Review: Last to Die, Tess Gerritsen (USA)

Title: Last to Die

Author: Tess Gerritsen
Publication: 2013/New York: Ballantine Books
ISBN #: 978-0-345-51552-0
# of pages: 423
Discovered by my brother who let me and my mother fight over who got it next!
Read in paper format
Also available in e-book format
Link to author’s website: Tess Gerristsen
 

Some teenagers have it rougher than others. Claire Ward just wanted to hang out with her friends but her foster parents tracked her down late one night…and almost got her killed. Teddy Clock lived in a wealthy neighbourhood with all the material benefits….and barely survived his foster family’s slaughter. Once Detective Jane Rizzoli hears about both cases, she is sure they are linked, even though they occurred in different cities. Her friend, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, has a safe place for Teddy to stay while the two of them try to work out what is happening and determine if the events can possibly be connected.

Rizzoli also has to contend with her newly engaged mother’s wedding plans and her father (but not quite ex-husband) who is bent on derailing them. And if that wasn’t enough, the senior detective, Crowe, completely disagrees with Rizzoli’s assessment of the Clock case and will not assign her the resources she needs to explore her theory. Then a third case pops up that increases the urgency of solving the case…or more people will die.

As a keen follower of the “Rizzoli & Isles” TV series, I was curious to read one of the books in the series. It was a bit confusing at first as some of the characters are different (for instance, the mother’s fiancé in the book is Rizzoli’s ex-partner in the TV series).  This story had more substance than the TV shows; as much as I like them, they really are entertainment fluff. It was challenging trying to work out how the cases might be connected and who was behind the murders. The scenes at the special school were also interesting: even children with a major challenge in common still find a way to divide up into the “cool kids” and the “nerds”.  However, the plot was rather over the top and  the support Rizzoli gets from a senior officer is unlikely to happen in the real world. That said, I enjoyed the story, great bedtime reading.            

Rating: (°_°)      Worth reading

Author Gerritsen is a retired physician who began writing romantic thrillers while on maternity leave. Ten years later, she switched to medical thrillers, one historical thriller and finally to the Rizzoli and Isles series in 2001, of which there are currently 10 books. She is now writing full time.

 

Review: The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle (England)

Title: The Hound of the Baskervilles
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
Publication: ---
Original Publication: 1901/UK: George Newnes
ISBN #: ---
# of pages: 359
Rediscovered as a free download on my Kobo
Read in e-book format
Also available in paper format, audio CD

A fine silver banded walking stick is left in Sherlock Holmes’ office and when the owner, Dr. James Mortimer, returns to claim it, Holmes and his ever-present sidekick Dr. Watson learn about the curse of the Baskerville family. In the 1640’s, the evil Hugo Baskerville kidnapped a local young woman. She escaped, only to have Hugo chase her through the dangerous moors. When his drunken friends caught up, they found them both dead, and a huge black dog, with blazing eyes and dripping jaws, standing over them.  An account of the event was written down in 1742 by a later heir, also named Hugo, and passed down through the centuries. Now the current heir, Sir Charles Baskerville, has died suddenly and with no apparent foul play, however the paw print of a huge dog is found near the body. The next heir, nephew Henry, is returning from Canada and Mortimer fears he will be the next to die.

Although Holmes becomes intrigued by the mystery, he is not available to go to Devon and sends Watson on his own. Watson has a lot to consider. The Barrymores, long-time family servants, seem in a hurry to leave. Jack Stapleton and his sister Beryl have a complicated relationship, especially apparent when Sir Henry falls in love with Beryl. Could Selden, a dangerous escaped convict hunted by the police, be involved? And who is the mysterious L.L.? With reference to his diary and his recollections, Watson recounts the suspenseful events that lead to the unravelling of the mystery of the Hound.

Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie were among my earliest murder mystery readings and it was wonderful to re-experience this early entry in the genre.  Despite being written more than one hundred years’ ago, it is still a very readable tale. It was a bit disappointing that Holmes was absent in the first half of the story. Holmes’ and Watson’s discussion about what the walking stick tells them about the owner is one of the few times Holmes’ powers of deduction are demonstrated. He does show his usual flare in uncovering the culprit in the latter part though. Unlike “The Moonstone” written some 30 years earlier (see my review ), the writing here is crisp and to the point. There are not many twists in the storyline but the suspense builds steadily, with the foggy brooding moors always on the horizon, and as the end draws near, you do want to keep reading.     Rating: (^_°)   Intriguing

Notable sentence: Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson just before telling him how wrong Watson’s deductions are:  “It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.”

Doyle was a Scottish physician best known for the 60 stories he wrote about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. He also wrote other short stories, three largely autobiographical novels, and several historical novels. His medical school mentor, Professor Dr. Joseph Bell, was renowned for his powers of observation and became the model for Holmes. Doyle had actually killed off Holmes in an earlier book so that he could concentrate on his spiritualism writings. Sir Henry’s pondering of whether the supernatural interfere in the affairs of mankind reflects Doyle’s own fascination with spiritualism. Doyle's séances to connect with dead relatives is difficult to equate with the creator of a very rational and logical Sherlock Holmes.

Review: Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (USA)

Title: Gone Girl

Author: Gillian Flynn

Publication: 2012/New York: Crown Publishers

ISBN #: 978-0-307-58836-4

# of pages: 415

Discovered by my niece

Read in paper format

Also available in e-book format, audio format, Spanish

Link to author’s website: http://gillian-flynn.com 

There are two sides to every story. Usually two very different sides and that is what Nick Dunne and Amy Elliot Dunne share with the reader, the two very different perspectives of their life together. Nick is telling us in real time but Amy is talking to us via several years of diary entries. This is because Amy is missing and Nick seems very nervous about that. He’s nervous when he looks at the nearby Mississippi River, when his cell phone keeps ringing, when he keeps lying to the police.

It quickly becomes clear that Nick is a self-absorbed, spoiled, bitter thirty-something, a man you just want to grab by the lapels and shake and shake. Amy has her weaknesses too and has made mistakes in their marriage but she recognizes them and tries to improve. She is patient with Nick and tries to see his point of view. When they both lost their upscale New York City careers, Amy agreed to move back to his small Missouri hometown and even used her inheritance to set him up in a new business, a bar. It doesn’t help that his twin sister and business partner Margo is not overly enamoured with Amy.

Nick’s account begins the day of Amy’s disappearance, which also happens to be the day of their fifth wedding anniversary. Amy has set up her annual anniversary treasure hunt. Nick hates these hunts at the best of times but this year’s just seems to increase his nervousness. His neighbour calls him at the bar, concerned that Nick’s front door is wide open. He heads home to find a burning tea kettle, a plugged in iron and signs of a struggle, and calls the police. Detective Rhonda Boney and her partner Jim Gilpin are suspicious of the scene and of Nick, and they begin to dog his every move. What has he done? Will he get away with it? Will his sister stand by him, no matter what?

This was a book I could not put down. I am often suspicious of very popular books and I expected this one might be light and perhaps a bit too modern for my tastes but when my niece said she couldn’t put it down, I thought I should try it. I was quickly absorbed in the varying versions of Nick and Amy’s life. The twists and turns – even when you think you see them coming – were excellent. The characters of Nick and Amy are so well drawn, I could picture them in my mind’s eye. The background was particularly poignant, a sad depiction of the last few years in the USA: high flyers brought sharply to earth with the economic crash, new but mostly empty housing developments sitting like ghost towns, individuals left embittered by larger forces. I’m not sure how I feel about the ending though, perhaps because one true innocent will have a future too horrible to consider. Rating: (°o°)! Up all night to find out what happened!

Notable sentence: “I just wanted to make sure I got the last word.”

 Author Gillian Flynn has written two other books to date, “Sharp Objects” and “Dark Places”. She, like Nick, lost her New York job as a pop culture writer during the downturn and recently celebrated her fifth wedding anniversary. Her lawyer husband, Brett Nolan, crops up in each of her books, this time as an anagram, lawyer Tanner Bolt.  One can only hope that is where the similarities with this story end!

For an alternative review, check out The Book Smugglers   Note: it does have several plot spoilers in it, so it is best to read it after you have read the book.

Short Story Review: Next Stop, Foggy Bottom, Karen Cantwell (USA)

Title:           Next Stop, Foggy Bottom
Author:       Karen Cantwell
Anthology: Chesapeake Crimes “This Job is Murder”
Published: 2012/Wildside Press, LLC, USA
Discovered the anthology from Stop, You’re Killing Me newsletter http://stopyourekillingme.com/
Read as an e-book
Also available in paper format
Link to author’s website: http://www.karencantwell.com/

Okay, let’s be honest, who hasn’t had one of those days where you just wanted to kill your boss? The narrator of this short story has given it a lot of thought: strangle, shoot, poison?  She finally comes up with the perfect and simplest solution. Her boss, Athena Pappas, has been the perpetrator of much misery in the narrator’s life and now Pappas will get her comeuppance.

This short story really keeps you guessing and wanting to know more. Athena’s character is well developed, despite the brevity of the tale. Just what has Athena done to attract such an extreme reaction? Will the narrator get away with the murder? There is even a nice little twist in the story. Since it is short, you can then go back easily and see what clues you missed. And the clues are there.

The author Karen Cantwell not only writes short stories and plays, but also a humorous mystery series, featuring suburban mom Barbara Marr. The two titles so far, “Take the Monkey and Run” and “Citizen Insane” are now added to the reading list!

 

 

Short Story Review: One Ashore in Singapore, Andrew Nettle (Australia)

Title:                                One Ashore in Singapore
Author:                            Andrew Nettle
Date/Place Published: 2013/e-zine “Beat to a Pulp”
Discovered from a book review at Mysteries in Paradise http://paradise-mysteries.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/review-ghost-money-andrew-nette.html
Read online at http://www.beattoapulp.com/stor/2013/0127_an_OneAshoreInSingapore.shtm
Link to author’s website: www.pulpcurry.com

A few days in Singapore to pick up a package for his Australian boss Mister Long becomes more of a challenge than Gary Chance expected. Jimmy Tan is lunching over his computer but brusquely tells him the package is not ready. The next day, Tan is more accommodating: could Chance perhaps help him out while he is waiting? It will take all his criminal wiles to get Chance out of a difficult situation.

This is a tightly written story, with crisp sentences and short paragraphs that still manage to convey the environment so well, the reader feels they are standing with Chance, smelling and hearing the same things. It is a modern plot with a fast pace. Definitely an e-zine worth following.

 
(Many thanks to the Criminal Plots III Reading Challenge http://criminalplots.blogspot.in/2013/01/criminal-plots-iii.html for having a category for short stories!)