Book Review: The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas

Tuesday 6 September, 2011 By 2 Comments

Title: The Oracle of Stamboul
Author: Michael David Lukas
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition
Publication Date: August 30, 2011
Paperback: 320 pages
ISBN: 978-0062012104
Genre: Historical Fiction

From the Publisher:

Ushered into the world by a mysterious pair of Tartar midwives late in the summer of 1877 in the town of Constanta on the Black Sea, Eleonora Cohen proves herself an extraordinarily gifted child—a prodigy—at a very young age. When she is eight years old, she stows away aboard a ship, following her carpet merchant father, Yakob, to the teeming and colorful imperial capital of Stamboul where a new life awaits her.

In the narrow streets of this city at the crossroads of the world, intrigue and gossip are currency, and people are not always what they seem. But it is only when she charms the eccentric Sultan Abdulhamid II—beleaguered by friend and foe as his unwieldy realm crumbles—that Eleonora will change the course of an empire.

My Review:

Exotic, mystical, and engrossing, The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas takes the reader back to the last days of the Ottoman Empire and deep into Sultan Abdulhamid’s court. Purple and white hoopoes usher in the birth of Eleonora Cohen whose birth and life was foretold. Raised by her father and Aunt, young Eleonora is quite precocious and instead of being without her father she travels to Stamboul as a stowaway to be with him. Eleonora’s gifts are soon recognized by the Sultan, who invites her to court, relies on her knowledge and soon becomes interested in far more than her political acumen. Lukas has created a beautifully exotic debut novel that will take the reader back in time to the seat of the Ottoman Empire. Through vivid imagery and detail the reader will have little doubt they are in Turkey. The sights, sounds, and smells are so richly described it made me yearn to travel. Lukas has created a marvelous ensemble of characters and Eleonora is absolutely endearing, delightful, and mysterious. The Oracle of Stamboul was utterly fascinating in its exotic nature and mystical premise, and stunningly lyrical prose. Lukas has created a stunning debut novel and definitely is an emerging author to be watched. I highly recommend The Oracle of Stamboul to both readers and book discussion groups.

To learn more about Michael David Lukas please visit his website: www.michaeldavidlukas.com

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copy of The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Book Review: Displaced Persons by Ghita Schwarz

Wednesday 31 August, 2011 By 10 Comments

Title: Displaced Persons
Author: Ghita Schwarz
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition
Publication Date: August 23, 2011
Paperback: 368 pages
ISBN: 978-0061881770
Genre: Historical Fiction

From the Publisher:

In May 1945, Pavel Mandl, a Polish Jew recently liberated from a concentration camp, finds himself among similarly displaced persons gathered in the Allied occupation zones of a defeated Germany. Possessing little besides a map, a few tins of food, and a talent for black-market trading, he must scrape together a new life in a chaotic community of refugees, civilians, and soldiers. With fellow refugees Fela, a young widow, and Chaim, a resourceful teenager with impressive smuggling skills, Pavel establishes a makeshift family, as together they face an uncertain future. Eventually the trio immigrates to the United States, where they grapple with past traumas that arise again in the everyday moments of lives no longer dominated by the need to endure, fight, hide, or escape.

Ghita Schwarz’s Displaced Persons is an astonishing novel of grief, anger, and survival that examines the landscape of liberation and reveals the interior despairs and joys of immigrants shaped by war and trauma.

My Review:

Displaced Persons by Ghita Schwarz is a moving narrative of Jews displaced by the ravages of the Nazis and the decisions made by one family during the course of the decades following World War II.  Schwarz brings her characters to readers with very real and flawed personalities and in such a way that it is as if readers know these characters.  As we learn how Pavel, Fela, and Chaim all encountered their own individual struggles in the aftermath of the war where they were given the title “displaced person” or DP for short, Schwarz captures in vivid detail the life of these DPs in refugee camps where each had but a few possessions remaining after they lost almost everything to the Nazi occupations.  Displaced Persons is about sorrow, perseverance, endurance, and rebirth, and readers will feel nothing less than inspiration after witnessing the overcoming of suppressing and adverse conditions experienced by Jews who survived the Nazi occupations and the Holocaust.  This is not a simple or light read, but one that will give pause for reflection as readers are shown the dichotomy of emotions experienced, for example, where some were comforted by the liberation yet still had feelings of despair amidst the refugee camp conditions.  Told in three parts with the first exploring the immediate aftermath of the war, and the other parts looking out to the decades that followed where many of the refugees eventually emigrated to the United States, the long-lasting effects of the traumatic experiences of these people become evident as the characters search for meaning and release from the memories that no one should have to retain.  I strongly recommend Displaced Persons to readers looking for a deeper exploration of the long-term impacts of the Holocaust for this novel recognizes that the lasting injuries of survivors are not all physical.

To learn more about author Ghita Schwarz, please visit her website: www.ghitaschwarz.com

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a complimentary arc of Displaced Persons by Ghita Schwarz from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Book Review: Wherever You Go by Joan Leegant

Tuesday 30 August, 2011 By 11 Comments

Title: Wherever You Go
Author: Joan Leegant
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition
Publication Date: July 25, 2011
Paperback: 253 pages
ISBN: 978-0393339895
Genre: Historical Fiction

From the back of the book:

In this sweeping and beautifully written novel, Joan Leegant weaves together three lives caught in the grip of a volatile and uncompromising faith. Yona Stern has traveled to Jerusalem from New York to make amends with her sister, a stoic mother of five dedicated to the hard-line West Bank settlement cause. Mark Greenglass, a gifted Talmud teacher and a former drug dealer saved by religion, has lost his passion and wonders if he’s done with God. Enter Aaron Blinder, an unstable college dropout with a history of failure who finds a home on the radical fringe of Israeli society. Emotionally gripping, timely and prophetic, Wherever You Go tells the story of three Americans in Israel and the attractions-and dangers-of Jewish religious and political extremism.

My Review:

Wherever You Go by Joan Leegant is a beautifully uplifting debut novel about three Americans, living in Israel, who struggle for religious and political identity.  In times where religious and political extremism are becoming increasingly a concern for many, Leegant touches on this subject in a delicate, yet true to life manner that will give readers more than just a glimpse at the draw of extremist views.  As the three main characters, Yona, Aaron and Mark each has their individual motivations for coming to Israel, Leegant capitalizes on these unrelated characters to build her story into a message far greater than the sum of the characters’ reasons for their actions.  A book about spirituality in a rigid faith, Leegant portrays the challenges and obstacles faced by these characters as they are brought together through a tragic event.  Told with changing perspectives, Wherever You Go gives different points of view as the story unfolds, a writing style that I think really worked well for such a weighty and personal subject.  I strongly recommend Joan Leegant’s debut, Wherever You Go to all readers and I think book discussion groups will find Wherever You Go a fascinating book to examine.

To learn more about author Joan Leegant, please visit her website: www.joanleegant.com

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a complimentary arc of Wherever You Go by Joan Leegant from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Book Review: The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard

Monday 29 August, 2011 By 6 Comments

Title: The Good Daughters
Author: Joyce Maynard
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition
Publication Date: August 23, 2011
Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN: 978-0061994326
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

They were born on the same day, in the same small New Hampshire hospital—but Ruth Plank and Dana Dickerson are different in nearly every way.

Ruth is an artist, a romantic with a rich, passionate, imaginative life—the fifth daughter born to a gentle, caring farmer and his stolid wife. Raised by a pair of capricious drifters, Dana is a scientist and realist whose faith is firmly planted in the natural world. From the 1950s to the present, the lives of the “birthday sisters” parallel and oddly intersect, as each struggles to find her place in a world in which she has never truly felt she belonged. Sharing little except a birth date—and a love for Dana’s wild and beautiful older brother, Ray—two virtual strangers will travel alternate paths winding through first love, first sex, marriage, parenthood, divorce, and tragic loss…until both are forced to reevaluate themselves and each other when past secrets and forgotten memories unexpectedly come to light.

My Review:

Heart breaking, beautiful, and life affirming, The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard tells the story of Ruth Plank and Dana Dickerson, known as the birthday sisters. On July 4, 1950 at the peak of strawberry season in Bellersville Hospital, Edwin and Connie Plank welcomed their 5th daughter into the world and two hours later, the Dickersons were greeting their second child and their first daughter. Maynard writes a beautiful, moving novel, and from the beginning it is fairly obvious what will eventually be confirmed, however knowing does not detract from the story. The heart of The Good Daughters consists of the stories told through Ruth and Dana, two women who have lived dramatically different lives, yet each learned so very much from Edwin Plank, the lessons they have each accumulated over their respective fifty plus years of life, love, loss, and family. I found myself deeply engrossed in each woman’s story and noticed I particularly looked forward to the sections where Dana’s voice came through as I formed quite a fondness for Dana and her life with Clarice.  The Good Daughters is rich in detailed prose and an absolute delight to read even through the sadness and hardships told by Ruth and Dana. I would recommend The Good Daughters to anyone who is interested in reading a beautiful novel.  A word of caution, the reader may want to keep some tissues close at hand.

To learn more about author Joyce Maynard, please visit her website: www.joycemaynard.com

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a complimentary copy of The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Book Review: Little Black Dress by Susan McBride

Thursday 25 August, 2011 By 11 Comments

Title: Little Black Dress
Author: Susan McBride
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: August 23, 2011
Paperback: 320 pages
ISBN: 978-0062027191
Genre: Fiction

 

From the Publisher:

Two sisters whose lives seemed forever intertwined are torn apart when a magical little black dress gives each one a glimpse of an unavoidable future

Antonia Ashton has worked hard to build a thriving career and a committed relationship, but she realizes her life has gone off track. Forced to return home to Blue Hills when her mother, Evie, suffers a massive stroke, Toni finds the old Victorian where she grew up as crammed full of secrets as it is with clutter. Now she must put her mother’s house in order—and uncover long-buried truths about Evie and her aunt, Anna, who vanished fifty years earlier on the eve of her wedding. By shedding light on the past, Toni illuminates her own mistakes and learns the most unexpected things about love, magic, and a little black dress with the power to break hearts . . . and mend them.

My Review:

Little Black Dress by Susan McBride is an enchanting tale of Toni, her mother Evie, and aunt Anna whose lives are forever altered by the magical powers of a garment.  When Evie suffers from a large stroke, Toni returns home to help with things, including rummaging through the house’s treasures and that is where she learns of the power of the mysterious black dress and embarks on a pursuit of answers to her aunt’s mysterious disappearance some 50 years ago.  Told in alternating chapters that focus separately on Evie and then Toni, McBride creates an interesting motif where the chapters on Evie are told in first person whereas those on Toni are third person omniscient.  With a plot that contains plenty of twists, readers will be drawn into the lure of this dress that imparts the power to have a glimpse into the future as they discover that not only does the dress lead to revelations on Toni’s mother’s and aunt’s mysterious pasts, but Toni also leans more about herself on her magic-inspired quest for answers.  Though I found McBride’s writing to be expertly crafted and her witty style very befitting a mystery novel of this type, I am not a personal fan of magical elements, no matter how well they are written into plots.  I think readers who enjoy fantasy elements in their mysteries would probably find Little Black Dress to be an excellent choice.

To learn more about author Susan McBride, please visit her website: www.susanmcbride.com

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a complimentary ARC of Little Black Dress by Susan McBride from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Book Review: The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson

Wednesday 24 August, 2011 By 13 Comments

Title: The Lantern
Author: Deborah Lawrenson
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: August 9, 2011
Hardcover: 400 pages
ISBN: 978-0062049698
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

A modern gothic novel of love, secrets, and murder—set against the lush backdrop of Provence

Meeting Dom was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to me. When Eve falls for the secretive, charming Dom in Switzerland, their whirlwind relationship leads them to Les Genévriers, an abandoned house set among the fragrant lavender fields of the South of France. Each enchanting day delivers happy discoveries: hidden chambers, secret vaults, a beautiful wrought-iron lantern. Deeply in love and surrounded by music, books, and the heady summer scents of the French countryside, Eve has never felt more alive.

But with autumn’s arrival the days begin to cool, and so, too, does Dom. Though Eve knows he bears the emotional scars of a failed marriage—one he refuses to talk about—his silence arouses suspicion and uncertainty. The more reticent Dom is to explain, the more Eve becomes obsessed with finding answers—and with unraveling the mystery of his absent, beautiful ex-wife, Rachel.

Like its owner, Les Genévriers is also changing. Bright, warm rooms have turned cold and uninviting; shadows now fall unexpectedly; and Eve senses a presence moving through the garden. Is it a ghost from the past or a manifestation of her current troubles with Dom? Can she trust Dom, or could her life be in danger?

Eve does not know that Les Genévriers has been haunted before. Bénédicte Lincel, the house’s former owner, thrived as a young girl within the rich elements of the landscape: the violets hidden in the woodland, the warm wind through the almond trees. She knew the bitter taste of heartbreak and tragedy—long-buried family secrets and evil deeds that, once unearthed, will hold shocking and unexpected consequences for Eve.

My Review:

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson is a beautifully written and mysterious tale of Eve and Dom, two lovers who move to an old, vacant home in southern France with a mysterious past of its own.  Lawrenson’s descriptive prose transports readers to Provence as Eve gradually begins to discover the mysteries of her new home and begins to mistrust her lover who appears to be holding secrets of his former wife and her disappearance.  Slow to capture the suspense and mystery surrounding Eve’s new home and lover in the early portion of the novel, Lawrenson sets the reader up for a plot with many twists and surprises that are in store.  This is not a criticism, but rather how an exceptional story should unfold and I found it hard to set this one aside to tend to other responsibilities.  As readers begin to feel the mysteries are unfolding in a clear manner, Lawrenson crafts an unexpected turn that brilliantly brings the two mysteries together into one.  Mystery fans will find The Lantern to be very rewarding and I highly recommend The Lantern to all readers looking for an excellently crafted suspenseful tale.

About the Author:

Deborah Lawrenson grew up in Kuwait, China, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Singapore. She studied English at Cambridge University and has worked as a journalist for various publications in England, including the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, and Woman’s Journal magazine. She lives in Kent, England, and she and her family spend as much time as possible at a crumbling hamlet in Provence, France, the setting for The Lantern.

To learn more about author Deborah Lawrenson, please visit her website: www.deborah-lawrenson.co.uk/

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a complimentary ARC of The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Book Review: Remember Me by Cheryl Robinson

Tuesday 23 August, 2011 By 10 Comments

Title: Remember Me
Author: Cheryl Robinson
Publisher: NAL Trade
Publication Date: August 2, 2011
Hardcover: 400 pages
ISBN: 978-0451233387
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

What happens when the loyalty that defines the friendship of two women is tested? For Mia and Danielle, finding the answer takes a lifetime.

Mia Marks was an independent black girl from inner-city Detroit with an eye for the hottest fashions and a penchant for the good life. Danielle King was a soft-spoken suburban white girl with artistic ambitions. When they met at an all-girls Catholic high school, neither expected to form a deep bond that transcended race and background and lasted for years. And neither could have anticipated the one indiscretion that destroyed their friendship.

Twenty years later, Danielle is a successful novelist living in Miami. Mia is a schoolteacher in Detroit. But they’re still on common ground. Both are unhappily married and raising teenage daughters, and both are far to proud to make the first move to reconnect-until tragedy brings them back together in the most unexpected way.

Now they must confront the past, discover its untold truths, and learn to survive the increasing complexities of their lives and of a friendship destined to endure.

My Review:

Remember Me by Cheryl Robinson is a heartrending and inspiring tale of friendship, guilt, tragedy and making amends.  Told in alternating time periods between the late 1970s/early 1980s and present day, Robinson captures her characters, Mia and Danielle, in their purest forms as they meet as teens and then later as they are brought back together as grown, married, and not particularly happy, women.  Readers will delight in the author’s tale of how Mia, brought up in Detroit, befriends Danielle, brought up in the suburbs, when they both enter a private, all-girls high school.  Believing that friendship has no bounds by the beautifully powerful bond that Robinson builds between these two girls, readers will find out the true limits of this bond when a moment of poor judgment destroys what they had mutually constructed.  In present day, a devastatingly heartbreaking accident provides the catalyst that ultimately causes these two women, now living separate, and disconnected lives, to overcome the barrier that had been erected so long in the past.  A truly inspiring story about the strength people draw from friendships, the forces that bring two people, whose bond was broken beyond what seemed possible to repair, back together, and the enduring power of redemption, I recommend Remember Me by Cheryl Robinson to readers looking for an emotionally moving drama.

About the Author:

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Cheryl Robinson has a Bachelor’s of Science from Wayne State University. Her love of writing was sparked while taking a fiction writing course as a college elective. She began her literary career by self-publishing two novels before acquiring a literary agent and then a publishing deal. Remember Me is her sixth novel with New American Library, an imprint of the Penguin Group.

To learn more about author Chery Robinson, please visit her website: cherylrobinson.com

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a complimentary ARC of Remember Me by Cheryl Robinson from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Book Review: Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller

Monday 22 August, 2011 By 9 Comments

Title: Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness
Author: Alexandra Fuller
Publisher: Penguin Press HC
Publication Date: August 23, 2011
Hardcover: 256 pages
ISBN: 978-1594202995
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir

From the Publisher:

In this sequel to Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller returns to Africa and the story of her unforgettable family.

In Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness Alexandra Fuller braids a multilayered narrative around the perfectly lit, Happy Valley-era Africa of her mother’s childhood; the boiled cabbage grimness of her father’s English childhood; and the darker, civil war- torn Africa of her own childhood. At its heart, this is the story of Fuller’s mother, Nicola. Born on the Scottish Isle of Skye and raised in Kenya, Nicola holds dear the kinds of values most likely to get you hurt or killed in Africa: loyalty to blood, passion for land, and a holy belief in the restorative power of all animals. Fuller interviewed her mother at length and has captured her inimitable voice with remarkable precision. Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is as funny, terrifying, exotic, and unselfconscious as Nicola herself.

We see Nicola and Tim Fuller in their lavender-colored honeymoon period, when east Africa lies before them with all the promise of its liquid equatorial light, even as the British empire in which they both believe wanes. But in short order, an accumulation of mishaps and tragedies bump up against history until the couple finds themselves in a world they hardly recognize. We follow the Fullers as they hopscotch the continent, running from war and unspeakable heartbreak, from Kenya to Rhodesia to Zambia, even returning to England briefly. But just when it seems that Nicola has been broken entirely by Africa, it is the African earth itself that revives her.

A story of survival and madness, love and war, loyalty and forgiveness, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is an intimate exploration of the author’s family. In the end we find Nicola and Tim at a coffee table under their Tree of Forgetfulness on the banana and fish farm where they plan to spend their final days. In local custom, the Tree of Forgetfulness is where villagers meet to resolve disputes and it is here that the Fullers at last find an African kind of peace. Following the ghosts and dreams of memory, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is Alexandra Fuller at her very best.

My Review:

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller is a moving and descriptive story of the author’s family as it struggled through adversity.  Fuller eloquently captures much of her mother’s (Nicola Fuller) thoughts through extensive interviews and in her expertly crafted writing, brings to life the challenges faced by her parents in eastern Africa.  This is the second of her memoirs and considered a sequel of sorts to her first Don’t Let’s go to the Dogs Tonight, which I think explains why I had a difficult time completely following Fuller’s writing at times, yet there were so many poignant moments that left me awestruck to witness the incredible story of the Fuller’s.  This is a true story about survival, war, commitment, heartbreak and redemption and is told through the eyes of one who witnessed and penned by her daughter in well-crafted prose.  Like taking a personally-guided tour of Africa, Fuller brings to life her mother’s story and chronicles her life from the 1940’s through to the present day.  For readers looking for a story of family strength and triumph amidst adversity, I recommend Alexandra Fuller’s Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness but suggest readers consider first reading Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight.

About the Author:

Alexandra Fuller was born in England in 1969. In 1972, she moved with her family to a farm in southern Africa. She lived in Africa until her midtwenties. In 1994, she moved to Wyoming with her husband. They have three children.

To learn more about Alexandra Fuller, please visit her website: alexandrafuller.org

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a complimentary ARC of Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Book Review: Two for Sorrow by Nicola Upson

Friday 19 August, 2011 By 8 Comments

Title: Two for Sorrow
Author: Nicola Upson
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Publication Date: August 9, 2011
Paperback: 496 pages
ISBN: 978-0061451584
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery

From the Publisher:

They were the most horrific crimes of a new century: the murders of newborn innocents for which two British women were hanged at Holloway Prison in 1903. Decades later, mystery writer Josephine Tey has decided to write a novel based on Amelia Sach and Annie Walters, the notorious “Finchley baby farmers,” unaware that her research will entangle her in the desperate hunt for a modern-day killer.

A young seamstress—an ex-convict determined to reform—has been found brutally slain in the studio of Tey’s friends, the Motley sisters, amid preparations for a star-studded charity gala. Despite initial appearances, Inspector Archie Penrose is not convinced this murder is the result of a long-standing domestic feud—and a horrific accident involving a second young woman soon after supports his convictions. Now he and his friend Josephine must unmask a sadistic killer before more blood flows—as the repercussions of unthinkable crimes of the past reach out to destroy those left behind long after justice has been served.

My Review:

Two for Sorrow by Nicola Upson is a compelling, yet disturbing story of two women who are hanged for the murders of newborns in 1903 and a writer who years later is writing a book about it. Call it a “book within a book”, Upson has created a rather intriguing storytelling method for this third novel in her Josephine Tey series. In parallel with Tey’s research into these horrific events, readers are exposed to another shocking homicide in present day, one that is not disconnected from the hangings at Holloway Prison. Upson crafts a tantalizing mystery that leads readers to question why someone is carrying out vengeful acts so many years after the execution of those believed to be involved in the Finchley baby farming. Upson has assembled an interesting premise for her story and presents her characters in masterful fashion, characters with real and flawed characteristics. I have not read her two previous Josephine Tey novels and felt a little uncomfortable with the characters with whom I felt ill at ease in learning for the first time about their interrelationships. I would recommend that readers plan to read Upson’s first two Tey novels before Two for Sorrow. In all, I felt Two for Sorrow still paid off for its intriguing premise, well crafted prose and just the right amount of mystery and I would recommend this book to all mystery fans.

About the Author:

Nicola Upson has written for a variety of publications, including the New Statesman, where she was a crime fiction critic. She also regularly contributes to BBC radio and has worked in the theater for ten years. She divides her time between Cambridge and Cornwall.

For more about the author and her books, please visit her website: nicolaupson.com

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a complimentary ARC of Two for Sorrow by Nicola Upson from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Book Review: Shut Your Eyes Tight by John Verdon

Thursday 18 August, 2011 By 8 Comments

Title: Shut Your Eyes Tight (Dave Gurney, No. 2)
Author: John Verdon
Publisher: Crown
Publication Date: July 12, 2011
Hardcover: 528 pages
ISBN: 978-0307717894
Genre: Fiction, Thriller

From the Publisher:

 When he was the NYPD’s top homicide investigator, Dave Gurney was never comfortable with the label the press gave him: super detective. He was simply a man who, when faced with a puzzle, wanted to know. He was called to the investigative hunt by the presumptuous arrogance of murderers – by their smug belief that they could kill without leaving a trace. There was always a trace, Gurney believed.

Except what if one day there wasn’t?Dave Gurney, a few months past the Mellery case that pulled him out of retirement and then nearly killed him, is trying once again to adjust to his country house’s bucolic rhythms when he receives a call about a case so seductively bewildering that the thought of not looking into it seems unimaginable—even if his beloved wife, Madeleine, would rather he do anything but.The facts of what has occurred are horrible: a blushing bride, newly wed to an eminent psychiatrist and just minutes from hearing her congratulatory toast, is found decapitated, her head apparently severed by a machete. Though police investigators believe that a Mexican gardener killed the young woman in a fit of jealous fury, the victim’s mother—a chilly high-society beauty—is having none of it. Reluctantly drawn in, Dave is quickly buffeted by a series of revelations that transform the bizarrely monstrous into the monstrously bizarre.  Underneath it all may exist one of the darkest criminal schemes imaginable. And as Gurney begins deciphering its grotesque outlines, some of his most cherished assumptions about himself are challenged, causing him to stare into an abyss so deep that it threatens to swallow not just him but Madeleine, too.
Desperate to protect Madeleine and bring an end to the madness, Gurney ultimately discovers that the killer has left a trace after all. Unfortunately, the revelation may come too late to save his own life.With Shut Your Eyes Tight, John Verdon delivers on the promise of his internationally bestselling debut, Think of a Number, creating a portrait of evil let loose across generations that is as rife with moments of touching humanity as it is with spellbinding images of perversity.



My Review:

Shut Your Eyes Tight by John Verdon is a captivating thriller and the second book in the Detective Dave Gurney series, a series beginning with Verdon’s debut Think of a Number.  In Shut Your Eyes Tight, Gurney is once again called out of retirement to investigate a heinous beheading and readers will delight in the superior style that Verdon has adopted in this most compelling series of thrillers.  Verdon masterfully crafted this mystery thrill ride where Gurney finds evil far beyond his wildest expectations as he investigates the gruesome and bizarre death of a new bride in the middle of her wedding reception.  Verdon has cleverly crafted an exceptional thriller while exemplifying beautiful literary characteristics in his use of vivid descriptions and details of the characters, their lives, and their surroundings.   Shut Your Eyes Tight was a book that could have gone on forever and I would not complain, and I am glad to see he has continued in the tradition of excellence set out with the original Dave Gurney novel.  Without reservation I recommend Shut Your Eyes Tight to anyone looking for an exceptionally thought out thriller.

About the Author:

JOHN VERDON has held several executive positions with Manhattan advertising firms, but like his protagonist, he recently relocated with his wife to rural upstate New York. Shut Your Eyes Tight is his second novel.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a complimentary ARC of Shut Your Eyes Tight by John Verdon from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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