The Room and the Chair by Lorraine Adams

   What to say about this book? I'm not sure if I really liked, just liked, or so-so liked this book. Hmmm. Maybe I'll have figured it out by the time I'm ready to close this review.
   First impression: Did not like the book. Had a hard time getting into it. Frankly, I wanted to skip it altogether. Ms. Adams seemed to have pulled out her thesaurus and sat down determined to use every entry; I was waiting for her to sign it Baby Kangaroo Tribiani (that would be a Friends reference, you should watch the show). Her vocabulary didn't make the book impossible to understand, but it did seem to make it stultifying to read. Hard to grasp the thread of the story also. Put the book down and finished the books from last week.
   Second impression: Finished last week's books, so time to go back to this one (read: lack of enthusiasm). Something different. Either the vocabulary lesson eased, I acclimatized to it, the story thread improved or a little of all three. Kind of liking the book. Kind of liking the characters. Feeling a little invested in their stories. A little curious as to how the story plays out.
   Some things I specifically liked: The vocabulary use was fun, if a tad/more than a tad overdone. There were some really interestingly visual turns of phrase. The characters' speech was written the way people actually speak. Think stops and starts, stutters and interruptions, incompletely spoken sentences followed by new, sometimes off topic, sentences.
   Some thing I specifically did not like: The translation of the characters' vagueness and ambiguity to the writing itself. It went beyond tone setting to impart an unnecessary lack of clarity in the story telling. Sometimes I wasn't quite sure what I was reading or was supposed to take away from what I read.
  

Favorite Quotes:

"She wanted to take the coat of appearances given her by birth and burn it away by will."

"The room was butterlies of beating questions."

"She thought they were bright, because when she looked in the mirror she saw her face transformed by the wish she brought to checking how time had played with her."

"Breaking a story was a cork trophy in an evanescent sport."

"Adam picked the mask of concern-the least convincing in his collection-and tried to put it on his face."

"It was enough for the first sensations, if one was neither too picky nor too slattern."

"He was talking with the forward motion of a cartoon cannonball."


Overall Opinion:

Hmmm, I'm still not sure. Oh! Wait a minute. My overall opinion is-ambivalent.


Rating:

???What Do You Rate Ambivelent???

Delusion by Peter Abrahams

   In the mystery/suspense genre, Delusion began better than it ended. The book follows Nell Jarreau as she learns that the man she testified against and whose conviction her testimony was instrumental in winning might be released from jail due to new, exonerating evidence.
   Peter Abrahams does lead to wonder about the veracity of the evidence, the motive(s) behind its hidden whereabouts and the secrets of the characters. However, the mystery soon unravels and the reader is left with the sneaking and sinking suspicion that they've read this story or seen the movie before. When the reader starts to figure out the answer without any evidence to the contrary, it becomes difficult to want to read the rest of the story for any other reason than just to see its inevitable conclusion.
   I found myself scanning toward the end of the book instead of enjoying the words on the page. Mr. Abrahams kept me interested enough in the first half of the book that I my interest is piqued sufficiently to give him another shot.


Favorite Quote:

"That sounded all right to Pirate. A Jew would have been better, of course, as everyone knew. But, hey! No reason this specialist woman couldn't be a Jew. He almost asked."


Overall Opinion:

A beginning strong enough to leave me disappointed with its obviousness. Disappointed. Maybe next book.


Rating:

6

murder suicide by Keith Ablow

   Alrighty-roo. If there is another Keith Ablow book on the shelves when I go back to the library, I won't be disappointed. murder suicide takes place earlier in Frank Clevenger's (the protagonist) chronology than The Architect. Going backwards with a serial character can sometimes be a little off putting for me because the later you find the character, the more he/she is usually developed. I still liked Frank. Granted I have only read two books that feature him, but still, I like him.
   Dr. Ablow does another fantastic job of keeping the suspense keen enough that you can't wait to solve the mystery without drawing the tension so tight that you just want to get it over with. Kudos. There are enough possible suspects that it could be anyone which eliminates conclusion jumping. It's more like conclusion hopping, you change your mind back and forth as the story progresses.
   Well developed characters (definitely rooting for Billy), no skimping on the psychological analysis (Clevenger is, after all, a forensic psychiastrist), strong visual imagery that enhances the drama and suspense.


Favorite Quotes:

"Snow's wife had never seen him undress, scarcely seen him naked. Their sex was something stolen from one another under the covers by night."

"'It's early,' Billy blurted out, then looked down self-consciously, as if he'd dropped his veneer of cool somewhere near his feet."


Overall Opinion:

Is it suicide or is it murder? I'm not telling. Read the book and find out for yourself.


Rating:

Read it!

The Architect by Keith Ablow

   Keith Ablow is a forensic psychiatrist. When I see him on the news expounding on this or that I find him to be intelligent and straightforward. As a writer I find him to be an entertaining author with an engaging protaganist. It is fitting that his main character is also a forensic psychiatrist, write what you know indeed.
   The Architect is the first of two Dr. Ablow books that I checked out in this week's haul. It was smartly written and features Dr. Frank Clevenger, a personable good guy who does his job well and seems to be doing his darndest to tread water in his personal life. I was definitely rooting for him. Ablow's book reminded me of James Patterson's (one of my favorite thriller/detective go to authors) Michael Bennett and/or Alex Cross series; also personable good guys treading water.
   This book kept me turning pages, the characters were well developed, the storyline was intriguing and the tension was good. I love me a surprise ending and was thrilled to find that this book had one. (So often the books I've read in this genre don't.) Good relaxing day read.


Favorite Quotes:

"Bright white Chiclets for teeth."

"He had visited the prisoners at Middleton many times. The three officers behind the huge plate glass window in the lobby, cashiers of humanity, knew him well."


Overall Opinion:

I'm thinking about adding Ablow to my Patterson lineup.


Rating:

Definitely a Read Worth Reading

Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott

   Bury Me Deep was fantastic! Written with breathless, run-on sentences and wonderful fragments, Megan Abbott draws you in and keeps you reading until the book is done. The story is based on a true one that took place in 1931.
   The tale stars Marion, a sheltered young wife, left alone in a strange city while her husband works in Mexico. In smaller billing are Lousie and Ginny, two good-time girls with well earned, questionable reputations and no qualms about earning a living and "Gent" Joe Lanigan, the obligatory man's man who runs the town behind and in front of the scenes. A pivotal cameo is put in by Dr. Seeley, Marion's husband.
   Marion, at first naively drawn into the circle, later purposely shuts her eyes so that she can stay in it. There is no good ending for any of the characters. There are no good characters, though some of them have redeeming traits that keep you from despising them.
   Ms. Abbott's writes the way people think; a healthy contempt for the proper use of commas, semicolons and periods, not to mention a callous disregard for complete sentences. Her style makes Marion come off the pages in a way that allows you to feel her awe, uneasiness, doubt and grasping. All of the characters snap with realism and never fall flat.
   If you're wondering what the story is actually about, well, c'mon, I told you there was a lonely married woman befriended by girls determined to thumb their noses at all things polite, who also know someone named Gent Joe. What you think is going to happen will, what you think couldn't happen don't be too sure of.

Favorite Quotes:

"Ride a while and smile the while, dontcha know."

"The music hammered at her and the floors felt sodden with champagne and maybe it wasn't so different from Louise and Ginny's and yet it was. It was. It was because that was their party and this was not. This was not. It was something else and it felt a little bit like these girls had, stiff-faced and cold-eyed, punched a clock."

"The feckless words whistling in her ear, and before she could think, her arm lifted again and she pointed this time at him, trying to rise, shirtfront showgirl-spangled."

Overall Opinion:

Did I say it was fantastic?! Ms. Abbott also offers the additional gift of a synopsis of the true story her book is based on. Yay.

Rating:

Recommended Reading

Panic by Jeff Abbott

   I have to say, I don't recall ever feeling so nervous about reading. I was definitely feeling a bit of panic during the first chapter. I'm still not sure if the first chapter's pace was that fast or if it was just me feeling imaginary pressure to get it right.
   To the book. Panic is a thriller/spy novel written by Jeff Abbott. Mr. Abbott, not as funny as Mr. Costello by the by, is a new author to me. The book follows Evan Casher, a young documentary filmmaker, who receives an urgent and upsetting phone call from his mother to return home. Evan rushes for home in a hurry, leaving behind his girlfriend after telling her he loves her for the first time the night before. Arriving at his parents' home he finds that his parents have been living secret lives and that he now has to fight to survive while rescuing both his family and his girl.
   CIA, spies, double agents, international espionage and family turmoil. The writing gets better as the book develops, the secret Evan has to unravel to regain his life was better than what I was predicting it would be. It wasn't until the last 1/4 of the book that I felt like I was enjoying it, rather than reading it just to finish reading it.

Favorite quote of the book:

"Evan watched her and wondered who she really was, in the spaces between flesh and bone."

Overall Opinion:

Not written well enough to make me curious about his other books, but there was enough that was intriguing about the book to make me want to finish it.

Rating:

1 Time Read