Category: Suspense Review (Page 1 of 2)

#BookBeginnings Shamed by Linda Castillo

I’m reading this month’s pick by our library’s mystery discussion group, Shamed by Linda Castillo, for Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Book Beginnings is a fun meme hosted by Rose City Reader blog. To participate, share the first sentence or so of a novel you are reading and your thoughts about it. When you are finished, add your URL to the Book Beginnings page linked above. Hope to see you there!

 

book-beginnings-Gershkowitz

Shamed by Linda Castillo

Summary:  The 11th novel in the Kate Burkholder series starts with the murder of an Amish grandmother. Soon Kate earns that the woman’s seven-year-old granddaughter is missing. Kate sets off in a race against time to find the girl, but discovers the family, upstanding and respected members of the Amish community, are not telling her all that they know.

First Sentence Prologue:

No one went to the old Schattenbaum place anymore. No one had lived there since the flood back in 1969 washed away the crops and swept the outhouse and one of the barns into Painters Creek.

Love how the sense of place is evoked with the names.

First Sentence:

You see a lot of things when you’re the chief of police in a small town. Things most other people don’t know about — don’t want to know about — and are probably better off for it.

Discussion:

The prologue is in third person with past tense verbs, which gives it a bit of narrative distance. That’s good because  is about the murder, which is quite gruesome. The rest is mostly told in the first person from the point of view of the protagonist Kate Burkholder and present tense, which feels really immediate. I admire anyone who can write in the present tense. It pulls you in and speeds right along.

56

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice. The premise is simple. Turn to page 56 in the book and pick a quote.

 

The younger man’s eyes dart left and right, as if he’s looking for an escape route in case I attack. He’s just realized where this is going and he doesn’t like it.

When I was looking for the quote, I realized Castillo sprinkles in many words of Deitsch, the language of the Amish.

What do you think? Have you read any books by Linda Castillo?

Murder in Pigalle by Cara Black Review

A few weeks ago I read Murder in Pigalle by Cara Black for an online book discussion at my local library. It’s time to write my review.

Murder in Pigalle by Cara Black

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary:  Although she wants to slow down her hectic life because of her pregnancy, private investigator Aimée Leduc still rushes to find the missing thirteen-year-old daughter of a friend. She’s afraid the girl’s disappearance may be related to a serial rapist terrorizing the Parisian neighborhood of Pigalle.

Positives:

Setting:

The Paris setting met and exceeded expectations. I was not surprised to learn that  author Cara Black actually tests the routes she writes about in the book. The details about places felt very real.

Protagonist:

Aimée Leduc is half French and half American. In this novel she is expecting her first child and her relationship with its father is complicated, to say the least. I had never read a book with a pregnant protagonist before, especially a private detective. It adds an interesting dimension to the story.

Premise:

The crime is heart wrenching and I really wanted Aimée to find the criminal.

Negatives:

Almost everyone in the discussion group commented on how difficult it was to remember the cast of characters. I finally had to write down a list of names and their roles to keep them straight. Part of the problem might have been that this is book #14 in the series and the author may have assumed we had read the earlier books and didn’t need to be introduced to recurring characters.  All I can say is that other authors have pulled this off much more successfully.

Big Spoiler Alert:

Don’t read any further if you want to read the book. 

Although this book looks like a traditional mystery, it is set up more like a suspense novel. It was disappointing to find out that the perpetrator was briefly introduced on page 193, about two thirds the way through the book. He was not a major character and most of the members of the discussion group admitted that after he was revealed, they had to look back through the text to figure out who he even was.

Conclusions:

Although I liked the Paris setting and the vivacious main character, the flaws in the novel make it unlikely that I will seek out any more of this series.

 

Public Domain Image by Michelle Diagle

#BookBeginnings Gone the Next

Let’s look at Gone The Next (Roy Ballard Mysteries Book 1) by Ben Rehder for Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Book Beginnings is a fun meme hosted by Rose City Reader blog. To participate, share the first sentence or so of a novel you are reading and your thoughts about it. When you are finished, add your URL to the Book Beginnings page linked above. Hope to see you there!

 

book-beginnings-Gershkowitz

Gone The Next by Ben Rehder

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary:  Roy Ballard’s job is to video people who might be falsely claiming injury disabilities, but instead of catching a fraud he spots a young girl that matches an Amber Alert. When he reports his sighting, law enforcement doesn’t take him seriously, partially because of his past and partially because they have gotten a flood of tips. Roy alone must find out the truth.

First Sentence:

The woman he was watching this time was in her early thirties. Thirty-five at the oldest. White. Well dressed. Upper middle class.

Discussion:

Whoa. Talk about a creepy stalker-ish guy.

I like that you don’t know whether the watcher is the main character trying to catch an insurance cheat or a kidnapper checking out the woman’s daughter.  Which do you think he is?

56

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.

The premise is simple. Turn to page 56 in the book and pick a quote.

 

As I approached my van, I noticed that I had a flat tire. Then I came to a full stop. It wasn’t just one tire. All four were flat.

At this point I’m not sure what is happening. I do like the short, concise sentences. They add tension.

By the way, this older book is available for free on Kindle right now.

What do you think? Would you keep reading? Do you like short sentences?

#BestsellerCode100: Writer’s Review of Testimony by Anita Shreve

Let’s take a look at the next novel from The Bestseller Code 100 list, Testimony by Anita Shreve, from a writer’s perspective.

This post contains spoilers.

 

Testimony* by Anita Shreve

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary: When the headmaster of Avery Academy receives a video of three of his older male students engaged in sexual acts with an underage girl, he is shocked. What will be the consequences for the students involved and for the school, which is already struggling? How did this happen and what should he do about it?

Plot/Format

This novel has an unusual format in many ways. First of all, instead of the standard rising conflict, the author presents the highest level of drama — the most intense scene — in the first chapter. All the following chapters cover either the acts that gave rise to the event or the results from it. It is like a mirror is shattered in the first scene and the rest of the book is about trying to reassemble the pieces.

The story is told from the perspectives of multiple characters, some of whom are closer to the sex scandal than others.  At times the diversity of viewpoints is excessive and unnecessary, for example when Natalie the lunch lady at the school or the town boy named Daryl, who sells alcohol to minors, get their say.

To her credit, Anita Shreve uses an unnamed researcher from the university to instigate some of the “testimony” and tie together the pieces with the finest of threads. The book might have been stronger, however, if the researcher was more concrete and pulled the pieces together more tightly.

Each chapter also varies in point of view. For example, the first chapter with Mike the headmaster is in third person. The second scene (by Ellen, Rob’s mom) is told in second person. Sienna, the underage girl, narrates in first person.

Characters

Because Anita Shreve tells the story from multiple perspectives, it isn’t clear who the protagonist is. The reader learns the most about one of the boys named Silas; what his motives were and what happened to him.

A case could also be made that Mike, the headmaster of the school who views the video, is the main character, especially since he’s the character we meet first. On the other hand, his actions also instigated much of what happened to Silas.

 

Photo of a house in Vermont by Mariamichelle via Visualhunt.com

Setting

The setting is a private school in Vermont. It adds atmosphere, but the story could have been placed anywhere and still had the same impact.

Discussion

A test for the greatness of any novel is how well it remains relevant over time. Unfortunately, from the perspective of the #MeToo era,  how Shreve treats the three young males who get drunk and sexually assault an underage girl seems tipped towards sympathy for the boys. The girl is presented at times as a willing participant, or at the very least less of a victim, than the boys. That perspective feels outdated.

Overall, although the construction of the novel was intriguing, the themes didn’t work for me. I had to work to finish the novel because I didn’t really care what happened to any of the characters.

 

Join us on social media:

What are we reading next?

If you ever have questions about what we are reading next or when we’re starting the next discussion, check the 100 Book List tab in the navigation bar at the top of the blog. Links in the list go to the landing page from this blog where the discussion starts. However, this is an open-ended challenge so feel free to jump in with any of the books at any time.

The next book is number 53. Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire (2011) – Discussion begins August 20, 2018
Romance

#BestsellerCode100: A Reader’s Review of Testimony by Anita Shreve

Testimony by Anita Shreve is next up on our Bestsellers List reading challenge.  For a summary of Testimony, please check out its introductory post.

This post does not contain spoilers.

 

Testimony* by Anita Shreve

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

General Thoughts

I had high hopes for Testimony. Its genre – mystery/suspense – is one that I usually enjoy reading. But there was very little of either mystery or suspense in this novel. The biggest question was what ultimately happened to Silas, because it was obvious that he was the most vulnerable character in this story. But by the time the big reveal came along, I had really ceased to care. The story dragged on too long and centered too much on the headmaster’s affair and not enough on the students caught on the pivotal sex tape.

Misleading Title

The title, Testimony, led me to believe there would be a legal trial, but instead the word referred to recollections of the events given to an outside interviewer by each of the characters. We never meet this outside interviewer; we only hear vague references to the initial letter this person sent to each character.

The headmaster’s chapters were the longest, with the most details, and yet his story was not told to the interviewer, but instead told as he wrote his own “memoir.” None of this worked from me – it felt too much like a writing device rather than the way a real story would flow.

Female Provocateur

As a female author, I expected Shreve to develop multi-dimensional female characters, but the few females in this book were hardly that. I was especially disappointed in Shreve’s development of Sienna, the 14-year-old female student involved in the sex tape. She gave us just enough “testimony” to dislike the girl and feel sympathy for the male students who were obviously ensnared, but no insight into the reasons behind the girl’s actions, family life, or childhood.

As an introduction to Anita Shreve, Testimony left me with no desire to read any of her other novels. I can only assume it made the New York Times Bestseller list based upon Shreve’s loyal readers and the popularity of previous novels.

If you have an Anita Shreve novel that you can recommend, please let me know.  Surely as a bestselling author, she has written better novels than Testimony.

 

Related posts:

  1. Book-beginnings, a discussion of the first line of the novel
  2. Karen’s review from a reader’s perspective
  3. Roberta’s review from a writer’s perspective

You can also join us on social media:

What are we reading next?

If you ever have questions about what we are reading next or when we’re starting the next discussion, check the 100 Book List tab in the navigation bar at the top of the blog. Links in the list go to the landing page from this blog where the discussion starts. However, this is an open-ended challenge so feel free to jump in with any of the books at any time.

The next book is number 53. Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire (2011) – Discussion begins August 20, 2018
Romance

#BestsellerCode100: Number 54 Testimony by Anita Shreve

Time to start the discussion of our next novel from The Bestseller Code 100 list, Testimony by Anita Shreve.

This post does not contain spoilers.

 

Testimony* by Anita Shreve

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary: When the headmaster of Avery Academy receives a video of his students engaged in sexual acts with an underage girl, he is shocked. What will be the consequences for the students involved and for the school, which is already struggling? How did this happen and what should he do about it?

Have you read Testimony by Anita Shreve? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Related posts:

  1. Book-beginnings, a discussion of the first line of the novel
  2. Karen’s review from a reader’s perspective
  3. Roberta’s review from a writer’s perspective

You can also join us on social media:

Do you have suggestions for ways to improve this reading challenge? We’d love to hear them.

Have you written about Testimony by Anita Shreve? Feel free to add a link to your review in the comments.
__________________

What are we reading next?

If you ever have questions about what we are reading next or when we’re starting the next discussion, check the 100 Book List tab in the navigation bar at the top of the blog. Links in the list go to the landing page from this blog where the discussion starts. However, this is an open-ended challenge so feel free to jump in with any of the books at any time.

The next book is number 53. Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire (2011) – Discussion begins August 20, 2018
Romance

#BookBeginnings Testimony by Anita Shreve

Today we’re starting the next book in The Bestseller Code 100 challengeTestimony by Anita Shreve for Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Book Beginnings is a fun meme hosted by Rose City Reader blog. To participate, share the first sentence or so of a novel you are reading and your thoughts about it. When you are finished, add your URL to the Book Beginnings page linked above. Hope to see you there!

 

book-beginnings-button-hurwitz

Testimony* by Anita Shreve

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary:  When the headmaster of Avery Academy receives a video of his students engaged in sexual acts with an underage girl, he is shocked. What will be the consequences for the students involved and for the school, which is already struggling? How did this happen and what should he do about it?

First Sentence:

It was a small cassette, not much bigger than the palm of his hand, and when Mike thought about the terrible license and risk exhibited on the tape, as well as its resultant destructive power, it was as though the two-by three plastic package had been radioactive.

Discussion:

The first chapter  should come with a warning. I took the book with me to read while waiting to get my car’s oil changed. Within minutes I realized that the intense description of sexual acts on the video weren’t something I felt comfortable reading in public. It made me squirm with embarrassment and I had to put it away. That is the first time I’ve ever had that happen. (I did my grocery list instead).

Have you ever had to quit reading a book because of similar circumstances?

What do you think? Would you read Testimony?

#BestsellerCode100: Writer’s Review of The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

Let’s take a look at Heather Gudenkauf’s fabulous The Weight of Silence  from a writer’s perspective. It is Number 73 on The Bestseller Code Challenge list.

This post contains spoilers.

 

The Weight of Silence

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary: Two young girls, Calli and her friend Petra, disappear from their homes  early one hot August morning. The tension builds as their families struggle to find them. Will they be too late?

The Weight of Silence is Heather Gudenkauf’s debut novel. Some of her newer titles include Not a Sound and Missing Pieces.

Genre

These days many novels have the label (or mislabel) “suspense,” but The Weight of Silence is a pitch perfect example of the genre (see explanation in previous post). Before we’re too far into the story, we learn a little bit about how each girl goes missing. Because of that, now we are glued to the pages as the tension mounts. Will they be found before something worse happens?

All the textbooks in the future should have The Weight of Silence under the definition of suspense. Yes, it’s that good.

Characters

The chapters are named for and narrated by different characters, mostly in the first person. For example, the prologue is narrated by Antonia, who the mother of one of the missing girls. In the first chapter we meet Calli, a seven-year-old girl who refuses to speak. With one exception, the author tells her story in tight third person, which reflects Calli not having a voice.

Calli’s best friend and neighbor Petra Gregory is the focus of the next chapter, again told in first person. In later chapters we meet Petra’s father Martin, Deputy Sheriff Lewis (who has a history with Antonia), and Calli’s older brother Ben.

In contrast to the forceful voices of A Day Late and A Dollar Sort , the differences between the voices of Gudenkauf’s  characters are much more subtle.  A few reviewers have called the author out for not developing clearer lines between the characters. but I’m not sure I agree. Yes, writers are taught to make each character sound unique. From a reader’s perspective, however, it might be easier to read if the text has less jarring shifts. After all, at some level we know one author is telling the entire story. Do we really need vastly divergent voices to be able to suspend disbelief? What do you think?

Setting

Gudenkauf does an excellent job of giving the reader a sense of place. The Weight of Silence is set in Willow Creek, Iowa (Check this cool map of the settings of all of Gudenkauf’s novels).  The families are isolated, far away from town. The girls are lost in  the surrounding forest, which adds to the ominous atmosphere.  It is a hot August day and the reader can feel the oppressive heat. Each detail of the setting ratchets up the tension.

Public Domain photo via VisualHunt

Discussion

There’s so much to discuss about this novel it is hard to know where to start. I’m going to mention a couple that stood out for me that haven’t been mentioned in a lot of other reviews.

Right in the beginning the details of Calli’s school life caught my eye. For example, a child who didn’t speak at school would have a terrible time asking to go to the restroom, and “urinary accidents” would be a forgone conclusion. I remember my son’s first grade teacher complaining that her classroom was farthest from the restrooms and how many of her students put off asking to go until it was too late. It was not surprising to read Heather Gudenkauf spent many years as an elementary school teacher. Those incidental details helped make the story ring true.

In addition, I liked how the author chose have Petra’s father Martin narrate rather than Petra’s mother. The contrast between the two fathers worked nicely. Because Martin tended to act impulsively, he drove some of the later conflict, as well. His viewpoint of how devastated Petra’s mother was gave the reader perspective.

As a reader I found this book hard to put down. The suspense pulled me in and made me want to find out what happened on the next page, then the next, then the next. Resist the temptation to skim, however, because Gudenkauf has packed in many good things that build on each other.  Because it succeeded in pulling me out of the writer’s perspective, which is a rare thing these days, it is worth taking a deeper look at this author’s bag of writing tricks.

Have you read The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Join us on social media:

Do you have suggestions for ways to improve this reading challenge? We’d love to hear them.

Have you written about  The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf? Feel free to add a link to your review to the comments.
__________________

What are we reading next?

If you ever have questions about what we are reading next or when we’re starting the next discussion, check the 100 Book List tab in the navigation bar at the top of the blog. Links in the list go to the landing page from this blog where the discussion starts. However, this is an open-ended challenge so feel free to jump in with any of the books at any time.

The next book is number 72. The Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst (2012) – Discussion begins November 27, 2017
Romance

#BestsellerCode100: Number 73. The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

Time to start the discussion of our next novel from The Bestseller Code 100 list, 73. The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf.

This post does not contain spoilers.

 

The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary: Two young girls, Calli and her friend Petra, go missing in the night. Now their families struggle to find out what happened to them.

This is Heather Gudenkauf’s debut novel.

Have you read The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Related posts:

  1. Book-beginnings, a discussion of the first line of the novel
  2. Karen’s review from a reader’s perspective
  3. Roberta’s review from a writer’s perspective

You can also join us on social media:

Do you have suggestions for ways to improve this reading challenge? We’d love to hear them.

Have you written about  The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf? Feel free to add a link to your review to the comments.
__________________

What are we reading next?

If you ever have questions about what we are reading next or when we’re starting the next discussion, check the 100 Book List tab in the navigation bar at the top of the blog. Links in the list go to the landing page from this blog where the discussion starts. However, this is an open-ended challenge so feel free to jump in with any of the books at any time.

The next book is number 72. The Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst (2012) – Discussion begins November 27, 2017
Romance

#BestsellerCode100: A Reader’s Review of Daddy’s Gone A Hunting by Mary Higgins Clark

Daddy’s Gone A Hunting by Mary Higgins Clark is next up on our 100 Bestsellers List reading challenge.

This post does not contain spoilers.

Daddy’s Gone A Hunting by Mary Higgins Clark

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

The Queen of Suspense

As the author of thirty-seven bestselling novels, Mary Higgins Clark is known as the Queen of Suspense.  According to Clark’s website, her novels have sold over 100 million copies in the U.S. alone.  That’s a lot of books!  As the Queen of Suspense, one would be safe in assuming that Clark has the suspense novel format down pat.  Since this is not a genre I read very often, and I have seen Clark’s books continually on the bestseller tables at bookstores, I expected great things from Daddy’s Gone A Hunting.  And, while I enjoyed it, I didn’t find it to be great.  Yes, there is suspense, but as a relative novice to the suspense novel, even I figured out the major plot twist long before it was revealed.

Too Many Characters

A major issue I have with Daddy’s Gone A Hunting is the massive number of characters throughout the book.  It is difficult to keep track of all the different fire marshals, police officers, and other characters, and several times I had to read back a couple of pages to figure out exactly who was in a particular scene .  Off the top of my head I count 22 characters in a book that is only 352 pages long.  That’s a lot of characters to keep track of.

In addition to too many characters, I felt that Kate, the sister in the coma, is the forgotten character.  It is her memory that reveals the pivotal piece of the story, so why is her character not developed to the same extent as, say, the homeless Vietnam veteran?  I realize it might be difficult to develop a character that spends most of the book in a coma, but more of Kate’s story might have added to the suspense of the novel.

Fast Pace

Even though I’ve not read any of Clark’s other books, I suspect that Daddy’s Gone A Hunting is likely not one of her best.  You don’t get to be a bestselling novelist by writing lackluster stories, but after a few dozen bestsellers, I can understand how an author might write a book that isn’t quite up to her usual.  I do have to wonder, though, why this particular novel of Clark’s is the only one to have made The Bestseller Code‘s list of 100 novels that we should read.  Is it due to the pace, the scene-by-scene rhythm discussed in The Bestseller Code?  Daddy’s Gone A Hunting is fast-paced, creating a feeling of a regular rhythm or beat to the story, and that rhythm kept me avidly reading to the very end.  The chapters are short and alternate between the different characters, keeping us moving forward with the multi-faceted plot.  Daddy’s Gone A Hunting would be a good book to read while on vacation or during a long cross-country flight.

Have you read any of Mary Higgins Clark’s many novels?  Which would you recommend I read that might be a better representation of this author’s bestselling writing? And why do you think none of Clark’s other novels were listed in The Bestseller Code as a must read?

Related posts:

  1. Book-beginnings, a discussion of the first line of the novel
  2. Karen’s review from a reader’s perspective
  3. Roberta’s review from a writer’s perspective

You can also join us on social media:

Do you have suggestions for ways to improve this reading challenge? We’d love to hear them.

Have you written about Daddy’s Gone a Hunting by Mary Higgins Clark ? Feel free to add a link to your review in the comments.
__________________

What are we reading next?

If you ever have questions about what we are reading next or when we’re starting the next discussion, check the 100 Book List tab in the navigation bar at the top of the blog. Links in the list go to the landing page from this blog where the discussion starts. However, this is an open-ended challenge so feel free to jump in with any of the books at any time after the discussion starts.

The next book is number 78. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris (2010) – Discussion begins September 4, 2014
Animal-themed humorous short stories

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