Quick Review – Alone

Published 2005

Part police procedural, part dark psychological suspense, this well-written chiller kept me turning the pages. (Through most of the book.)

The two main characters dragged huge amounts of baggage through the story.

Massachusetts State Trooper Bobby Dodge is a member of the elite Boston STOP team. An on-the-wagon alcoholic, he's been struggling for thirty years with mother abandonment issues, brought on by his violent, hard-drinking father.

Catherine Gagnon was at the age twelve kidnapped and kept for weeks in a dark hole by a sick rapist. The experience shattered her young life and haunts her more than twenty years later, when she is trapped in marriage to a physically abusive man.

Called out to a domestic incident in a posh Boston neighborhood, Bobby shoots Catherine's husband Jimmy as he is about to kill her.

Bad move. Jimmy Gagnon's father, a wealthy supreme court judge, charges Bobby with murder. The resulting investigation probes deeply into Bobby's life and has him questioning his existence and his actions.

Despised by her father-in-law, Catherine is accused of using Bobby to get rid of her husband. Making matters worse, the judge also accuses her of trying to gain attention and sympathy by poisoning her four year old son, who has been mysteriously ill since birth.

Making matters worser (sic) the man who terrorized Catherine as a child has been released from prison. Using the name Mr. Bosu, he receives a list of names and a sum of money and gleefully embarks on a murder spree, systematically disposing of everyone close to Catherine.

The gripping story unfolds, bad piled upon bad, almost depressingly so. But as secrets are revealed my fascination with the story fell flat, and when I learned the why of it all, I was underwhelmed. I could not believe in the story any more. Nor did I believe in the characters any longer, except for Mr. Bosu, one of the better villains I've come across. His motives were clear; everyone else's made no sense to me.

Conclusion: taut, well-paced thriller that falls apart at the end.
--Catstop

Quick Review – Missing

 

Missing by Karin Alvtegen
Published – 2000
Translated from Swedish by Anna Paterson

Though born to a wealthy family, Sybilla Forsenstrom has for 15 years been homeless by choice. She has no address, no identifying papers, and is invisible among the other homeless in Stockholm. Her one tie to her unhappy past is a monthly stipend she receives from her mother--providing she remains invisible. She has been scrupulously saving the money, for her big dream is to buy a small place of her own in the country.

With all her possessions and necessities in backpack and briefcase, Sybilla moves about the city and countryside like a shadow. She has learned all the tricks: how to travel free, where she can find washing facilities, places where she can warm herself during harsh Swedish winters. She resides for weeks at a time in cottages whose owners are away, and leaves no trace she was there.

Occasionally she dons her one good outfit and dines in an upscale hotel, acting as a businesswoman on the road, charming and conning male travelers into paying for her meal and room. For years the game has gone well. A good meal quells her constant hunger, a luxurious room ensures one night of warmth, a fragrant bath, and comfortable sleep.

Then her mark is murdered in his hotel room, his body mutilated. Sybilla was the last person seen with the victim. Her fingerprints are on his key card. This "evidence" combined with mental problems she had in the past makes her an easy suspect. The only suspect.

Too frightened to go to the police, Sybilla is on the run. When a second and then a third man is killed in a similar gruesome manner, she becomes the most wanted serial killer in Sweden. The story of her troubled youth screams from newspaper headlines and across television screens.

She hides in a school attic to rest and regroup, and there meets fifteen year old Patric, a similarly isolated loner. Over the course of several days they become trusted friends, and when a fourth murder is committed, Patric vows to help her prove her innocence.

Proficient using computers, able to hack into police files, Patric learns names of people who might be involved in the murders. He and Sybilla follow up on the leads, with Sybilla dipping into her precious fund to pay expenses.

As they get closer to the truth, Sybilla, worried about Patric's future should his involvement with her become known, strikes out on her own and bravely confronts the killer.

Deftly plotted, Missing is both suspenseful thriller and detailed psychological study of a gritty survivor. Sybilla's struggles are interwoven with flashbacks of her unhappy childhood trying desperately to please cold and distant parents, and the culmination of harrowing events that drove her to become one of the Missing.

Conclusion: I enjoyed reading Sybilla's story. I was fully engaged and admired her intelligence and her determination to overcome enormous obstacles and live free. Many books I read and soon forget; this one has stayed with me.

--Cat

Quick Review BITTER HARVEST

 
Published in 1998

Ann Rule, a master of the true crime genre, tackles the case of a woman who has it all, then ends up doing two consecutive hard forties--forty years in prison for a capital offense in place of the death penalty--for the murders of two of her children and attempted murder of her third child and husband.

Debora Green and Mike Farrar seemed to have a perfect life. Both doctors, they had three active children and an affluent lifestyle. But beneath her devoted wife and mother facade, Debora concealed a volatile personality--she was subject to debilitating insecurities, extreme jealousy and violent rages.

After more than a decade, Mike had had enough and moved out. When their house burned to the ground, Debora and the children moved in with him. They bought a far grander house and Mike promised to make things work with his family. Life improved. For a while.

Once more reaching his limit with Debora, Mike again spoke of moving out and getting a divorce. This time the situation was different as he had met another woman.

Despite recurring bouts of ill health that brought him near death and the growing suspicion he was being poisoned, Mike moved out. Debora turned the children against their father with vile and untrue accusations, then began to drink heavily and take medication for depression. Mike often found her incoherent.

A stint in a psychiatric facility seemed to improve Debora's outlook and all seemed calm until one night Mike received a frantic phone call from a neighbor. His house was on fire! Debora was outside and one of their children managed to escape, but the other two died.

As the police and fire departments investigated it became apparent the fire was arson and the prime suspect with motive and means was Debora Green.

Rule gives us in meticulous detail facts of the investigation, who said/did what, dates, places, pictures. Involved doctors, investigators, lawyers, prosecutors, neighbors and friends add pertinent facts to the book.

Questions raised: Is Debora Green truly the monster who poisoned her husband, then plotted to kill her children by setting a fire that would trap them in their rooms? Is she a brilliant doctor who can't relate to people and, as some psychiatrists said, has the emotional intellect of a child? Can she reasonably claim she didn't know what she had done?

I pitied her at times. At others couldn't wait for her to be locked away.

I certainly pitied Mike for what he had to go through, yet wondered more than once why, knowing how unstable she was, he left the children in her care. Wishful thinking? Hoping for the best? I suppose his motives are another story, another book.

My greatest pity was for the children, two innocent lives lost, one changed forever. Though Rule assures us their lives were fairly normal I can't imagine this myself. They knew what was going on, however their love for their mother kept them fiercely loyal.


Conclusion: Like an episode of Law And Order, we see events unfold and lead toward a horrific crime, then the thorough work of prosecutors building their case. I found much of the book a suspenseful page turner.



--Cat    first posted in 2010    

Quick Review – The Apprentice

 
Published in 2002

Boston Detective Jane Rizzoli hunts for a serial killer whose gruesome method is disturbingly similar to that of imprisoned murderer The Surgeon. (pub'd 2001)

Rizzoli works hard to act as tough as her male colleagues, despite being haunted by the terror-filled moments she spent at the hands of the Surgeon before she captured him. Showing the weakness and vulnerability she often feels is not an option.

Complications arise when Rizzoli must work with FBI agent Gabriel Dean, and she battles both her belief he will usurp her role in the investigation as well as her burgeoning attraction to him.

A further complication-- and horror-- occurs when the crafty Surgeon escapes prison and it becomes apparent the two serial killers have become a team

When Rizzoli is captured by the unholy duo, I confess I almost expected the white knight (Gabriel Dean) to save her.

I'm so glad I was wrong. Rizzoli is the hero of her deadly predicament and she disposes of the vermin in a beautiful manner. I cheered!

Gerritsen is a superb writer. She has created a complex, easy-to-identify-with character in Jane Rizzoli. Forensic methods, investigative instruments, medical exams, are realistically presented in a thorough and interesting manner.

Conclusion: Compelling characters, a well-executed taut, suspenseful thriller






--Cat

Quick Review – Unspeakable

 

 

Published in 1999

The Players:

Two convicts, one E-V-I-L personified, the other a sad mental deficient, break out of prison and go on a vicious crime spree.

The slightly smarter brother of E-V-I-L, who joins in on the crimefest.

A small-town sheriff forced to retire, obsessed with the case he couldn't solve thirty years ago.

A gruff rancher who harbors a secret love for his widowed daughter-in-law.

Said daughter-in-law, a beautiful deaf woman, accomplished and self-sufficient, who has put her ambitions on hold and with her five year old son remains at the ranch from a sense of duty.

A rugged drifter with painful secrets

A slick banker who covets the rancher's land

Stereotypical characters aside, this is a suspenseful thriller with graphic violence and sex, remorseless cruelty and murder aplenty. Amidst the mayhem a tender love story emerges.

I had a slight problem with Brown's tendency to insert comprehensive past histories of minor characters, and the two-steps-forward-one-back approach as movement halts to detail a character's morning. Did some skimming, which is a shame as the book is well written.

And I can't define why, but I felt the drifter's big secret was, for want of a better word, bogus.

Conclusion: Not for the gentle reader. Stock characters in stock situations, redeemed by Brown's powerful writing.

--Cat

Quick Review HONEYMOON

Chosen 2005 International Thriller of the Year by the International Thriller Writers

The same organization named Patterson Thriller Master of 2007.


HONEYMOON follows an oft used plot, the beautiful Black Widow who marries rich then offs the husbands for their millions. An equally common plot addition is the handsome FBI agent who, while investigating the Widow, falls in lust with her, placing both his job and his life in jeopardy.

The chapters are short, two to three pages long, ensuring a fast pace, a fast read.

Patterson/Roughan give us the viewpoints of several different characters. The FBI agent, working undercover, is shown in both first person POV, and third. An interesting device to reveal character.

The beautiful villain is well drawn, and because of her traumatic childhood becomes an almost sympathetic character despite her deadly activities. She starts truly falling for the agent, but when she discovers she's been played no one seems safe. A black widow scorned...

An odd character, a killer identified as The Tourist appears in the book and his scenes seem unrelated to the Black Widow mystery. Later it becomes clear he is the hero/FBI agent working on another case at the same time.


There's also an unidentified female character following the Black Widow. My first guess as to her identity proved correct.


I expected a big showdown at the end between the agent and the widow, perhaps on a sailboat (per the cover). No such showdown. No sailboat, either. Sure, the widow is dispatched in the same gruesome manner she killed her men. But the end was a wee bit anticlimactic for me.


Conclusion: a good quick summer read. All's well that ends well.




--Cat

 

Quick Review – Daddy

  -
                                 





             Daddy
            by Loup Durand
            1987

            Translated from French by J. Maxwell Brownjohn

            This nifty, complex thriller is a true cat and mouse chase through
            France, Switzerland, and Germany in 1942. The cat, recruited by
            Nazis, is Gregor Laemmle, a brilliant, somewhat dissipated,
            philosopher, who has the German army and the French police at his
            disposal. The mouse is eleven year old multilingual genius Thomas
            von Gall. He has memorized bank codes that access 350 million
            dollars in gold hidden by Jews at the start of the war, money now
            coveted by the Germans. Laemmle is to do anything he must to find
            the boy.

            Thomas uses his superior brain to outwit Laemmle, a difficult task
            given the latter’s vast resources and his knack for foreseeing
            Thomas’s every move. Likening the hunt to a challenging chess game,
            with moves and countermoves, Laemmle bears a grudging respect for
            the talented boy, even grows to love him. After his beloved mother
            is killed in a trap, Thomas hates Laemmle with a fury he has never
            known

            Enter a third party with a vested interest in the situation:
            American David Quartermain, who received a letter from Thomas’s
            mother, informing him that the boy is his son and he may be the only
            one to save him. One of a large family, said to be America’s
            wealthiest, Quartermain has led the idle life of a rich, carefree
            playboy, and now must get involved in a serious quest that may kill
            him. He does an admirable job, as does Thomas, whose distrust of the
            American grows into respect, and finally love. Suspenseful twists
            and turns throughout lead to a satisfying ending.



            ~ Loup Durand, 1933-1995, first published at the age of forty-two.
            He wrote several French adventure novels under a pseudonym. Daddy
            became an instant bestseller in France.

            ~ A 1989 review in The New York Times took exception to the Indiana
            Jones/James Bond heroics David Quartermain displays. Some readers no
            doubt agree. Millions, however, loved this book. I count myself
            among the latter.

            ~ In 2003 a TV movie based on Daddy--Entrusted--was produced
            (UK/France).


            ~ Other Novels:

            The Angkor Massacre - 1983
            Jaguar - 1990
            The Grand Silence - 1994