This was my first foray into the writing of Ruth Rendell, who now apparently publishes under the pseudonym of Barbara Vine, and I was affected to the core by what some reviewers call her finest work. She takes the story of an outwardly successful family—a popular British author, his two beloved daughters, his caring wife—and forges a mystery so infused with sadness and psychological trauma that it can leave no reader unscathed. Gerald Candless is an imposing figure of a man—deep-voiced and towering, with leonine […]
Tan’s story of courtesan life in China not quite up to The Joy Luck Club
Another examination of complex mother-daughter relationships, this one set against the backdrop of 1912 Shanghai, then moving to the U.S. west coast and back again to China across a span of 40 years. The primary narrator is Violet, a little girl living in Shanghai with her savvy American mother turned madam of a highly specialized courtesan house which caters to Chinese and American businessmen and politicians, and successfully mixes business deals with sex. Violet is proud of her American heritage, until she discovers one day […]
A Harlan Coben mystery which failed to inspire
Oh well, you can’t win them all. Coben’s novels are generally consistently good, and while The Woods was well enough written, with the typical surprise twists and turns that are standard in a good Coben novel, it wasn’t enough for me to give this novel more than a 2 star, I’m afraid. County prosecutor Paul Copeland is knee-deep in a rape case that he is determined to prosecute to the end. Two snarky frat boys from wealthy families lured a stripper and single mother […]
Fast-paced “Bonnie and Clyde” thriller in rural Minnesota
A classic Sandford thriller. Three young “losers” in a tiny Minnesota rural backwater town go on a crime spree triggered by the offer of money for a contract killing, but quickly spiral out of control as they begin to kill randomly. Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers, who comes from the same general area, is called upon to hunt them down. Unfortunately, he has to work with an unstable sheriff –known unofficially as the Duke of Hazard–who has a history of vigilante-style behavior, including […]
An immigrant family beset with secrets
A sensitively written portrayal of a Chinese American family with many secrets and a serious failure to communicate. Ling Tang has been widowed for nearly a year, but can’t get past the pain of a brittle marriage and two adult children who can’t communicate with her, each other, or their significant others. The story is told from the varying perspectives of Ling and her children Emily and Michael, and the rawness of their damaged lives is tangible and sometimes hard to take, but she offers […]
A Martian MacGyver for the problem-solving sci-fi fans among us
This is going to be a hard book to top for me this year. I LOVED The Martian! I haven’t read science fiction in many decades, but I’m an old aficionado from my early years, and this book had me panting with excitement and anticipation throughout. Some have compared The Martian to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and while I can fully understand the comparison, I much prefer the image of a Martian MacGyver, for those of you who remember the television show from the late eighties. […]
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