I met Jeffrey Deaver at the NYLA conference in Buffalo last fall. He was the featured speaker at the Public Library Section’s Author! Author! event, and is a genuinely nice guy. His take on his career as a writer was entertaining, the audience was made up of mostly serious fans, so I came away with a mission. I’d seen the movie of The Bone Collector but had not read any of his books.
This one is a thriller (stand-alone I believe) involving 3 convicts escaped from a federal prison in Kansas, a bus carrying 8 deaf students and two teachers (1 deaf) who they are holding hostage, and the FBI team charged with negotiating the recapture of the convicts/release of the hostages. Very well done, but I would have enjoyed it more if I could have skipped work and read it straight through.That said, I’ve got a couple more Deavers in my queue.
Murder in Grant County, GA where a sadistic rapist attacks a blind college professor, leaving her in the bathroom of the local diner. She is found by Dr. Sarah Linton, pediatrician and coroner. A short time later another victim is left on Dr. Linton’s car.
This is the first novel, beginning a series featuring Dr. Linton, her ex-husband Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver and detective Lena Adams. Well written and plotted, if on the gorey side. Slaughter was obviously a fan of Emily Bronte, as the doctor’s mother is Cathy Linton and she has a cousin named Hareton Earnshaw - maybe Heathcliff shows up in a later book. That aside, I have volume 2, Kisscut in my queue. I do want to know if the doctor and her ex reconnect.
When Superintendent Thomas Lynley’s pregnant wife was murdered, he resigned from Scotland Yard and went home to Cornwall. Unable to bear the sympathy of family and friends he went off on a coast walk. 40 some days of walking later he finds a body on the beach which sets in motion a chain of events which will bring him back to life, reconnect him with Barbara Havers and probably revive his career.
I thought we had seen the last of Lynley, and am pleased to find him again in this, one of the best of the series. A well plotted, compelling story with many likeable characters (aside from the angry-macho female detective who orders the super about) , far less of the self-conscious angst that makes me cringe, and fairly happy endings for all the deserving. I look forward to more of this Lynley.
This is the first in a delightful series featuring Benjamin Franklin in London as an ambassador for Pennsylvania in an effort to sway public opinion about the Penns and their treatment of the colonists. We meet Nicholas Handy, and orphaned printer’s helper, who we discover is Franklin’s natural son. The fiction of a hidden journal is used as the basis for the stories that unfold (proving the truth of the family legend passed down to the 20th century Handy who finds the book.)
Franklin is presented as a delightful sleuth, astute, observant, brilliant and eccentric. And quite the ladies man. All told I have read 5 books in the series (Murder at Drury Lane, Benjamin Franklin and a case of Christmas murder, Benjamin Franklin and a case of Artful Murder, Murder by the Waters). There are still a few to go.
Thoroughly entertaining, light mystery fare, liberally sprinkled with views of life in 18th century London.
Jane Austen turned sleuth! Barron is a big Austen fan and has chosen to star Jane in a series of murder mysteries. This first finds Jane at the country home of a friend whose husband is murdered. This friend and the viscount’s nephew (and heir) are suspected of colluding in the murder and Jane must prove their innocence. At stake is not only the viscount’s estate and fortune, but the lady’s Caribbean holdings. And there is a threat to the crown. The disdainful Lord Harold Trowbridge helps Jane in her pursuit of justice.
Barron sets up the story as from recently discovered journals and letters from Austen herself. The device is rather heavy handed as in the pretense of footnotes explaining some of the historical references or references to Austen’s “letters”. She writes well in Austen’s style and this is a good series if you are seeking light entertainment.
The second book in the series, Jane and the man of the cloth, evokes Pride and Prejudice. I was figuratively screaming at her for being taken in by Captain Fielding as Eliza Bennett was taken in by George Wickham. He She, of all people, should have known better than to be taken in by slanders against a gentleman from a new acquaintance. The Captain and a laborer are murdered. Geoffrey Sidmouth of High Down Grange is charged with murder. As in book 1, Jane rises to the occasion to save the falsely accused master of the grange - and once again meets the mysterious Lord Harold who helps her apprehend the real murderer, and determine what is really going on at the Grange.
Elizabeth Wilson becomes lady’s maid to Elizabeth Barrett at the age of 16. She stayed with her for 16 years, aiding her elopement with Robert Browning and serving as nanny to their son Pen. This is fictionalized biography at its best, giving a clear impression of the relationships between servant and mistress/master in Victorian times. Wilson matures from a shy and diffident country girl to an assured upper servant, devoted to the two poets whose needs are always paramount.
Red Princess Liu Hulan, Inspector in China’s Ministry of Public Security and husband David Stark, American attorney assigned to China are sent to to investigate two deaths at an archaelogical site. Smuggling artifacts, a Chinese religious cult, antipathy between China and foreigners, personal demons are elements of the story. I was attracted to the book by its promise of an view of Chinese culture and I was not disappointed. This was the second in a series featuring Liu Hulan and her husband. I plan to read the first. Well written fiction is a painless way to develop an enjoyment history and cultural differences.
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I’ve long been a fan of novels written in poems, and this was no exception. Following the stories of three teens, hospitalized after their various suicide attempts, it isn’t always the easiest book to read.
Vanessa is a cutter, and was hospitalized after her brother came home to find her bleeding to death in the bathroom. Connor was the perfect kid, aside from his affair, and his incident with the gun. Tony’s life was different from the outset. He spent years in Juvenile Detention, and then some on the streets. After the loss of the closest friend he ever had, he wasn’t sure he could go on anymore.
Throughout the story, Vanessa, Tony and Connor’s stories intertwine, weaving in and out of one another. Tony and Vanessa form a bond which will likely last the rest of the their lives, and which is instrumental to their healing process. Connor, left feeling only he has nowhere to turn, has the hardest time of all. With seemingly the best life, based on appearances, he is a hard lesson in things are not always what they seem.
Any Hopkins fan will definitely appreciate Impulse, as would any poetry lover, or anyone who’s found themselves in a similar situation to its main characters.
Find it in the Catalog
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Sam Jones has some plans for his life. Mainly, be the first in the family to go to college, and not to impregnate anyone while still in his teens. While his grades aren’t stellar, they’re not bad, and his Art teacher recently recommended he study Art & design after school. He’s single, and spends most of his time skating (on a board) so all in all, his plans seem to be going all right. He worries, every now and then, whether it will all really turn out all right, but who doesn’t? Pretty much, he’s content.
When his mother wants to bring him to a party to meet a girl, he has the reaction you’d expect. No way. But she presses the point, and off he goes. And Alicia is certainly something to look at. Not much to be with though. Obnoxious, pretty much. But the approach of telling her so and walking away seems to be some sort of magic for soon enough, she’s at his side and pulling him back to the living room.
Alicia is not the kind of girl Sam would have expected to go for him. But she did. And soon his life has whittled down to a very small world. Mainly, Alicia. They hang out, they watch tv in her room, they have sex. That’s about the extent of it. Which of course worries the parents. But as far as Sam and Alicia are concerned, everything’s fine.
Until it’s not.
Eventually, Sam goes back to skating. Somehow, one day he was tired of her. And rather than tell her, well, he just stopped going round, or answering calls. He figured she’d get the point. Unfortunately for him, there was this whole potential incident he’d kept to himself, and would like to have forgotten. So when he gets a text one morning at breakfast, he’s not really surprised. He’s not happy either. But he goes to meet her.
And then he runs away.
And comes back.
Out the window go the plans. In come a whole new slew of worries. Like death at parent’s hands. And how can this work? And how can it be, even though he’s pretty sure he knows that part. Not that he’s telling anyone.
A couple of trips into the future while sleeping don’t do much to make Sam feel any better about the way things have turned out, though when he gets to those moments in real time it turns out they’re not so bad.
This is a pretty funny look into accidental pregnancy. While the subject is itself heavy, Sam’s dealings with it, while oh so wrong at points, are a riot to read about. And in the end he does what’s right, which is the important part. And things will be ok, or they won’t, but not for lack of trying
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When Ben Wolf goes for his yearly physical prior to Cross-Country season, he gets some rather unexpected news. the worst sort of unexpected news really. But Ben has always felt that he wasn’t meant for a nice, long life on this earth, and takes the news about as in stride as anyone can. His doctor is none to pleased, dragging him to a specialist, and swearing him to twice weekly therapy for his silence and pass on the physical. Ben, being 18, knows the decision is his, and threatens legal action should his family find out.
Instead of returning to Cross-Country, where he’s a shoe-in for the State Title, Ben turns out for football, much to the amusement of the other players, and bemusement of the Coach. For a pint-sized guy, he’s quite the surprise as it turns out. And for a large part of the season, he’s their best-kept secret. The Horseshoe Bend game, which will surely go down in Trout History gives him one of the best moments of his life.
Meanwhile, outside school, he’s somehow landed the girl of his dreams. A thing he’d never conceived as a possibility. But dying made him bold. And is now tearing him to pieces. Not only does she like him, she forsees a future with him. One he won’t be there for. She tells him so secrets so huge he knows he should reciprocate, and yet by that time it seems too late.
The more the year progresses, the more Ben finds that attempting normalcy when the reality is anything but really wasn’t a good idea. And they tried to tell him. The doctor, the therapist, the next therapist, Hey-Soos. heck, even town drunk Rudy McCoy has confided an earth-shattering secret in him, and he still can’t get the guts to come clean.
He does though. Starting with Rudy, as it happens. And then Coach. And Cody.
Sometimes it goes much better than he could hoped. Sometimes it’s about the worst thing ever. Dying aside. Worse than that, even.
While it would seem that this would be a sad tale and a depressing read, it was uplifting throughout and largely funny, with its supremely serious interludes thrown in at just the right junctures. Definitely a recommended read for all.
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