This was spectacular! A dense,intelligent, historical drama that was deeply entertaining, while also educating the reader on many different subjects. This was spectacular! A dense,intelligent, historical drama that was deeply entertaining, while also educating the reader on many different subjects. The characters are so richly drawn that you feel as though you would recognize them, if by some magical fate, you saw them on 5th Avenue in New York City. This is the first in a new series by Ms. Donati, and is distantly connected to her previous series. It is a story that will immerse you in the details of the main characters lives, their dreams, struggles, loves without becoming tiresome, and finds a way to make such a interesting time in American history feel timely and relevant.
I loved it and eagerly anticipate the next installment....more
This was quite entertaining, though I wasn't as swept away as I had hoped. The plot and world-building was intelligently thought out and executed. TheThis was quite entertaining, though I wasn't as swept away as I had hoped. The plot and world-building was intelligently thought out and executed. The characters were original in their design, created to face age-old dilemmas, yet in a fresh and exciting form. The writing and feel of the story flowed smoothly from page to minds eye, which is always essential to my visualizing the story which then makes it "real" for me. Some elements were familiar, while others were surprising, lending an "old best friend you haven't seen in 10 years" type of feel to the book. I did enjoy the story and am happy that it will definitely be continued. As the story progresses, I hope that it will become more detailed and intricate enough to deserve the comparisons to Hunger Games, etc, that it is getting now....more
Another wonderful book by Robotham! This one features retired Detective V. Ruiz. Our friend, Dr Joe O'Loughlin also makes an appearance towards the enAnother wonderful book by Robotham! This one features retired Detective V. Ruiz. Our friend, Dr Joe O'Loughlin also makes an appearance towards the end....more
Once again, Robotham has written a winner. I really love the way he tells a story. The way it begins calmly, then loops and swirls around the timeline Once again, Robotham has written a winner. I really love the way he tells a story. The way it begins calmly, then loops and swirls around the timeline of events, emitting clues randomly with studied nonchalance, until the reader is sure of the how and why and where. Then the facts and characters are tossed like a salad, each falling in a different way from before, skewing our logical reasoning; unsettling our certainty. But all in a clear concise way, not full of grandiose posturing or arrogance, but with an eye to the common everyday reader, hoping for a thrilling, well written story to spend a few hours enjoying.
This one is a continuation of a day in the life of clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin. Two high school girls, best friends, in a small town, go missing on a quiet Sunday morning. There are few clues, no ransom note and a growing suspicion that they have simply run away to London. Three years later, a husband and wife are found dead in their farmhouse, in the cold of winter with just as few clues. O'Laughlin is called to evaluate the scene and hopefully provide some needed insight to a bewildered Chief Drury. How and why these two events are connected becomes the spine of the story.
Prefacing each chapter is a narrative in first person. The reader is made privy to information that O'Laughlin and the police force are not. Tash and Piper, the runaway girls are alive, held captive and abused, with no idea of why, by whom, or where. As this situation becomes more dire, it is imperative that O'Laughlin discover who wants the girls punished and why the evidence all points to someone he knows is innocent.
In stories like this, thrillers; murder suspense; detective novels, it is important to me that the violence and description of crimes and abuse is not gratuitous. It is too easy to describe the deed, the actions, the details overly much. I want to know what happened, the facts of the crime, etc. but not for the sake of reading them. It's better in my opinion, if I am given the situation, but left to imagine - or not - the finer, grittier details. Robotham is proficient at this and it makes reading about bad events bearable.
This story - as all of his stories I have read so far - is satisfying, intelligent and well worth reading!...more
This was an entertaining, steadily paced mystery, that had me engaged and unable to quit reading until I found out exactly what was going on.
The main This was an entertaining, steadily paced mystery, that had me engaged and unable to quit reading until I found out exactly what was going on.
The main character is a family man, a professor of sorts, who has semi-retired from his psychology practice due to his increasing limitations from having Parkinson's disease. Upon leaving a lecture one afternoon, he is drawn into what appears to be a suicide attempt. A woman is perched on the rails of a local bridge, high above the water. He tries to talk her down, but has barely introduced himself, before she jumps. Distraught and confused at conflicting facts surrounding the case, he begins to nose around. When the jumpers daughter surfaces, she provides even more questions and he is compelled to find out the how and why of what first appeared to be a suicide, and is now looking more like the work of a killer.
The story, told through the prospective of both the psychologist and the killer in intelligent and engrossing form, opens and unravels with intense precision, sure to arrow straight to the core of ones fears. Gripping in its emotion, taut with suspense, and harrowing to imagine, it grabs and holds on right through to the satisfying last words.
This book easily won a spot on my favorite books list! I listened to it on Audio, read by a woman with a distinctive, lovely British accent that I am This book easily won a spot on my favorite books list! I listened to it on Audio, read by a woman with a distinctive, lovely British accent that I am sure contributed immensely to my enjoyment of the story. So where to begin....Flavia de Luce is absolutely one of the most entertaining characters I have ever read! She is funny and irreverent, brave, intelligent, tenacious and determined to succeed in solving her "case". From the moment we meet her, locked in a closet with her hands and feet tied, she is endearing us to herself with plucky optimism and cheeky personality. Within that first chapter we quickly meet Ophelia and Daphne, her two older sisters who are the culprits behind Flavia's captivity in the closet, her father the Colonel, and Ms. Mullet the cook/housekeeper. Flavia is a not-quite 11-going-on-30 motherless girl who loves nothing better than chemistry, her lab, and poisons -her specialty! When a dead JackSnipe with a stamp stuck through it's bill is discovered on their front doorstep that morning, Flavia smells a mystery and so begins her circuitous journey to discover what the dead bird means, why it was left and what does all this have to do with the strange man who she witnesses take his last breath in the wee hours of the morning in the cucumber patch? Along with Dugger, Gladys, Detective Huett, Ms. Mountjoy, and a small cast of supporting eccentric characters, Flavia launches an investigation that makes the local police look positively inadequate. It is a thoroughly entertaining ride and one I am so pleased to have taken. Now I want to collect the other Flavia stories and spend more time in her company. This is highly recommended for everyone!...more
This is another fabulous book from Furnivall! I loved this series of books as well as the recurring characters. I learned so much cultural and era-relThis is another fabulous book from Furnivall! I loved this series of books as well as the recurring characters. I learned so much cultural and era-related information from the story and just really enjoyed it!...more
A great tale! I was hooked from the start and will admit to seriously pulling for him to make it work and the whole happy ending thing always does it A great tale! I was hooked from the start and will admit to seriously pulling for him to make it work and the whole happy ending thing always does it for me, Ahhhh....more
What Can I say to describe how enjoyable this book is. Read it as a girl...and a half dozen times since. You can't help but love Anne, and cringe for What Can I say to describe how enjoyable this book is. Read it as a girl...and a half dozen times since. You can't help but love Anne, and cringe for her naivity sometimes. The writing is supherbly done and makes me want to live in on P.E. Island in that era and be one of Anne's kindred spirits....more