"The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it." (James Bryce)

Thursday, May 14, 2009

STILL LIFE (Joy Fielding)

This is the second great book that I have read recently featuring a character with locked-in syndrome (see The Second Opinion by Michael Palmer). Casey Marshall is a wealthy, happily married interior designer with a problem sister, loving friends, and the perfect husband. She and Warren, her devoted spouse, have just decided to start a family when Casey is nearly killed by a hit and run driver. In the hospital after 3 weeks in a coma she starts to become aware of sounds, but is unable to move, see, or speak. Like the proverbial fly on the wall she is privy to opinions and conversations that gradually reveal some frightening truths about both her accident and her future. As time goes on her senses slowly begin to return and she regains more and more cognizance of the world around her. Her attempts to communicate with her sister, Drew, become more and more desperate as she senses that she is in danger.

Fielding's novel, told entirely from the point of view of Casey, is excellent. The reader experiences the sensations and frustrations of the locked-in patient first hand, and it is frightening. This is a great thriller. The pacing is exquisite, the characters, despite exisiting in the realm of the independently wealthy, are sympathetic and, for the most part, likeable. I had a hard time putting it down and I think you will, too!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

DEAD MEN DON'T CROCHET (Betty Hechtman)

I just had to mention the second entry in Hechtman's crochet series of cozy mysteries.  As far as I am concerned, you just can't beat a good craft-based mystery!  In this one, Molly Pink, novice crocheter and events manager at a local bookstore, inadvertently gets involved when the co-owner of the local consignment shop / soup restaurant is found clobbered with a paper-weight and drowned in a bowl of tomato bisque soup.  Her friend Sheila, who was cheated by the victim, is a prime suspect, and Molly sets out to investigate despite warnings by her detective boyfriend to not get involved.  Hechtman has a knack for writing mysteries.  The crochet group is a nice backdrop and a great technique to introduce new characters.  I will have to say that I didn't suspect the actual criminal at all.  In retrospect, I'm sure that I should have, but the ending was a satisfying surprise for me.  I usually focus on characters and setting rather than trying to solve the crime, though.  I'm sure that must be why I didn't!

THE GODMOTHER (Carrie Adams)

It can be disconcerting to read a novel when you have already read the sequal.  In this case it did not distract from the enjoyment of the story (when will she meet James?), but there were a few inconsistencies in names and ages that threw me off a little.  Lainey, Martha, and Barbara  in this book become Lulu, Maddie, and Bea in The Stepmother, while Amber, who figures so prominently in the other, seems to not exist at all here.  I think Caspar aged quite rapidly from novel to novel as well!  I shouldn't be nitpicking, though. Adams is a writer who can carry off a few name-changes and inconsistencies.  I thoroughly enjoyed The Godmother.  Adams gets right into the heart and soul of a wonderful young woman who loves her godchildren with all of her heart but is tired of being on the edge of everyone else's  family and longs for a "life" of her own.  Tessa is the kind of friend everyone would like to have - level-headed in a crisis, consoling when tragedy strikes, always there when she is needed.  She DOES make mistakes in judgement, but she can be forgiven because her heart is full of love for her friends and her parents.  I hope that Adams continues with Tessa's story in the future.