A Tale of Two Suspense Novels

Hello and apologies for my silence over the last months. I promise I have been reading and talking books and writing, just not here. That last one really hurt. I'll work on a summary of some of those from The Great Silence, but today I'm tackling the most recent titles.

One of my girlfriends kind of got me on a suspense kick with Blood Sisters, which I enjoyed and texted her more than once with "wtf?" I requested a few from some library sources I have and surprise! two became available the exact same day. It's hard not to compare them, so I'm going to.

Both of these were enjoyable, interesting, fast-paced, twisty- all the things you want in a thriller. But I have to say, A.J. Finn did a better job in crafting the story.

The Woman In the Window is the Hitchcockian-noir story of an agoraphobic psychologist who spies on her neighbors and witnesses something terrible. It leans on the unreliable narrator structure in a way that doesn't make me hate Anna, the protagonist. Yes, she drinks too much and mixes it with her meds (tsk, tsk, Dr. Fox), but I found it less annoying than the same ploy in The Girl On the Train. Some of the twists were predictable, some I expected but not from whom.

The Couple Next Door follows a couple and a detective in the days after the couple's infant daughter is abducted while the parents are at a party next door. It's definitely a unique premise that could spawn some thought-provoking conversations among parents (and probably lead to a bunch of pearl-clutching and sanctimommying, but let's stay positive for a few minutes). The title suggests much more interaction with the couple hosting the party, but they barely register. The husband is literally only in the first scene. And their big secret adds almost nothing to the plot. Although, with a cliffhanger ending, perhaps Shari Lapena intends to delve more into their lives. It's a page-turner, but in my opinion, falls short of its counterpart today.

- Finn's characters are more engaging. We experience enough of Dr. Fox's interior life to get a feel for who she really is. We are told what Marco and Anne Conti and Detective Rasback are thinking, not shown.
- Finn's crime is the focus of the story, the conflict we want to be resolved. The missing baby is almost secondary to Lapena's story. More time is spent on the possible reasons Cora is gone than dealing with the aftermath of a baby vanishing. More time is spent watching the least sympathetic parent, which makes it hard to find someone to like.
- Finn propels the story from the first-person point of view. This, to me, makes all the biggest difference. The reader gets caught inside the fragile mind of one woman. You feel trapped in her obsession because she is the only one revealing the plot. I kept thinking how much more suspenseful the Contis' story would have been if only one of them had been telling it. Instead, we bounce around and have an omniscient third person telling us how everyone is feeling but never revealing intimate thoughts through action or inner dialogue.

Lest it sound like I hated Couple, I admit I will share it with friends. If you like suspense, it's a good, quick read. It's a good story poorly told. It's a rough draft that still needs editing.

So, those are the two books I read this week. I've got one more suspense novel in my queue before I switch things up.

Others that I won't be reviewing now but finished:
Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo- decent. Not the world-building and complexity of Harry Potter, but an enjoyable child-discovers hidden talent/family secret arc.
Plantagenet series by Phillippa Gregory- reliably good. I enjoy Gregory's research-based imaginings of the lives of women in history. Particularly, I love that different women recounting the same events as friends and as enemies all have my sympathy. These books are the precursors to the wildly popular Tudor books from a few years back.
The Road to Jonestown about the history of Jim Jones' Peoples Temple. Though I took a course in college that focused on Jonestown, I learned so much from this. Warning- the back pages are full of very graphic images.
Hell's Princess- a disappointing offering from a well-respected true crime researcher. Belle Gunness lived on her murder farm in the small town where I grew up. While I did learn more from the book than I picked up at the county museum display, I was put off by the reliance on "yellow journalism" for research while also talking about how unreliable media was at the time.
The Light of Fireflies by Paul Pen. Wow. I should actually write a whole review of it. I wasn't expecting the thriller aspect of this one because it starts out more like book club lit. It's just a really compelling read. The translation to English is skilled and poetic. I highly recommend it.

That's about all the summarizing I can handle today. I downloaded several new titles on World Book Day and put in requests for 13 new books at the library, so there's more material to come. In case you missed it, I did a roundup of titles for the summer over at the Destin 30A Moms Blog.

The Fiery Cross, Outlander book 5

The Fiery Cross, Diana Gabaldon

It didn't take me quite this long to read book 5, but sometimes it felt like forever. Still, I've found a moment to write about this one.

If you don't know about Outlander, it's hard to describe. It is a mix of historical fiction, war, romance, fantasy/sci-fi, and ladyporn. Each novel is really long. There is a LOT going on in this story, and Gabaldon does a fine job of weaving a very intricate tale.

Back when I read A Book That Scares Me, I mentioned an incident with my friend. I'd been reading the first three installments of the Outlander series and I told her that, frankly, I was tired of all the rape. So I was going to take a break and pick up a new series. Unfortunately, it was the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series, so *spoiler alert* more rape.

Well, when I came back to book 5, really the books are good but you can't just plow through the whole series, I told the same friend that I was starting it. I said something about how the title sounded like something about the Klan not clans (in fact there is a book about the history of the KKK with the same title) but wasn't. Well ... there aren't any white sheets involved, but it does lay the historical groundwork for what would become the white supremacy group we all love to hate.

The story- how many ways can colonists barely escape death? That could be the subtitle of this one. Fortunately for pre-Revolutionary mountaineers, Claire has brought her modern medical expertise back and is brewing some form of penicillin, making luxurious soap, and birthin' babies all over the Carolinas. At least no one kills a bear with a knife in this one.

I don't want to give it all away, but just as I was about to shelf Cross and turn to something else, BOOM! She tries to kill one of the main characters! You know when Jamie and Claire are going to die (or do we?), but there are children and grandchildren and tenants that are still a mystery. And let me say, it isn't an accidental misfire. Dude is hung as a prisoner of war. Well, that got my attention and I dove right back in.

This is not the kind of series where you can pick up any. You need to start at the beginning (a very good place to start). If you're like me, you'll start googling historical events you never learned in school, like the Jacobite rebellion. And, honestly, one thing I enjoy about the series now that they are in the Carolinas is that I'm familiar with the places and the names. If that's your thing, too, then keep at the series. If not, I can probably summarize seven bazillion pages for you over a cup of coffee.

The Fiery Cross runs along my other Outlander recommendations of four Marias.

Chapter 40: A Play

A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare
No Fear Shakespeare Edition

I have never used Cliff Notes, Spark Notes, etc. Ever. Because when I was in school, they were seen as an excuse to know enough to pass a test without reading a book instead of as a study guide. But this was the only version of MSND that was available at my library, so I checked it out.

We've been doing this thing in our homeschool where we spend some time in the mornings doing something with the arts. We've memorized Jabberwocky and watched OK Go videos. Soon we will begin reading some Shakespeare. Before I try to teach my kids something, I probably should have a grasp for it. So this kills two birds with one stone.

I'm not going to go much into the actual play. It's Shakespeare. He's great. It's great. Blah, blah, blah. But I would like to talk about this side-by-side edition. I think it's a great way to make complicated language accessible to more people. I still read the original text, but it was easy to find a modern translation if I was unsure of my own. For the most part, I got it. But there were times that a minor change affected the story. Now, I'm not going to pretend that I caught all the subtleties of the Bard's writing- far from it. But having the translation *right there* gave me more confidence as I read the lines. It took a lot of the intimidation out- which is just awesome. If I worry and struggle- and we all know how much I love to read- then imagine someone who doesn't. Imagine a student whose family speaks another language at home. Imagine a person who thinks very logically and has difficulty understanding flowery or figurative language. This little book could make a world of difference for them. How cool is that?!?

When I was in high school, I had an English teacher who loved to teach Shakespeare. She was a very prim and proper woman, one might even accuse her of being dour. But she got a sparkle in her eye when talking about ol' Bill. She led a field trip to Canada every year so students could see multiple plays in a weekend. She had a gift for making Shakespeare relatable to many teenagers, including explaining the dirty jokes. This edition was like having Mrs. Burns reading beside me and telling me the secrets. I like to think she would approve of a study guide.

I'm not really sure how to rate this one. It's a different kind of review. I'll definitely use this series of guides to help my kids and myself with literature, but I wouldn't just recommend it to anyone looking for something to read. I'll leave Maria out of this one lest I sound like an advertisement.

Chapter 33: A Book By an Author You've Never Read Before

The Good Neighbor, A. J. Banner

This story has so much potential. The writing is well-paced to build tension and suspicion. But it all kind of falls apart in the end. Like, really falls apart.

It's been compared to Gone Girl, a book I have serious issues with. So, maybe I should have skipped it. But I wanted a thriller so I downloaded.

Sarah lives in a quiet neighborhood in the Pacific Northwest. Everything seems pretty normal until the next-door-neighbor's house burns to the ground and Sarah rescues the four year old daughter, but fails to save the parents.

Then the secrets start to be revealed. That's sort of the formula for this type of novel. Some are laid out for the reader to ponder, others are just hints and glimpses of potential terror. But the terror comes too little, too late. It's out of nowhere. The breadcrumbs leading to the villain must have been eaten by mice because the Big Reveal comes out of nowhere.

So, not only does the antagonist just snap and put people in danger, but the other storylines are not resolved. Ok, I get it. You plan to write more about these people, to develop them more. Then do that. I don't enjoy reading a series that does not allow the individual pieces to stand alone. Especially when there are no other installments! Make me fall in love with the characters and then let new conflicts arise. Don't leave me hanging with a runaway, a possibly cheating spouse, and whatever other nonsense you didn't bother wrapping up in the first.

It was entertaining until the last quarter of the book. But instead of being like an awesome illusion where you are left wondering how the magician pulled it off, you're just scratching you head wondering why he even bothered. I feel like I've been trapped in an Arrested Development gag. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nvxv2R01po

I won't read this one again. I won't recommend it to anyone I like. It wasn't a total waste of time, in part because I keep thinking of what I would do to make the ending more satisfying. Neighbor gets two Marias.

Chapter 31: A Book With a Love Triangle

Drums of Autumn, Diana Gabaldon

I have a love-hate relationship with the Outlander series. Years ago, I was at a Mommies Network event and someone handed me a copy of Outlander that she had won. She had a whole box of them and knew I like to read. It sat on the shelf until a night of insomnia and no new books. I'm still not sure whether I should be thanking that woman or sticking pins in a voodoo doll. For now, I'm going with thanks.

Drums is the fourth installment of the preposterous tale of Claire Randall-Fraser, a war-time nurse who stepped through a gap in stones and ended up in the middle of the Jacobite Rebellion. After cheating death time and again, she goes back through the stones to spend time with her modern-day husband, Frank. When he dies, she goes back to her historical husband, Jamie. So two of the points of the triangle don't even exist in the same century. Confused yet?

In this episode, Jamie and Claire have been blown to the Colonies by a hurricane and are looking to start a homestead in North Carolina, where Jamie is technically not allowed to own land because of his involvement with the Rebellion. But rules of physics and man really just don't apply to these people. It's funny, I can suspend disbelief about time travel and many of their narrow escapes, but I found Jamie surviving a bear attack and killing it with his hands utterly ridiculous.

The first three books ended with a big cliffhanger. I quickly picked up the next to find out what was going to happen. I'm quite happy that I could stop at Drums, even though there is more story to be told. It was very satisfying to feel that I can pick up the next one when the mood strikes me, instead of needing to know right away.

So. What I loved about this book- North Carolina. I lived in this state longer than anywhere else in my life. It's beautiful, interesting, and home to some of the best people I have ever known. I loved reading about people for whom many places in the Tarheel State are named. (But go Devils! because I'm no UNC fan.) Imagining the colony from the point of view of the Scots who settled in the mountains, where there are still annual Highland Games, was fascinating and believable. There also isn't a whitewashing of relations with the Native Americans in the region. There's no kum-ba-yah scene where they share a meal in peace and decide to remain loyal friends. There's just a tenuous understanding between the lone settlers and the travelers through the lands.

What I don't love about this book/series. I've mentioned this before, but seriously everybody gets raped. Or almost gets raped. It's exhausting. It happens, yet again, in this one. Though not as graphic and repeated as earlier stories, I find myself wishing that Gabaldon would come up with some other type of danger for her characters.

With that warning, I do recommend the series to people. It's engrossing, entertaining, and a little bit of several genres- historical fiction, fantasy, romance. Plus, Starz produced it as a series and the theme song, a variation of The Skye Boat Song, is beautiful. My friend just bought a Mitsubishi Outlander, and every time I see it, I start singing.

I'll probably keep these books so I can lend them out to friends, but I doubt I'll read them again. Maybe. Drums is probably my second favorite of the four I have read, but this isn't the kind of series you can hop around. I'll give it three and half Marias.

Chapter 28: A Book More Than 100 Years Old

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

Dear Reader, it took me a month to get through the nearly 500 pages of this one. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I went this long without reading a Bronte, but now I am free of that burden. I have so many thoughts about Jane, I'm not even sure where to begin. I'll give it a stab, though.

First, in today's world, this would not be a passionate love story. Mr. Rochester is kind of a jerk. Besides the fact that he comments frequently on his superiority, he threatens Jane with violence. Oh, and he locked his inconvenient wife in the attic, where she has to witness his wooing of two different women. No wonder she wants to burn him alive. In today's world, Jane would give him the heave-ho and find her own bliss- with or without a husband.

But the story doesn't take place today. It takes place in a time when women were expected to defer to the nearest available man, to not think, just do. And Jane is an unexpected woman. She has her own, steadfast moral compass. She is witty and challenges men who are unaccustomed to that. I daresay that her cousin, St. John, does love her in a way she does not see. Maybe not in a physical attraction, but she stirs something in him that is quite like love. He asks her multiple times to be his helpmeet, which, to me, says he sees her as a partner- a pretty important factor in love.

So, I couldn't get swept away in the romance like so many others. (I swear, my mother-in-law gets a little dizzy imagining Rochester and Jane.) But I can see how this work is so revolutionary. Not only were women not published back then, but female characters were not to have their own ideas about the world.

Other things I love about Jane- she doesn't go through the she-was-always-pretty-and-never-realized-it transformation. I love that she finds a way to flourish in any environment. I love that she is willing to do something very painful because it is right. I love that she is also willing to believe in the supernatural enough to make an ill-planned journey, to chase a dream. She's also book smart and caring and matter-of-fact. And her wit! The men in her life love the way she turns a phrase. She's the ultimate at playing hard to get.

I've read a few reviews of another book from the perspective of the first Mrs. Rochester. Probably won't pick it up any time soon, but she is the reason I started this one. The Wolf Man in Chapter 20's selection loves Jane Eyre because he sympathizes with the locked away Bertha. I'm not sure there is enough material in the original to make her sympathetic- she's basically an insane specter that sets things on fire. But you do have to at least acknowledge that she is aware of Mr. Rochester's affection for Jane and see how troubling that would be for a sane person, much less an already disturbed mind.

I would love for the red room story to be more developed, to know more about the haunting of the Reed's manor. It has the makings of a great tale. Maybe there is a short story exercise in that for me. Afterall, it is almost Halloween.

So, remembering to keep it all in context, Jane Eyre earns 3.5 Marias. I won't be buying a copy or reading it again, but I also don't feel like setting anything on fire.