Reading List 2014

Here are the books that Park Lake Page Turners have read in 2014, the ratings we assigned to them and how they ranked.

1  (4.7) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak                                    January

2  (4.6) The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin            July

3  (4.4)  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou    August

4  (4.3) Hiding in the Spotlight by Greg Dawson                          April

    (4.3) The Healing by Jonathan O'Dell                                        September

5  (4.0) The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein                    February

    (4.0) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens                             March

6  (3.9) Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline                             October

    (3.9) Defending Jacob by William Landay                                 November

7  (3.6) The Paris Wife by Paula McLain                                        May

8  (2.7) Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff                                                    June

Defending Jacob by William Landay

"I thought it was more important to be---at least to seem---a tower of strength and to encourage her [Laurie] to be strong as well. It was the only sensible approach:  tough it out, get through the trial, do whatever it takes to keep Jacob safe, then repair the emotional damage later. After. It was as if there was a place called After, and if I could just push my family across to that shore, then everything would be all right. There would be time for all these 'soft' problems in the land of After. I was wrong."
                    -Andy Barber, from the novel

Defending Jacob was chosen as the November book for our Page Turners group because it was recommended by a couple of members and it was a library Book Bundle (multiple copies available). Normally, I love suspense novels but this one, not so much. Perhaps the plot, involving the killing of a teenager allegedly by another youth was very unsettling to me. Or perhaps my having read it in spurts kept me from getting the most out of it. At any rate I didn't love the book though I liked it and surely didn't want to put it down toward the end. I started out thinking a rating of 3 but ended up giving it a 4.

The story was intriguing---about a family suffering through tragic circumstances. Andy Barber, a former county ADA in Massachusetts and the father who is "defending Jacob," exemplifies the saying "love is blind" to a degree. It seems he would go to any lengths to clear his son Jacob of the murder with which he has been charged. The emotions of the Barber family run the gamut---from hope and optimism to doubt and depression. The writer intersperses court testimony with narration of the story---an interesting technique though somewhat confusing. (After finding out the author is a former district attorney, this seemed very natural.)

There are at least two BIG surprises at the end of the book, events I surely did not see coming! So if you start the novel, don't stop until the end.
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When the group met, the average rating was 3.9. I think we all found the book interesting if not enjoyable. Most of us agreed we weren't sure about the outcome of the trial and would have definitely liked a more satisfying ending. A couple of us compared Defending Jacob to House Rules by Jodi Piccoult. Most of us felt sympathy for Laurie, Jacob's mother, but couldn't muster much affection for the other characters.

The plot brings up the age old argument of "nature vs. nurture," whether there is such a thing as a "bad seed" and a totally new concept to most of us in the group, the "murder gene" with the scientific name MAOA Knockout. We wondered, "Is there really such a thing?" The novel did give us plenty of meat for discussion, including the issues of bullying and non-vigilant parents.

The Mephisto Club by Tess Gerritsen

"Maybe they are [a separate species]. Throwbacks to an ancient era. All I know is, they are not like us. And the only way to identify them is to track what they do. Follow the bloody trail, listen for screams. Search for what most police departments are too overwhelmed to notice: the patterns. We look beyond the background noise of everyday crimes, of routine bloodshed, to see the hot spots. We watch for the footprints of monsters."
                      -Anthony Sansone, from the novel

My third Rizzoli and Isles novel, I would rate it a 3. I liked it but didn't love it. It was definitely a page turner because I wanted to know how it would all turn out but I didn't find the plot as believable as the other two I've read.

The story has a few sub plots running, most of which will mesh in the end. Rizzoli is after a serial killer who just may be subhuman while dealing with the breakup of her parents; Maura is fighting both her feelings for an unavailable man and the attempts of the Mephisto Club to recruit her, and the "Watcher" shares his evil thoughts at intervals while his next victim is on the lam. The mysterious Anthony Sansone, quoted above, is the leader of this demon-hunting club and becomes involved in the search for the maniacal killer.

I didn't really like the premise of a killer being part human, part fallen angel and the killings were awfully gruesome. Other than that, The Mephisto Club was a suspenseful, easy read.

Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen

"Since her days as a medical student, it was the autopsy room, and not the patient's bedside, where she'd felt most comfortable. The dead don't expect you to make small talk or listen to their endless complaints or watch while they writhe in pain. The dead are beyond pain, and they don't expect you to perform miracles you are incapable of. They wait patiently and uncomplainingly as long as it takes for you to finish your job."
                                            -from the novel

After plodding through Deadly Heat by Richard Castle, I whipped through this one in less than 3 days! What a difference in the pace and clarity of the story and the writing skill! Isn't it ironic though, that these two titles are so similar but almost opposites? I just realized that as I began this entry.

The story focuses on Boston Medical Examiner Maura Isles in the beginning, as she attends a conference in Wyoming and on the spur-of-the-moment decides to go skiing with an old acquaintance she meets there. When the party of five gets lost and then stuck in a heavy snow and with no cell phone service, they are forced to look for shelter. They discover an abandoned village with many hints of a mysterious past. When one of the traveling companions is horribly injured, the situation is even direr.

When Maura starts out to try to find help, she is apprehended by a mysterious man. When Maura's friend, Boston Detective Jane Rizzoli, hears that she is missing she, her husband and Maura's lover, all rush to Maura's last known location to begin a search. There are many twists and turns in the plot as the story goes back and forth between Maura's situation and Rizzoli's search efforts. After a while both Maura and Rizzoli's team discover separately that the abandoned village had been recently inhabited by a religious sect called The Gathering led by a charismatic, but seemingly evil "prophet," Jeremiah Goode. Clues begin to shed light on a possible mass suicide eerily reminiscent of Jonestown in Guyana, the Branch Davidians in Waco and Heaven's Gate in San Diego. It's an intriguing plot with very unsettling revelations. As I indicated, your mind will get jerked around as you try to predict what will happen next. It makes Ice Cold a page turner in the first degree! It rates a 5 from me.

Deadly Heat by Richard Castle

"Lately, working routine homicides had become a distraction that kept her from focusing fully on her bigger case. Of course she couldn't share that with anyone on her squad, but she did complain to Rook how hard it was to try to close a chapter when people kept opening others. He reminded her of the words of John Lennon: 'Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.'"
                              -from the novel

As a fan of the TV series "Castle" I had planned for a while to read one of the Castle novels. This was the first and I must say I plodded through it. I'm not sure what the problem was---perhaps my failure to read the first in the series or maybe just inferior writing. Through the first half of the book I was confused and wondered if I even wanted to finish, pretty unusual for a favorite genre of mine. Once I reached the climax, the reading went a bit faster but I'll rate Deadly Heat only a 2.5. I doubt I'll bother to look for others in the series.

In this novel, Detective Nikki Heat is juggling two cases, a personal one---the murder of her CIA agent mother some years past---and several current serial killings with seemingly no connection and with Detective Heat possibly slated to be the next victim. In the course of the plot there is the potential of bioterrorism which reminded me too much of the ebola problem now.

I was surprised I learned some new detective slang---expressions like POI (person of interest), eyewits, "belt and suspenders" (everything covered) and odd sock (something out of place). Many obscenities did not seem necessary since they're not used in the TV show and many suspense novels use them sparingly.

I had assumed the novels by Richard Castle, the name of the author character on TV, was a pen name but when I saw the author's photo on the book jacket, it was the actor's photo. So I googled Richard Castle and learned the name is a pseudonym for the anonymous writer(s) but they use the photo of actor Nathan Fillion and he even does book signings. Interesting!