New England White, Part II

OK, so since my last post just a few days ago, New England White has really picked up. Julia's found some bravery deep inside her, and armed with extremely vague clues left to her, and only her, by the victim, she's set out to find the truth. She's poking around some shady parts of town, breaking and entering, traveling to Boston, Harlem and Paris looking for answers, all the while being followed by characters we know, as well as characters we don't yet know.

As more and more of the story unravels, the more interesting it gets. Julia's husband is a very powerful man, but even though she's been married to him for 20 years, she's just discovering how far a reach his power has. And that's not always a good thing. Can you imagine not really knowing the person you're married to? Plus, the present day murder of Julia's former lover corresponds to a death that happened 30 years ago - and let's just say, people aren't too happy with her for digging it all back up.

The mystery is very good. I have no idea who did what. I have some thoughts, but I can't know for sure, and then with each chapter a new clue reveals itself and my current thought is proven wrong (or is it?). I think the mystery works so well because the answers to the clues are not answers the reader can know. They come from Julia's past, a past that hasn't been shared with us yet. Some other books' mysteries lay out the clues for you in the preceding pages, and if they're not hidden well enough, you can figure things out. I like both types of mysteries. With New England White, I don't expect to know the truth until the end, which makes it that much more fun to read. However, when a book lays out all the clues I need, and then still surprises me because I didn't see the ending coming, that's very good writing, too.

I have only about 100 pages left, so I expect to finish very soon. Then the question is, What should I read next?

New England White

I started New England White last week, the second novel by Stephen Carter, author of The Emperor of Ocean Park (a book I read years ago and remember enjoying). Here's the publisher's synopsis:

The author of The Emperor of Ocean Park, with the powers of observation and richness of plot and character, returns to the New England university town of Elm Harbor, where a murder begins to crack the veneer that has hidden the racial complications of the town’s past, the secrets of a prominent family, and the most hidden bastions of African-American political influence. And at the center: Lemaster Carlyle, the university president, and his wife, Julia Carlyle, a deputy dean at the divinity school – African Americans living in “the heart of whiteness.”

Lemaster is an old friend of the president of the United States. Julia was the murdered man’s lover years ago. The meeting point of these connections forms the core of a mystery that deepens even as Julia closes in on the politically earth-shattering motive behind the murder.

Relentlessly suspenseful, galvanizing in its exploration of the profound difference between allegiance to ideas and to people, New England White is a resounding confirmation of Stephen Carter’s gifts as a writer of fiction.

The book started a little slow for me. It focused more on Julia, with her wondering what happened to her former boyfriend and spending a lot of time confused. However, once the book gets into the mystery of the murder, and a former detective, now head of security at the college, decides to get some answers, things started to pick up. I'm starting to try and figure out the murder, more so then I was doing when Julia was the central character. Where I'm at right now, the former detective is going to confront Julia. I'm sure things will shift back to her point of view, but maybe with the story diving deeper into the mystery to keep it interesting.

The Monster of Florence, Finale

I finished The Monster of Florence tonight. The last half of the book started in the 2000s, with author Doug Preston arriving with his family in Italy to work on a new thriller. He met journalist Mario Spezi and became fast friends. They decided to write an article for The New Yorker about The Monster of Florence (which never got published because 9-11 happened), so Preston got up to speed on the case. It's during this time that we learn Spezi's theory of who the real Monster is, and I have to say I completely agree with his idea. Unlike the Italian police, Spezi has actual evidence that who he thinks it is could actually be the right guy. Spezi and Preston even go to this person's house and interview him.

The thing is, the Italian police think they have the right guy. But they're using false witnesses and falsified evidence to make their case. The wrong man even goes to prison. And then, the police turn on the journalists when Preston and Spezi come out against them. The rest of the book is just unreal. Wrongful imprisonments, intense interrogations, police corruption, etc. I couldn't believe the things I was reading, and I can't imagine what Preston was thinking or feeling when all this was happening.

Being a journalist myself, all this was so interesting, yet so scary for me to read. But I enjoyed the book. True crime, and the author was even a part of it for a little while. What a story!

In the Woods, Finale

I finished In the Woods over the weekend. I really enjoyed it. Throughout the book there were two different mysteries happening at the same time. I did figure out the present-day mystery before it was revealed in the end, but this didn't take away from the story. The other mystery remains open-ended, which I have to admit is a bit frustrating, but I respect the author's decision to leave it that way. Maybe she's leaving it to wrap up in another book, or maybe it's meant for the reader to think about how they feel it should be resolved. While I like books to be wrapped up, whether with a happy or sad ending, I think it takes a form of courage to leave things up in the air.

The book wasn't scary as one may expect a murder story to be, but it was suspenseful. And certain parts had me reading really fast to get to the resolution or the end of the scene. I loved the characters, I loved their thoughts. I also loved how In the Woods kind of overlapped with The Likeness. Having already read The Likeness, I knew what Cassie Maddox was doing at certain times of In the Woods. It reminded me of how the ending of Bourne Supremacy, the movie, was actually found again near the end of Bourne Ultimatum.

(R.I.P. John Updike.)

In the Woods

I’m reading In the Woods by Tana French. I read French’s most recent novel, The Likeness (see reviews I & II), over the summer and really enjoyed it. The Likeness is actually a sort-of-sequel to In the Woods, as it focuses on one of the characters from this book, but you don’t have to read one or the other in any certain order.

In the Woods is about the murder of a 12-year-old girl in the outskirts of Dublin. Detective Rob Ryan has an interesting connection to this case, as when he was 12, two of his friends disappeared in the same woods and he was left alone, covered in blood with no memory of what happened. Whether the two cases, 20 years apart, are connected has yet to be discovered, but I’m guessing they probably are. With his partner, Cassie Maddox (the main subject of The Likeness), Ryan looks to solve this country-side murder mystery.

I really enjoy French’s writing. While to some her books may seem a little long and over detailed – she spends a lot of time inside the head of her main characters – the descriptions and thoughts she illustrates are very elaborate and interesting. She sets the scene well and her characters are very funny and quirky and real. You want to be friends with them (the good guys at least). And the mystery so far is hard to solve, as was the mystery in The Likeness. Throughout both books, I had some ideas, but she was good at changing my mind.

The book is rather long (more than 400 pages), and some reviewers didn’t like that so much. But, I love longer books, especially if they can hold my attention like hers seem to do. I’m sure this weekend I’ll have a hard time putting it down.

The Likeness, Part II

I’m loving The Likeness. Cassie, the undercover detective, has been placed in the shoes of a murder victim, Lexie, who Cassie looks like exactly. While her partners try to use all their powers to discover who Lexie really was on the outside, Cassie lives in an old mansion with Lexie’s four roommates. Having prepared through video clips and any and every fact the cops could give her, Cassie morphs into Lexie and becomes a part of the family, all the while trying to find her killer.

The roommates are very interesting characters – Abby, Daniel, Rafe and Justin. The five are unbelievably close. The mansion holds a mystery (why do all the local residents hate the group so much?), each roommate has a past they keep secret and Cassie has to discretely infiltrate the town, the roommate’s personalities and the house to discover whom Lexie was and why anyone would want her killed.

The book is very engaging, giving the reader hints along the way as to who possibly could be the killer. You fall in love with the roommates, but then you question their motives. It’s also sad to think that they believe their friend is still alive. While trying to remain professional, Cassie does fall into the group easily and starts to like them a lot. All the harder for her to possibly discover one or all of them is up to no good, or if anything, eventually have to tell them their friends is really dead. While it’s fiction, it does make me think about real undercover cops. How hard would it be to pretend to be someone else, especially within a dangerous situation? Always looking over your shoulder, hoping you don’t let on that you’re not who you say you are?

The author, Tana French, has a good way with language, including a lot of detail about the town, the characters, etc., but all in a very engaging way. Even if there’s not much dialogue for several pages, and you’re just sitting inside Cassie’s mind, the paragraphs are engaging and the pages go by quickly.

The Night Gardener, The Likeness and Other Thoughts

I finished reading The Night Gardener last week. It was just OK for me. While I was getting into it somewhat in the middle, the beginning dragged and the ending was a bit of a letdown. There were also a few character arcs that I felt were unnecessary and kind of a waste of space. Pelecanos actually received some pretty good reviews for this book though, so once again, I feel like I’m missing something. Maybe it was the genre that I didn’t like? However, funny thing…

Now I’m reading The Likeness, a story about an undercover detective in Dublin who comes across a body of a woman the spitting image of her. So the cops involved use this “likeness” to their advantage, covering up the murder as an attempted murder and putting Cassie, the detective, in the middle of this woman’s life in attempt to find the real killer. The Likeness is a sequel to In the Woods. B&N didn’t have In the Woods, so I decided to start The Likeness and see if I needed to read its predecessor to understand it. I didn’t. The author, Tana French, gets you up to speed ASAP. The catch is that many years ago, Cassie and her boss create this dead woman’s identity for the purpose of another undercover operation. She’s not real. So, how does she wind up dead in the Irish countryside? Good question. That’s what the characters in The Likeness are trying to figure out. I’m really enjoying the book, so my previous theory that crime fic might be a genre I just don’t enjoy isn’t holding much water.

In actuality, I think I was just going through a funk and The Night Gardener was not a good enough book to get me out of it. I think I got in the funk because I read, and became consumed by, the Twilight series in a little over two weeks time, and anything I picked up after that just wasn’t holding my attention (The Secret of Lost Things – boring; The World Without Us – while very interesting, too dense and not fast enough for what I need right now; and The Night Gardener…). I think The Likeness will help as I’m pretty into it so far – always a good sign.

What about you? Ever get into a reading funk? Does it depress you like it does me? I just felt out of sorts these past few weeks without a good book by my side.