Quickie reviews...

Title: The Little Stranger
Author: Sarah Water

Opening sentence: "I first saw Hundreds' Hall when I was ten years old.

Oh I do like a good ghost story! Have you ever watched one of those horror movies and found yourself yelling ‘Run, get out of the house’ at the actors onscreen….chapter by chapter I was practically willing the characters to simply pack up and get the heck out of there!

Many a time I could have throttled the narrator Dr Faradays' neck as again and again he pooh-poohs the Ayres family increasingly horror filled suspicions that something bad is ‘infecting’ their house and perhaps even themselves. With irritatingly rational explanations that they are tired and stressed by worry or simply implying that they might be going a bit potty in the head the good doctor seems to be helping his new found gentry friends or is he? Has his fascination with the great Hall that awed him as a child blinkered his judgement of the creepy events that occur one after the other in order to be a part of the house and the lives of those living there. Right to the very end there is an implication that all is not as it seems...

A newcomer to Sarah Waters writing I was delighted to find that this novel was not simply a period piece on post war English life (as one could be fooled into thinking by skimming the blurb on the back of the book) but also held decent helpings of murder, mystery and madness.

From start to finish the words just seemed to roll from the page and I loved the authors way of setting the scene, giving us the smallest of details or moments in descriptive, short sentences that in another writers hand could have been long, drawn out paragraphs. These marvelous tidbits lend the reader a real insight so that you actually feel you must give a small cough as dust is disturbed in the musty, crumbling rooms of Hundreds Hall or take a deep breath to inhale the sweet grassy smell of the overgrown tangled garden wafting through the french doors as Dr Faraday sits having tea with the Ayres family one summer afternoon.

Rather than ramble on in my clueless way (heh, heh) I will direct you to a review and discussion of the novel I liked at this book blog Shelf Life . Enjoy!


....and to the book I finished today....


Title: Isabella Moon
Author: Laura Benedict

Opening Sentence: "Kate was suprised when the stern-looking young woman at the duty desk told her to take a seat instead of just asking her name and sending her on her way when she announced, in a voice she could barely keep from shaking, that she knew where they could find the body of Isabella Moon."

The book begins in small town Kentucky, the towns people still scarred by the mysterious disappearence two years ago of a little girl called Isabella Moon. Faced with an almost complete lack of evidence - lack, even of a body - the case of the missing girl is still open and the frustrated Sheriff Bill Delaney is no nearer a resolution.

Until Kate Russell shows up that is. Kate holds long buried dark secrets of her own and has found refuge in sleepy Carystown until her quiet idyllic life is turned upside down and a reluctant Kate finds herself at the centre of the case of the missing Isabella. As unsettling truths emerge, the charming facade of the town begin to crumble and a community is undone by murder, secrets and lies.....

The story starts off promisingly enough once you get to grips with the many characters and you are just settling in for a good thriller. You begin to discover the dark secrets of Kate's past through a series of flashbacks and also the secrets that several of the other characters are keeping.....and then just after the halfway mark you realise its all becoming a bit like a bad soap opera (silly me...are there any good soap opera's! and yes Joan Collins would make a fabulous Janet ha ha!) but of course by then its too late and you are hooked, hanging in there until the ridiculous conclusion.

I was often irritated by having to re-read sentences because I felt they were worded oddly and I had to work to make sense of them. I feel the author started off with a good idea but then it snowballed into way too many subplots and the characters became superficial. Their reactions to situations became more and more unbelievable and far-fetched as the book progressed until you found yourself berating their stupidity under your breath. Also I was disappointed that the ghost was used more as a convenient tool to tell the characters who-dunnit rather than anything more meaningful or mysterious.

Entertaining to a point.