by Elizabeth George
This is another British mystery, part of a series featuring Inspector Thomas Lynley. He drives an exotic old car, and has a butler, it seems he might now be working for the money...
In this story Lynley is sent on an undercover assigment to investigate a drowning that was deemed an accident by the police and coroners in the Cumbria area of England. Lynley is grieving the death of his wife at the hands of a twelve year old. He has fallen into an affair with his overbearing and controlling boss, and he has an occasional liaison with one of his co-workers. He enlists the help of two of his friends as he goes to investigate the death at the wealthy Fairclough estate.
At the same time as Lynley is there, there is a bumbling, failing, reporter from a scandal rag who is trying to dig up a juicy story on the family.
As Lynley get's to know the family all sorts of dirty secrets start to come out from under the covers. The murdered man had recently abandoned his wife for a homosexual affair, leaving his property to his lover. His wife, a very self-centered, very angry woman, had surrendered her kids to her husband, and doesn't seem to want anything to do with them even after her husband dies The son is particularly disturbed and is engaged in self-destructive behaviour. Another child in the family is a manipulative woman who pretends to be disabled and the prodigal son, an addict, who has returned home and who is trying to convince his father that he can go straight.
As we work our way through the story we find that there are many secrects in the family, some of which are being paid off for their silence.
Both the friend Lynley has brought along with him, and his colleague's actions result in actions they did not anticipate and which they deeply regret.
The mother of the family is the one who had wanted the investigation into the death, hoping to bring up information about the infidelity of her husband, little did she expect how destructive this would be for the majority of her family.
All in all while I found the story interesting with many twists and turns, I found most the characters totally self-absorbed and disagreeable. Because of this I did not enjoy the story and wasn't a engaged in the outcome as I could have been.
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Wednesday, 27 March 2013
A Small Death in the Great Glen
by A.D. Scott
This is the first book in a mystery series set in the Highlands of Scotland, The book was interesting, especially because it is not the police or detectives who solve the crime, but staff at the local newspaper.
As it turns out the local Police Captain is the perpetrator of the crime, the abuse and murder of a small boy.
The Captain tries to pin the crime on a Polish man who jumped ship in the harbour as the only people who can vouch for him are another "Pole" and local travellers (gypsies). The book mentions how difficult the insulate community is finding it having former enemies (Italtians) and other foreigners moving to the town.
When hundreds of Italians arrive for a wedding the sedate Scots are totally overwhelmed by the colour, and noise. There is also distrust of Catholcs and the Catholics don't want to believe that the local priest has anything to do with the murder or any other crimes.
The Editor of the newspaper is haunted by the crime becuause his brother, 10 years his junior, commits suicide. He feels that hsi brother wanted his help prior to killing himself and he hand't noticed that the brother needed his help.
One of the staff, a married woman, who shocks the village because she is married and still working, is a victim of spousal abuse. She is struggling trying to survive her husband, protect her daughters and decide whether she should take the risk of leaving her husband (gaining more scorn from family and the community) or stay in the brutal marriage.
It was an engaging story, I look forward to reading more books in the series.
This is the first book in a mystery series set in the Highlands of Scotland, The book was interesting, especially because it is not the police or detectives who solve the crime, but staff at the local newspaper.
As it turns out the local Police Captain is the perpetrator of the crime, the abuse and murder of a small boy.
The Captain tries to pin the crime on a Polish man who jumped ship in the harbour as the only people who can vouch for him are another "Pole" and local travellers (gypsies). The book mentions how difficult the insulate community is finding it having former enemies (Italtians) and other foreigners moving to the town.
When hundreds of Italians arrive for a wedding the sedate Scots are totally overwhelmed by the colour, and noise. There is also distrust of Catholcs and the Catholics don't want to believe that the local priest has anything to do with the murder or any other crimes.
The Editor of the newspaper is haunted by the crime becuause his brother, 10 years his junior, commits suicide. He feels that hsi brother wanted his help prior to killing himself and he hand't noticed that the brother needed his help.
One of the staff, a married woman, who shocks the village because she is married and still working, is a victim of spousal abuse. She is struggling trying to survive her husband, protect her daughters and decide whether she should take the risk of leaving her husband (gaining more scorn from family and the community) or stay in the brutal marriage.
It was an engaging story, I look forward to reading more books in the series.
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
The Imposter Bride
by Nancy Richler,
A young Jewish girl arrives in Montreal to meet the man she is to marry. Unexplicably, he decides he cannot marry her. However, his brother asks her to marry him and they do get married.
There are two strangers at the wedding, a woman and her daughter. The woman is there to see if the woman, with the same name as her cousin, is her cousin. She isn't
The young Jewish woman is very reclusive, even though her husband dotes on her. She tolerates but isn't warm to her mother in law. The young Jewish woman has a daughter, and the disappears when the child is only three months. No one knows where she went, but both the strange woman and the mother in law know that she had taken on a false identity.
The focus of the story is the woman's daughter. She struggels to come to terms with why her mother would have abandoned her. At times she tries to find out where her mother is, but she is not aware that her mother is an imposter. She receives packages from her mother occasionally with a stone in them, the location and the temperature at the location - very puzzling and bizarre.
Eventually the girl finds out the truth. Her grandmother leaves her a note telling her a bit of her mother's history and her real name, when she dies. The girl eventually finds her mother's address and goes to visit her once but it comes to nothing, The girl returns the diary of the girl her mother pretended to be and a raw diamond to a Jewish museum in Palestine.
The book was interesting, but the ending was anticlimatic.
A young Jewish girl arrives in Montreal to meet the man she is to marry. Unexplicably, he decides he cannot marry her. However, his brother asks her to marry him and they do get married.
There are two strangers at the wedding, a woman and her daughter. The woman is there to see if the woman, with the same name as her cousin, is her cousin. She isn't
The young Jewish woman is very reclusive, even though her husband dotes on her. She tolerates but isn't warm to her mother in law. The young Jewish woman has a daughter, and the disappears when the child is only three months. No one knows where she went, but both the strange woman and the mother in law know that she had taken on a false identity.
The focus of the story is the woman's daughter. She struggels to come to terms with why her mother would have abandoned her. At times she tries to find out where her mother is, but she is not aware that her mother is an imposter. She receives packages from her mother occasionally with a stone in them, the location and the temperature at the location - very puzzling and bizarre.
Eventually the girl finds out the truth. Her grandmother leaves her a note telling her a bit of her mother's history and her real name, when she dies. The girl eventually finds her mother's address and goes to visit her once but it comes to nothing, The girl returns the diary of the girl her mother pretended to be and a raw diamond to a Jewish museum in Palestine.
The book was interesting, but the ending was anticlimatic.
Friday, 22 March 2013
The Garden of Evening Mists
by Tan Twan Eng
This book takes place in Malaya. It is about a woman who was a prisoner in a Japanese labour camp and who is trying to come to terms with what happened to her and the death of her sister in the camp.
When the story starts the woman is retiring from her position as a judge because of her health -- she has been diagnosed with a degenerative brain disorder. She has returned to a garden she helped build many years before.
The woman is the sole survivor of the camp she was imprisoned in. One of the Japanese officials took her out of the camp just prior to the mine and all the prisoners being destroyed. She was saved because she worked as a translator and also because she ratted on the other prisoners. She tried to help her sister by giving her food scraps-- her sister was one of the women servicing the military personnel. Her sister had tried to kill herself but was told if she did that they would put her sister (the main character) into the brothel in her place, so the sister stays and suffers the indignities.
The main character obviously hates the Japanese after what they did to her, beat her, chopped off two of her fingers and raped and murdered her sister. However, she decides to build a Japanese garden to honour her sisters memory. She goes to a man, who was formerly a gardener to the Japanese Emperor who has been exiled, or exiled himself to Malaya. He refuses to build the garden but agrees to teach her how to build a garden and she becomes his apprentice, and eventually his lover. One night the Japanese man goes for a walk into the forest, which he knows very well, but does not return. He is never found our heard from again.
While the woman is learning to be a gardener there are communist "terrorists" attacking people in the area. The woman helps some of them to surrender and is also attacked and almost killed by others.
As the story proceeds we find the main character trying to write about her life, before she forgets how to write and speak. She has some art that he created, including a tatoo mural he created on her back. Although she had been reluctant to do so previously, she decides to share share the pictures with a Japanese historian.
This was a fascinating, very powerful story about pain, forgiveness, letting go, memory. I will certainly want to read it again in the future. The language was beautiful, the story so engaging I couldn't put it down.
This book takes place in Malaya. It is about a woman who was a prisoner in a Japanese labour camp and who is trying to come to terms with what happened to her and the death of her sister in the camp.
When the story starts the woman is retiring from her position as a judge because of her health -- she has been diagnosed with a degenerative brain disorder. She has returned to a garden she helped build many years before.
The woman is the sole survivor of the camp she was imprisoned in. One of the Japanese officials took her out of the camp just prior to the mine and all the prisoners being destroyed. She was saved because she worked as a translator and also because she ratted on the other prisoners. She tried to help her sister by giving her food scraps-- her sister was one of the women servicing the military personnel. Her sister had tried to kill herself but was told if she did that they would put her sister (the main character) into the brothel in her place, so the sister stays and suffers the indignities.
The main character obviously hates the Japanese after what they did to her, beat her, chopped off two of her fingers and raped and murdered her sister. However, she decides to build a Japanese garden to honour her sisters memory. She goes to a man, who was formerly a gardener to the Japanese Emperor who has been exiled, or exiled himself to Malaya. He refuses to build the garden but agrees to teach her how to build a garden and she becomes his apprentice, and eventually his lover. One night the Japanese man goes for a walk into the forest, which he knows very well, but does not return. He is never found our heard from again.
While the woman is learning to be a gardener there are communist "terrorists" attacking people in the area. The woman helps some of them to surrender and is also attacked and almost killed by others.
As the story proceeds we find the main character trying to write about her life, before she forgets how to write and speak. She has some art that he created, including a tatoo mural he created on her back. Although she had been reluctant to do so previously, she decides to share share the pictures with a Japanese historian.
This was a fascinating, very powerful story about pain, forgiveness, letting go, memory. I will certainly want to read it again in the future. The language was beautiful, the story so engaging I couldn't put it down.
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Except the Dying
by Maureen Jennings
I enjoy the Murdoch Mysteries series on TV so thought that I would check out one of the books.
The TV series has adapted the book very faithfully. Most of the key characters are as described in the book.
This story starts with the discovery of a young woman found dead, and naked in the snow. Murdoch is disgusted that someone would steal the clothes from a corpse. The police interview people in the vicinity but have no leads to the girl's identity nor the perpetrators of the crime. They put a drawing of the woman in the newspaper and two people come forward to identify the girl, her employer (whose home she was running from) and a local alderman. The autopsy determines that the girl was strangled had opium in her body and that she was pregnant.
As Murdoch interviews people near the scene of a crime he meets two women (prostitutes) and a baker who live in a rooming house nearby. Murdoch is sure that the women are hiding something and his suspicions are confirmed when one of the two women is found murdered on the outskirts of the city.
Murdoch manages to save the second girl from the murderer, with assistance of the baker and his dogs.
Murdoch finds the perpetrator of the crimes but it was not the people he originally suspected (the girl's employer, his son, the butler).
It was an enjoyable and easy read, the author does a good job of portraying life in 1890's Toronto.
I enjoy the Murdoch Mysteries series on TV so thought that I would check out one of the books.
The TV series has adapted the book very faithfully. Most of the key characters are as described in the book.
This story starts with the discovery of a young woman found dead, and naked in the snow. Murdoch is disgusted that someone would steal the clothes from a corpse. The police interview people in the vicinity but have no leads to the girl's identity nor the perpetrators of the crime. They put a drawing of the woman in the newspaper and two people come forward to identify the girl, her employer (whose home she was running from) and a local alderman. The autopsy determines that the girl was strangled had opium in her body and that she was pregnant.
As Murdoch interviews people near the scene of a crime he meets two women (prostitutes) and a baker who live in a rooming house nearby. Murdoch is sure that the women are hiding something and his suspicions are confirmed when one of the two women is found murdered on the outskirts of the city.
Murdoch manages to save the second girl from the murderer, with assistance of the baker and his dogs.
Murdoch finds the perpetrator of the crimes but it was not the people he originally suspected (the girl's employer, his son, the butler).
It was an enjoyable and easy read, the author does a good job of portraying life in 1890's Toronto.
Sunday, 10 March 2013
The Painted Girls
by Cathy MarieBuchanan
This fiction story tells the story of three daughters and two young men during the 1870's in Paris. The girls and their mother are constantly hounded by their landlord for the rent payment. The mother, a washerwoman, deals with her life by swilling absinthe. The oldest daughter Antoinette takes ballet lessons at The Opera and hopes for a job in the chorus but she is rejected for the role, she isn't good enough. She then grooms her sisters as dancers. She is very loving and attentive to her sisters but her attention is being torn from them by a young man who promises he wants to marry her and save money for a home. He has sex with her but never seems to save money, rather throws it around. She is shocked one day when a friend of his hits her and he does not defend her, where do his, and her. loyalties lie?
Meanwhile the middle sister Marie does succeed in making it into the dancers and she is noticed by Degas who hires her to be his model. She is embarrassed about posing in the nude but feels desparate for the extra money. She runs hersel ragged to make money, working at a bakery in the early morning, taking dancing lessons later in the day and then modelling for Degas. One of Degas acquaintances also takes an interest in her and invites her to model for him. She goes to him but he uses her nudity for sexual gratification not for art.
Then, Antoinette's boyfriend is accused of a vicious murder along with another young man and is sentenced to the guillotine. This is later converted to transport to New Caledonia. Antoinette decides that she will go with him and starts to save money, but she finds she isn't saving enough so she decides to become a prostitute in a brothel to make more money. She is convinced that her boyfriend is innocent despite protestations fom her sister and her best friend (also a prosititute). She ends up going to prison herself for stealing money from one of her clients.
Then her boyfriend is accused of another murder. Antoinette tells her sister Marie that he is innocent, that she marked on a calendar the days she was with him and that she was with him on the day of the murder. She asks her sister to take the caldendar to the boyfriend's lawyer, but the sister burns the cslendar. Then she feels guilty and depressed when the men are convicted and she falls into a depression and gets fired from her job.
While all this is happening Marie had been performing a small role in a Zola play which seems to imply that the poor are destined to stay poor, and the reaction to Degas sculpture of Marie is not the praise she expected, but rather comments that her face and posture doom her to poverty. She is devastated, she had already bought in to Zola's message and when she sees it applied to her she is angry and broken.
When Antoinette's friend, the prostitute, arrives at prison wearing a watch that was stolen from the murdered woman, and the friend tells Antoinette that her boyfriend gave the friend the watch, Antoinette realizes that her boyfriend is indeed rotten. She reconciles herself with her sister. Eventually Marie marries the baker's son, who has long been her admirer, her younger sister becomes the accomplished dancer she might have become and the life of the girls becomes more comfortable.
This story really brought the times and the lives of the girls into life. It was a great read. The author interspersed the story with newspaper headlines about the boyfriend's trial and Degas art exhibitions.
It was a great read.
This fiction story tells the story of three daughters and two young men during the 1870's in Paris. The girls and their mother are constantly hounded by their landlord for the rent payment. The mother, a washerwoman, deals with her life by swilling absinthe. The oldest daughter Antoinette takes ballet lessons at The Opera and hopes for a job in the chorus but she is rejected for the role, she isn't good enough. She then grooms her sisters as dancers. She is very loving and attentive to her sisters but her attention is being torn from them by a young man who promises he wants to marry her and save money for a home. He has sex with her but never seems to save money, rather throws it around. She is shocked one day when a friend of his hits her and he does not defend her, where do his, and her. loyalties lie?
Meanwhile the middle sister Marie does succeed in making it into the dancers and she is noticed by Degas who hires her to be his model. She is embarrassed about posing in the nude but feels desparate for the extra money. She runs hersel ragged to make money, working at a bakery in the early morning, taking dancing lessons later in the day and then modelling for Degas. One of Degas acquaintances also takes an interest in her and invites her to model for him. She goes to him but he uses her nudity for sexual gratification not for art.
Then, Antoinette's boyfriend is accused of a vicious murder along with another young man and is sentenced to the guillotine. This is later converted to transport to New Caledonia. Antoinette decides that she will go with him and starts to save money, but she finds she isn't saving enough so she decides to become a prostitute in a brothel to make more money. She is convinced that her boyfriend is innocent despite protestations fom her sister and her best friend (also a prosititute). She ends up going to prison herself for stealing money from one of her clients.
Then her boyfriend is accused of another murder. Antoinette tells her sister Marie that he is innocent, that she marked on a calendar the days she was with him and that she was with him on the day of the murder. She asks her sister to take the caldendar to the boyfriend's lawyer, but the sister burns the cslendar. Then she feels guilty and depressed when the men are convicted and she falls into a depression and gets fired from her job.
While all this is happening Marie had been performing a small role in a Zola play which seems to imply that the poor are destined to stay poor, and the reaction to Degas sculpture of Marie is not the praise she expected, but rather comments that her face and posture doom her to poverty. She is devastated, she had already bought in to Zola's message and when she sees it applied to her she is angry and broken.
When Antoinette's friend, the prostitute, arrives at prison wearing a watch that was stolen from the murdered woman, and the friend tells Antoinette that her boyfriend gave the friend the watch, Antoinette realizes that her boyfriend is indeed rotten. She reconciles herself with her sister. Eventually Marie marries the baker's son, who has long been her admirer, her younger sister becomes the accomplished dancer she might have become and the life of the girls becomes more comfortable.
This story really brought the times and the lives of the girls into life. It was a great read. The author interspersed the story with newspaper headlines about the boyfriend's trial and Degas art exhibitions.
It was a great read.
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
Watching the Dark
by Peter Robinson
This is Robinson's latest books. I have read several in his series about DCI Banks. It was a typical Robinson book, but in this one the crimes involved crime beyond England.
In the story a police officer is killed while recuperating at a police rehab facility. The man's wife had died recently and he was having neck pain. No one seems to know why he would be murdered, it looks like a professional hit, a crossbow. Banks finds some compromising photos of the man in his room.
As they are investigating an inspector from the Professional Standards arrives to investigate if the dead man was a crooked or compromised cop -- none of the police are happy to haver her there. Annie Lennox, Bank's colleague is just returning to work after recovering from an attack where she saved Bank's daughter,
Things get very complicated.. does the death of the police officer have anything to do with the disappearance of a young British girl in Estonia six years before? An Estonian reporter is found dead at an abandoned farm in England, a man who was a became friens with the cop while he was investigating the girl's disappearance. The reporter had been undercover trying to investigate illegal migrants and loan sharking of migrants. Banks is convinced there must be some connection to the murdered girl and he convinces his boss to let him go to Estonia to investigate while Annie and his other colleague dig for information back home.
The loan shark is murdered, his employee spills the beans about what he knows. One of the migrant workers is found and identifies the potential murderer. Banks finds a former cop in Estonia who tells him how the disappearance was covered up and her body is located thanks to a letter from a woman who saw the crime committed and ran away rather than telling the police. The man behind all the murders is found shot in a Russian river-- he has become a liability to his colleagues/bosses.
It was as okay story, a typical Robinson book, but I think I like the stories when they are a bit less convoluted.
This is Robinson's latest books. I have read several in his series about DCI Banks. It was a typical Robinson book, but in this one the crimes involved crime beyond England.
In the story a police officer is killed while recuperating at a police rehab facility. The man's wife had died recently and he was having neck pain. No one seems to know why he would be murdered, it looks like a professional hit, a crossbow. Banks finds some compromising photos of the man in his room.
As they are investigating an inspector from the Professional Standards arrives to investigate if the dead man was a crooked or compromised cop -- none of the police are happy to haver her there. Annie Lennox, Bank's colleague is just returning to work after recovering from an attack where she saved Bank's daughter,
Things get very complicated.. does the death of the police officer have anything to do with the disappearance of a young British girl in Estonia six years before? An Estonian reporter is found dead at an abandoned farm in England, a man who was a became friens with the cop while he was investigating the girl's disappearance. The reporter had been undercover trying to investigate illegal migrants and loan sharking of migrants. Banks is convinced there must be some connection to the murdered girl and he convinces his boss to let him go to Estonia to investigate while Annie and his other colleague dig for information back home.
The loan shark is murdered, his employee spills the beans about what he knows. One of the migrant workers is found and identifies the potential murderer. Banks finds a former cop in Estonia who tells him how the disappearance was covered up and her body is located thanks to a letter from a woman who saw the crime committed and ran away rather than telling the police. The man behind all the murders is found shot in a Russian river-- he has become a liability to his colleagues/bosses.
It was as okay story, a typical Robinson book, but I think I like the stories when they are a bit less convoluted.
Sunday, 3 March 2013
Above All Things
by Tanis Rideout
It is strange, I don't recall what prompted me to put this book on hold at the library. I don't remember hearing anything about it... perhaps I noticed it in Chapters and just don't recall it.
This is the fictionalized story of the life of George Mallory, who died trying to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The book is told in two parts, one is George's story of the final attempt, and alongside that we get the story and memories of his wife who is sad that he has left her and her children again because of his obsession with that mountain.
The author has done a lot of research including reading the papers and even the letters exchanged between George and Ruth. She has done a wonderful job of telling this story. She does a wonderful job of portraying their lives and relationship. She really gets us into the minds of the two main characters -- especially the maniacal zeal of Mallory to be the one to reach the summit first. Was he too blinded by his desire to make the right decisions at the end? Did the cold affect his ability to think clearly? While we know that the outcome is going to be a bad one, the story leading up to the tragedy is spellbinding. The author has some experience with climbing so she is able to provide great detail as to what the climbers would have faced.
The book is another story that makes you ask why people walk away from a family they love to chase their dreams, face incredible risks. Of course, if some people weren't willing to do this we wouldn't have the discoveries that have been made over the years. But, while it could be said that discovering a new land might be good for the explorer's nation (not usually for the "discovered"), what is gained by someone climbing the highest mountain first? It is certainly a personal accomplishment, but at what cost.... and look at all the lives that have been lost on Everest from other climbers, all the garbage on the mountain.... is it worth it?
It is strange, I don't recall what prompted me to put this book on hold at the library. I don't remember hearing anything about it... perhaps I noticed it in Chapters and just don't recall it.
This is the fictionalized story of the life of George Mallory, who died trying to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The book is told in two parts, one is George's story of the final attempt, and alongside that we get the story and memories of his wife who is sad that he has left her and her children again because of his obsession with that mountain.
The author has done a lot of research including reading the papers and even the letters exchanged between George and Ruth. She has done a wonderful job of telling this story. She does a wonderful job of portraying their lives and relationship. She really gets us into the minds of the two main characters -- especially the maniacal zeal of Mallory to be the one to reach the summit first. Was he too blinded by his desire to make the right decisions at the end? Did the cold affect his ability to think clearly? While we know that the outcome is going to be a bad one, the story leading up to the tragedy is spellbinding. The author has some experience with climbing so she is able to provide great detail as to what the climbers would have faced.
The book is another story that makes you ask why people walk away from a family they love to chase their dreams, face incredible risks. Of course, if some people weren't willing to do this we wouldn't have the discoveries that have been made over the years. But, while it could be said that discovering a new land might be good for the explorer's nation (not usually for the "discovered"), what is gained by someone climbing the highest mountain first? It is certainly a personal accomplishment, but at what cost.... and look at all the lives that have been lost on Everest from other climbers, all the garbage on the mountain.... is it worth it?
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