This one is quite good. The first three chapters each present a case study of a particular family's tragedy. The characters in all three cases are beautifully drawn and one understands just how devastating each incident is - and then the author spends the rest of the book unravelling the mystery of each one. In all three cases, the answer of what really happened is not what the reader thinks.
Case one - the beloved youngest daughter of four disappears from the backyard where she and one of her older sisters are "camping out" overnight.
Case two - a lawyer convinces his eighteen year old daughter to work in his law firm's office over the summer, as he is afraid for her safety at her bartending job. On her first day at work, a man comes in asking for the lawyer, who happens to be out at court, and kills the daughter.
Case three - a woman isolated in a country cottage with a baby and an obvious case of postpartum depression snaps, and her husband lies dead on the floor after being killed with an axe.
A delightful balance of character study and driving plotline as private investigator Jackson Brodie gets involved in all three cases.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Dissapointing
Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell; Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette by Carroly Erickson.
Dear me. I really picked a pair of bad ones here.
I loved the Sex and the City series on HBO, and when I saw the book on Barnes & Noble's bargain section, I thought I would be in for a fun read. OMG. Not the case at all. Some characters in this collection of columns were vaguely familiar, but this is one of those rare cases where the TV/film versions were markedly better than the source material. Waste of time and money.
So, too, the other listed book on Marie Antoinette. I like historical fiction as a rule - it is a painless way to pick up some bits of history while, hopefully, exploring well-drawn characters, even if some of it is imagined. But since the author chose to write this slim book as if it were a journal or diary, what we are given is piecemeal musings by its fictional writer - items that often have no context and are horribly subjective and self-serving. It is a shame that such a lazy author is actually published and, apparently, makes a living at it. At least the book is probably compostable.
Dear me. I really picked a pair of bad ones here.
I loved the Sex and the City series on HBO, and when I saw the book on Barnes & Noble's bargain section, I thought I would be in for a fun read. OMG. Not the case at all. Some characters in this collection of columns were vaguely familiar, but this is one of those rare cases where the TV/film versions were markedly better than the source material. Waste of time and money.
So, too, the other listed book on Marie Antoinette. I like historical fiction as a rule - it is a painless way to pick up some bits of history while, hopefully, exploring well-drawn characters, even if some of it is imagined. But since the author chose to write this slim book as if it were a journal or diary, what we are given is piecemeal musings by its fictional writer - items that often have no context and are horribly subjective and self-serving. It is a shame that such a lazy author is actually published and, apparently, makes a living at it. At least the book is probably compostable.
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