January ReviewsReviewed on this page: Dirty Little Lies (John Macken), The Crystal Skull (Manda Scott), Heart Stopper (Joy Fielding), A Thousand Bones (P J Parrish),
DIRTY LITTLE LIES
by John Macken
ISBN 9780552154468
525 pages
CORGI BOOKS
January 1 2008
$21.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
November 29 2007Once again, I was delighted to read fiction by someone working in the field about which he writes. Oh, the pleasure of knowing that the only inaccuracies the reader is likely to spot are spelling or grammar!
The novel opens with a bloody murder but then reverts to a sad tale of possible adultery, sixteen weeks prior to the murder. Dr. Reuben Maitland needs to know if his wife is cuckolding him -- and also if he is the father of Joshua, son of his wife and previously acknowledged as his own. Throughout the book, I kept yelling at him "For Pete's sake! Just do the test!" I would have thought that a man devoted to discovering the hidden truths of science would be unable to resist unearthing the truth about his child's parentage. After all, if he is to have any input into the upbringing of the child, he would need to be able to predict any possible future health problems.
Maitland is fired from his job at GeneCrime, where he perfected the science of Predictive Phenotyping. That science is able to take something from a crime scene and not only analyse the DNA and find a likely suspect from someone carrying that genetic material, but also provide a probable picture of the suspect together with a possible prediction of the person's attitude and actions. Despite his expulsion from GeneCrime, Maitland manages to set up his own laboratory and, with the help of insiders, attempt to solve what becomes a series of murders.
While the plot is not bad, I thought that some of the twists were gratuitous. Occam's Razor is a good rule to observe for a writer, no matter what his background knowledge.
The science is not difficult to follow -- the content makes anything that might be a little abstruse, quite clear.
The characterisation is a different matter. I thought Reuben Maitland contained some inconsistencies-- but then, that is probably common to all humans. The minor characters did not seem to come to life unless they are villains about to perform some torture, murder or otherwise nasty behaviour.
The author tells us that a new GeneCrime novel will be available in 2008. I'll look forward to reading it. I feel that this author could well be worth watching.
THE CRYSTAL SKULL
by Manda Scott
ISBN 9780593055717
364 pages
BANTAM PRESS
January 1 2008
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
December 20 2007Every now and again it's a pleasure to desert hard crime fiction for a little while and, instead, take a gamble on a hit of fantasy. Thus, when I saw the promo for THE CRYSTAL SKULL, I decided to relax with something different for a while.
The book proceeds in two time frames the present and the sixteenth century. The prologue is set in mid- sixteenth century with a letter from Cedric Owen, a physician and Ph.D. who was educated at the (imaginary) Bede's college, Cambridge. He makes it clear that persecution for "witchcraft" is alive and well and it would be best for him to flee the university city forthwith.
Back in the twenty-first century, Stella and Kit are newlyweds. For a wedding gift, Stella has asked to be taken to an undiscovered cave. While Kit can't quite manage that, he has learned, from the work of Cedric Owen that he is deciphering, of a cave that has probably not been entered for four hundred and nineteen years, a cave complete with buried treasure.
Needless to say, they find the cave, "the cathedral of the earth". Stella finds Owen's "heartstone", a sapphire in the shape of a skull (or, as the author has it "an unfleshed man's head".) Despite the legend that everyone who has held the crystal skull has died, Stella happily takes possession of it. Then they discover they are being hunted, Stella finds she has some sort of telepathic communication with the skull, which has the happy knack of being able to warn her of imminent danger. Following such a warning, Stella is able to escape the cave but Kit vanishes, to be found, badly injured, another day.
The narrative jumps back and forth in both time and space. Owen travels to the New World and is instructed in the mysteries of his heartstone, a family heirloom, by Mayans, before returning to England.
The author cites end of the world predictions of various cultures, all indicating a date in 2012 and constructs her story on that postulate. The author also says that the crystal skull in the British Museum inspired the foundation of the story.
The tale is involving enough and obviously a great deal of work was done so far as the research necessary for the adventure goes. I am in two minds as to the success of the characterisation. I think the fantastical nature of the tale may have made my appreciation of the people rather less than it might have been had the elements of the whimsical been removed -- but then there would have been no story.
Taking all things into account, I feel the story is quite good and it does make for a pleasant diversion for an afternoon.
HEART STOPPER
by Joy Fielding
ISBN 9781847390455
549 pages
POCKET BOOKS
January 1 2008
$19.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
January 31 2008What a charming little work this one is. It grabbed me from start to finish - where it still leaves one on a tenterhook or two.
Chapter 1 begins the tale with the killer's journal. There, the description of the murderer's treatment of the latest victim and this voyeur's mode of operation is disclosed - without a clue as to the identity of the sadistic killer.
Sandy Crosbie is a high school teacher in Torrance, Florida. She has moved there at the insistence of her womanising doctor husband Ian, who, unbeknownst to her, had a prospective mistress in his sights. He had met Kerri on an Internet site and couldn't wait to move more closely to her. Once living in Torrance, he has moved out of the matrimonial home to be near his girlfriend and Sandy and their daughter and son are left on their own.
The schoolteacher does her best not to forgive her husband his philandering - she has done so many times before - and settle down to a single life which would give her the freedom to date. Some people are unable to cast off their own inhibitions, especially when they have a teenage daughter to whom they wish to serve as a model, so Sandy dithers.
Megan, Sandy's daughter, has problems of her own. She has a crush on one of the school's jocks but she is convinced she can win him over - especially when they are cast together in the school's production of Kiss Me Kate.
Of course, in a small town there is bound to be at least one case of wife abuse so when Fiona Hamilton disappears, it is a reasonable assumption that she has simply run away rather than fallen victim to the serial killer -but given she has become so cowed through the years of being married to Cal Hamilton, perhaps it's not quite such a wild assumption that she, too, has been taken for the predator's amusement.
I had not read any of Fielding's books for some years because I felt queasy at some of her scenes of mayhem. I did, however, gird up my metaphorical loins when this novel appeared and I am glad I did. Yes, she is not averse to depicting a whole heap of gruey gore but my goodness, the lady can write.
The characterisation is quite good. I was suitably repelled by the gloating of the murderer, felt, at one remove, the teenage angst of Sandy's daughter, not to mention the collywobbles of fear experienced by Sandy herself, as she contemplates dating and I could quite easily see the validity of the entire Torrance population. Certainly, there are some nasties amongst them but all are quite real - insofar as their artificially enhanced breasts and lips permit them.
The prose is well done. Fielding has the nasty knack of building tension and exaggerating horror to the nth degree. As for plotting - that is masterful. She had me completely foxed when it came to the identity of the murderer.
I am very glad I overcame my prejudices about Fielding's work. I would not have missed out on this thriller for quids.
A THOUSAND BONES
by P J Parrish
ISBN 9781416525875
471 pages
POCKET BOOKS
January 1 2008
$19.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
February 4 2008
Sisters Kristy Montee and Kelly Nichols comprise the author P J Parrish. Living in separate states, as they do, it's quite astonishing that they manage to compose their books as seamlessly as they do, yet nowhere could I detect a change in the writing style from one to the other.
The prologue begins in 1988 with Joe Frye talking to Louis Kincaid, her lover, about what happened to her when she was a rookie, in Michigan, in October 1975. She has been carrying a secret with her all that time but now she feels she must confess.
Joe is the only female deputy in the Echo Bay Sheriff's office in 1975. She is unfortunate that her appointment has stirred up some resentment amongst other officers, but her knowledge proves her worth, especially when the bone of a girl is found and Joe is the only one able to identify what the officers see. Then Joe, with the help of two children, find more bones and a piece of jewellery, which is useful in identifying a girl. Thus, the first of the remains of a series of victims are discovered. Of course, forensic science is very primitive in those days so that DNA is not able to be us to aid identification.
Eventually, a sum total of a thousand bones is discovered but the Sheriff has no firm suspect.
The case becomes complicated when carvings are discovered on trees near the bones and they are identified as representing different months, according to the calendar of the local Indian tribe.
The mystery is very good, with the requisite red herrings being drawn across the reader's path. The characterisations, too, are well done. The reader's withers are well and truly wrung because of the discrimination Joe must suffer from her fellow deputies, not to mention her boyfriend of the time.
The baddy's character is a different matter entirely. I am afraid that he, too, is entirely probable. I just wish he wasn't.
The authors have managed to evince a wonderfully cold, intimidating winter environment, one that, despite our century plus (according to the old system) temperatures, had me shivering.
As to Joe's secret, I have to confess that were I in the same position, I would have done the same thing.