. German author Petra Hammesfahr’s novel The Lie, translated by Mike Mitchell, is from Bitter Lemon Press.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 4 readers
PUBLISHER: Bitter Lemon Press (April 1, 2010)
REVIEWER: Guy Savage
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Wikipedia on Petra Hammesfahr
EXTRAS: Publisher Page on The Lie
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:The Sinner

Bibliography:

]]> /2010/the-lie-by-petra-hammesfahr/feed/ 0 THE DEAD LIE DOWN by Sophie Hannah /2010/the-dead-lie-down-by-sophie-hannah/ /2010/the-dead-lie-down-by-sophie-hannah/#comments Fri, 04 Jun 2010 23:46:51 +0000 Judi Clark /?p=9909 Book Quote:

“I saw a therapist for years. I stopped when I realized there was no fixing the broken bits…. When your world falls apart and everything’s ruined, you lose part of yourself. Not all, inconveniently. One half, the best half, dies. The other half lives.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky (JUN 4, 2010)

Sophie Hannah’s The Dead Lie Down is a multi-faceted psychological thriller about guilt, revenge, self-destruction, and redemption. All of the major characters have something to hide and they reveal their secrets reluctantly. Aiden Seed, who frames pictures for a living, has decided that he and the woman he loves, Ruth Bussey, should be open with one another before they become intimate. Ruth hesitantly admits that she did something shameful and was punished excessively for her actions. Aiden is sympathetic, saying, “The worst things stow away in the hold, follow you wherever you go.” It is then his turn to confess: “Years ago, I killed someone.” “Her name was Mary. Mary Trelease.”

When Aiden makes his startling admission, Ruth is appalled. She cannot say to Aiden that it doesn’t matter. Instead, she confides in someone she admires, Sergeant Charlotte Zailer, who is part of the community policing team for the town of Spilling. The catch is that the woman Aiden claims to have killed is not dead. Mary Trelease lives at 15 Megson Crescent on the Winstanley Estate, a rough neighborhood whose residents are steeped in squalor and hopelessness. Trelease is a painter who jealously guards her work from prying eyes. Aiden shows no obvious signs of mental illness, so why is he confessing to a murder that he did not commit?

Sophie Hannah goes back and forth in time, and shifts point of view frequently. In addition, the author teases us with bits of information that, by themselves, mean very little. Eventually, the puzzle pieces come together to form a ghastly and unutterably depressing whole.

Sophie Hannah is a fine descriptive writer with a strong eye for detail. Her depiction of a party during which Charlie and her fiancé, DC Simon Waterhouse, celebrate their engagement at “a dingy room in a pub,” along with family and friends, is excruciating, embarrassing, funny, yet also unutterably sad. Simon and Charlie are a wounded pair and people say cruel things about them behind their backs. What should have been a festive occasion turns into a cringe-worthy fiasco. Simon’s boss, DI Proust, known as the Snowman, is creepy, cold-blooded, sarcastic, and completely unreasonable. He and Simon loathe one another, and their interactions are painful to observe.

The problem with this book is not the characterizations, which are heartbreakingly authentic, but the plot, which is byzantine and as far over the top as one can get. If an author requires more than one or two pages of exposition to explain everything that has gone before, this is a clue that something may be amiss. The Dead Lie Down concludes with such a lengthy explanation, intended to clarify the muddy narrative, that a scorecard would have been welcome to keep track of who did what to whom. How much more satisfying this novel would have been had the story been less dense and more grounded in reality.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 21 readers
PUBLISHER: Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 1, 2010)
REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Sophie Hannah
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Other unusual mysteries:

Death of a Writer by Michael Collins

Something Might Happen by Jule Myerson

Yes, My Darling Daughter by Margaret Leroy

Bibliography:

Crime Fiction:

Note: Sophie Hannah is also an accomplished poet, see her website for more information on her poetry books.

]]> /2010/the-dead-lie-down-by-sophie-hannah/feed/ 0 THE GARGOYLE by Andrew Davidson /2009/the-gargoyle-by-andrew-davidson/ /2009/the-gargoyle-by-andrew-davidson/#comments Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:54:15 +0000 Judi Clark /?p=6438 Book Quote:

“I could feel my hair catch fire, then I could smell it. My flesh began to singe as if I were a scrap of meat newly thrown into the barbecue, and then I could hear the bubbling of my skin as the flames kissed it. I could not reach my head to extinguish my flaming hair.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody (NOV 21, 2009)

The Gargoyle is one of the most gripping novels I have ever read. I am not one to usually read books more than once and I can probably count on two hands those novels that I’ve read two or three times. This is my second reading of The Gargoyle and it is even better the second time around.

The book is a first person narrative, told by a man who is severely burned in a car accident. He is driving in a ritzy sports car, stoned on cocaine, alcohol and other drugs du jour, when his car goes out of control. The bottle of booze he has been drinking from is held between his legs (a most unfortunate place for it to be) and when the car explodes in a wreck of fire, most all of his body turns to cinder. He is not expected to live, but miraculously he does. While recuperating in a rehabilitation hospital, he reflects on his past life as a good looking stud, a pornographer, drug addict, alcoholic and sex addict. He sees his life as valueless but does not know how to turn himself around. He is now a “monster” to most who see him – - a man without a face and with most of his body parts missing. He is in constant pain and his hospital rehabilitation is an effort that will take years to complete.

Amazingly, one day he is lying in his bed when a young woman named Marianne Engel, walks up to him and says quite simply, “You’ve been burned. Again.”  Marianne is a patient in the psychiatric ward but believes absolutely that she has known this burnt man in a prior life, some time in the early 1300’s when she was a nun and a scribe in the German village of Engelthal. Is she schizophrenic as her diagnosis reads or is she telling the truth? This is a hard question to cipher and forms the crux of the book.

The book is chilling in that Marianne knows many things about her paramour , things both simple and sublime. One amazing fact is that he was born with a small scar right near his heart and Marianne is aware of that. She is also aware of his life history, those events they shared and those that he suffered on his own.

I read this book with chills going up and down my spine, trying to decipher the truth(s) of the story as Marianne tells it. She captures her lover by telling him Scheherazade – like stories, one after the other, all about their lives together,
one story more interesting than the next.

Supposedly, Marianne is one of the great scribes of the town of Engelthal, writing a new version of the bible and a copy of Dante’s Inferno. Her style and script are unique and beautiful, not to be confused with anyone else’s.

What is revealed from these nights of stories after stories is that theirs was a great love, one that is to be repeated forever, through eternity. Whether the reader is a believer or a doubter, there is there is always the great question – - Could this have been possible? Is it still possible? Will this great love repeat itself through eternity?

Davidson is a writer of remarkable talent. I found it impossible to believe that this was his debut novel. He is able to combine several genres – - the psychological thriller, historical fiction, horror, and mythology. His genre is unique, and I, for one, was grasped from the first page and the story never left me outside its grip.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 313 readers
PUBLISHER: Anchor; First Edition edition (August 4, 2009)
REVIEWER: Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Andrew Davidson
EXTRAS: Excerpt and Interview and Reader’s Guide
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Other explorations of “past lives:”

Diary by Chuck Palahuniuk

Fangland by John Marks

Yes, My Darling Daughter by Margaret Leroy

Bibliography:

]]> /2009/the-gargoyle-by-andrew-davidson/feed/ 0 THE SIEGE by Stephen White /2009/the-siege-by-stephen-white/ /2009/the-siege-by-stephen-white/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:52:05 +0000 Judi Clark /?p=4368 Book Quote:

“What happened to us? This country. This world. What went wrong? How the [hell] did we get here?”

Book Review:

Review by Mary Whipple (AUG 23, 2009)

On a fine Saturday morning in April, the Yale campus is suddenly jolted by terror the likes of which no one could ever have imagined. More than two dozen students have gone missing in the past thirty-six hours, many of them the children of parents prominent in industry and government, and most of them recently “tapped” for one of Yale’s secret societies–Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, and Book and Snake. All these societies own elaborate Greek edifices on campus, the most prominent architectural feature of which is the complete lack of windows. Inside these “tombs,” the societies’ secrets remain absolute.

This morning, however, all the attention is on Book and Snake, where, it appears, the missing students are being held hostage. When Jonathan Simmons, a handsome senior, emerges from inside the tomb to face the assembled police, he lifts his arms and stops in front of the building. “Don’t come forward,” he yells to the police and bystanders. “I’m a bomb. I…am…a bomb. Stay where you are.” Receiving directions from someone inside the tomb, Simmons shows the bomb strapped to his chest and demands that the transmissions from the cell towers be restored within five minutes or he and the hostages will die. Like an automaton, he answers no questions, and ticks off the minutes, as a New Haven Police hostage negotiator tries to gain time by engaging him in conversation.

While this is happening in New Haven, suspended Boulder, Colorado, detective Sam Purdy is attending an engagement party aboard a yacht in Miami, where he meets Ann Summers Calderon, mother of the future groom. Ann very tentatively suggests a private meeting with Purdy and swears him to secrecy. She has received a bizarre message–from someone unknown, who demands nothing, but threatens her with unspecified consequences if she tells anyone about the note. “At some point,” the writer of the note assures her, “you will be desperate to reach me.”

In a third plot line, Deirdre, a CIA agent married to Jerry, another CIA agent, is at a Washington area conference where she meets up with FBI agent Christopher Poe, someone with whom she has been close since 1995. Poe is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and their occasional trysts provide him with an emotional lifeline that he desperately needs. Working as a one-man department for the FBI, Poe investigates low-probability, high-risk terror scenarios brought to the FBi’s attention by (usually wacko) private citizens, and he has developed a “feel” for how these odd details sometimes contribute to bizarre, but plausible terror plots.

Slowly, White develops his suspense, revealing the names and backgrounds of some of the hostages and their parents as the students are officially declared missing from campus. When Ann Summers Calderon receives a recorded message from the kidnapper, she persuades Sam Purdy to go to New Haven to act as her eyes and ears. She will tell him nothing more about what she plans to do, and he will have no traceable contact with her. The nature of the terror plot is so unusual, that FBI agent Christopher Coe decides on his own to go to New Haven, too. As special teams and hostage rescue teams arrive from various departments in the federal government, they take over from the Campus Police and the New Haven Police. The alphabet soup of agencies becomes daunting, and exactly who will make the final decisions is unclear to all.

As the novel unfolds, author Stephen Wright uses his formidable background as a clinical psychologist to create one of the most nail-biting thrillers I have ever read. The book is about four hundred pages long, and I read the last three hundred pages straight through in one evening—I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen! He has structured the novel so that the action rotates among the three subplots, but it is never resolved at the end of each scene, leaving something important up in the air, some question unanswered, some unexpected new drama unfolding. The reader can never feel comfortable with what is happening on campus, what may happen in the future, and what has already happened, either to the hostages in the tomb or to the frantic parents, police, and federal investigators. His psychologically vulnerable characters behave in plausible fashion, often sharing their emotional wounds with the reader and inspiring great empathy. The level of tension never wanes.

White is a master craftsman creating a unique story with innumerable clever and unusual twists and turns–and constant surprises. There is nothing formulaic about any aspect of this book. Each of the agencies involved in this hostage drama has its own ideas and its own set of “clues,” usually not shared with each other, about what is going on, leaving it up to the reader to stay engaged and put everything together. The resolution is a real tour de force, one that I certainly never expected, and which I suspect others will find as dramatic and shocking as I did. Most importantly, it is this conclusion which moves the novel beyond the immediate and local, and elevates it into a grander commentary on our foreign policy and international reputation. As Sam Purdy remarks: “He’s not trying to wound us or shock us. He’s looking for ways to bring us down. Cripple us. Bleed us to death. Starve us of oxygen…Us. America. Us, U.S., Us.”

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-5from 11 readers
PUBLISHER: Dutton Adult (August 4, 2009)
REVIEWER: Mary Whipple
AMAZON PAGE: The Siege
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Stephen White
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our reviews of  DRY ICE and KILL ME

Other books centered on terrorism:

Terrorist by John Updike

The Cyclist by Viken Berberian

The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III

Bibliography:

Psychologist Alan Gregory Series:

Sam Purdy novels:

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