Tag: suspense

Audiobook review : The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

sharonstephens26Leave a comment

hardcastle

Author : Stuart Turton

Publication Date : 2018

Publisher(s) : Sourcebooks Landmark

Narrator : Jot Davies

Literary Awards :

Costa Book Award for First Novel (2018),

 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery & Thriller and for Debut Author (2018),

Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Nominee for Longlist (2019)

 Books Are My Bag Readers’ Awards for Best Novel (2018)

Plot summary :

The house party is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy . As fireworks explode overhead , Evelyn Hardcastle , the young and beautiful daughter of the house , pulls the trigger of the pistol positioned at her stomach .  Aiden , one of the guests at Blackheath is tasked to find the murderer of Evelyn Hardcastle because somebody believes that there is more to the death of Evelyn Hardcastle than the suicide that the guests witnessed . . .

But Evelyn will not die just once . Until Aiden can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself , over and over again . Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot .

The only way to break this cycle is to identify the murderer . But , on cycling to the beginning of the day , Aiden wakes up in the body of one of the house guests – and every time it ‘ s a  different guest .

Aiden has a deadline , deadly enemies and too many dark secrets to uncover to unmask Evelyn ‘ s killer to escape Blackheath . . .

My thoughts on the book :

We have time and again seen our suspense fiction writers ( even  more often the debut authors ) experiment with the narrative  techniques – from the ( now done – to – death ) unreliable narrators to the reverse narrative and everything in between . . . In this scene , TSDOEH is still a bold attempt and Turton has pulled it off  marvellously . It is not far – fetched to compare the crime fiction author to a jigsaw puzzle designer who needs to cut every piece  to precision so that it fits with the next piece in sequence perfectly . While authors have sometimes had slip – ups with some of the frequently incorporated techniques only , to pull off a very convincing thriller with a previously unattempted time – loop element is nothing short of a feat . . .

The first thing that I loved about this book was that it has the power to keep the reader hooked . Let me explain –  I had always been a little wary of audiobooks . I am a multitasker and getting me to sit down with one task at a time is not that easy ( the exception being ONLY  books . . . ) . With the ” convenience ” of ” reading – on -the – move ” , I was not sure if I would be invested in the story as I would be in a physical book . I had tried it out earlier with some of P G Wodehouse ‘ s novels and it didn ‘ t work out . I am not sure if it was the story or the narration that lost my interest . . . I turned to Audible only under dire circumstances when  I ” had nothing to read ” in my shelves . . .  It might sound cliched but the story and the narration had me hooked right from the first chapter . .

A special mention should go to the narrator of the audiobook  Jot Davies . Without the glowing reviews of his performance , I doubt if people can be easily persuaded to pick up the book from the collection there . It lived up to all the expections set by these reviews .

While several authors fail to make every character memorable when there a bunch of them making their entrances and exits at different times ( or sometimes attach their profession like the doctor or the solicitor as a primary identifier with some by – the – template characteristics thrown in for some extra depth ) , Turton does not seem to have stumbled on this aspect which sometimes seems to have tripped up even the best of the crime fiction writers . . .  I guess this needs some elaboration :

The reader and Aiden is more or less on the same boat – Aiden wakes up every time in the body of a different guest and that ‘ s when the reader also gets a proper introduction to the character who would have been yet – another – guest ‘ s – name until now . A good two or three chapters is all the space that a character gets  ( with all the drama in the house too !! ) to make an impression on the reader .  Whether Aiden is slow to pick up any hints from his earlier avatars or not ,  an observant reader will surely able to connect the dots between the last loop and the current loop . But I should warn you not to underestimate Turton  –  that ‘ s as far as you can get . Just when you think you have an idea , Turton brings up HIS ideas and they would leave you dumb – founded . You would have never had the slightest inkling of the trajectory the plot would trace . . .

The author ‘ s Goodreads bio states that ” Stuart is not to be trusted. In the nicest possible way ” . It would have been better if they put it out as the warning for the readers also . . .  Just when the reader thinks that the mystery of Evelyn ‘ s death has been solved and he / she can get back to the real world , Stuart decides to pull yet another rabbit from his hat .  The final reveal was simply brilliant . . .

I am looking  forward to getting my hands on his next release ( expected in October 2020 ) . . . Hopefully , we are back to our ” old normal ” by then . . .

Rating : 5 / 5

If you have already read the book , you can say in the comments section about your thoughts on the book  . . . Until the next review then . . .

P . S : Maybe , now I will finally pick up a classic from my shelf as I mentioned in my previous post . . .

 

Review: Daddy ‘ s Gone a – Hunting

sharonstephens26Leave a comment

The first book I picked up this year was The Chalk Man . It looks like C J Tudor used several elements from the Stephen King ‘ s books and fleshed out her narrative . While IT had Losers , C J introduces us to The Misfits and frankly the backstories of some of the Misfits sound vaguely familiar if you are familiar with the IT world . . My imagination did not bother or lacked the power to picturise the ” horrifying ” scenes down to the minute detail that I did not get scared as much as I hoped to be .  So I breezed through the book and returned it to the library . Nothing stood out about The Chalk Man that I remember it or could have written about here . .

That’s why I picked up a Mary Higgins Clark  . But even Clark turned out to be a huge disappointment this time . But I have finally come to terms with the bitter truth that every  great writer has a few mediocre  books to his or her credit and Clark is no exception . The first thing that popped up in my mind after reading this book was if Clark actually wrote this book . Okay , without further rant , I will get started with the review . .

Plot summary :

A dark secret from a family’s past that threatens the lives of two sisters, Kate and Hannah Connelly, when the family-owned furniture firm in Long Island City , founded by their grandfather and famous for its fine reproductions of antiques , explodes into flames in the middle of the night , leveling the buildings to the ground , including the museum where priceless antiques have been on permanent display for years.

The ashes reveal a startling and grisly discovery , and provoke a host of suspicions and questions . Was the explosion deliberately set ? What was Kate—tall , gorgeous , blond , a CPA for one of the biggest accounting firms in the country , and sister of a rising fashion designer — doing in the museum when it burst into flames ? Why was Gus , a retired and disgruntled craftsman, with her at that time of night ? What if someone isn’t who he claims to be?

Now Gus is dead , and Kate lies in the hospital badly injured and in a coma , so neither can tell what drew them there , or what the tragedy may have to do with the hunt for a young woman missing for many years , nor can they warn that somebody may be covering his tracks, willing to kill to save himself . . .

My thoughts on the book : 

This is not a regular Clark novel and here are the reasons for it –

I have always raved about Clark’s heroines being young women who can  tackle unexpected problematic situations in their lives with grit and intelligence .  But sadly , Hannah Connelly does not have neither the intelligence  or  the  grit for some amateur sleuth work or even bring some decent intuition until  the last  – but  – one  chapter . . . The amateur sleuth ( Hannah ‘ s sister Kate as a matter of fact ) is unfortunately sent to the coma within 3 chapters and we are left to put up with one of the most unimaginative Clark heroines who can only sit by her sister’s bedside holding her hand . . .

While I might have appreciated the deviation from the template requiring a  I – can – handle – it – all – by – myself heroine , what  irked me about Hannah Connelly is that she doesn’t bring anything to the plot . Take her out of the story line and still you would have a decent suspense story with the remainder of the characters  . Note :  You can also take her love interest from the plot . I seriously wouldn’t miss either of them . Katie ‘ s  friend and her love – interest atleast do some thinking and give us some new angles to  think about . . .

There is a reference to a Roman Catholic father who turns up at Kate’s hospital room to pray for her . I was expecting him to bring something significant information to the hospital visit along with his prayers . . . Nope , he had only the prayers and yet he took up an entire chapter . Talk about suspense genre writing  sins . . . In addition to introducing characters who were only trying my patience as they took up entire chapters , the overall character development was not satisfactory . Sometimes it looked even amateurish .

While we are guaranteed a happy ending with Clark ,  I can’ t buy some aspects of the plot . . . While I might liberally overlook if those aspects are those of the subplot  , the fact is that I can ‘ t  buy the reveal of the main plot itself . . .

** Spoiler alert **

Will a four year old repress her intuitive knowledge regarding her father and the associated memory and actually grow up to be a young woman whose interactions with that man are very normal like a regular father – daughter ? I happened to pick up Agatha Christie ‘ s Sleeping murder ( as a re – read ) in which , coincidentally the heroine ‘ s  ( Gwenda Reed ‘ s ) memory from early childhood gets triggered and she screams out when she sees the play The Duchess of Malfi and hears the following words spoken by one of the actors  –  “Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young” . . .

While Christie does not specify Gwenda ‘ s age ( at the time Gwenda actually thinks she witnessed the murder of a young woman named Helen ) , we can safely assume she was probably two or  two – and – a – half . While several little things help Gwenda piece the memories ( with Miss Marple ‘ s help , of course )  , wouldn’t anything in all these years of Kate ‘ s life triggered something like an uneasiness regarding the man whom she called her father ? ? The man had actually threatened Kate that she should not say those words again when she had inadvertently let the incriminating words slip through . Will the threat become a part of the sub – conscious that easily ? I just can’t buy that . . .

When you have umpteen questions  regarding the big reveal and downright unimpressed with the lead pair , you can ‘ t give it even a 3 .

Rating : 2 . 5 / 5

P . S : Now that we are in a lock-down in India  , I don ‘ t have any option but to revisit my bookshelves. I am thinking of picking up a classic for a change .  Hoping that the next read would be a change from all these disappointments . . .

Two books in three months – I know that the count is pathetic . . . Hoping I will be able to remedy that . . .

Review : The Hunting Party

sharonstephens26Leave a comment

Huntin'Party

Author : Lucy Foley

Publication Date : 2019

Publisher(s) : Harper Collins

Plot Summary :

A group of old friends have come together to celebrate the New Year of 2019 in a remote Scottish hunting lodge . There are Giles & Samira – the new parents , Nick & Bo , Julien & Miranda – the ” Golden ” couple , Mark & Emma and finally , Katie – the singleton in the group . Then one of them is found dead . It does not look like an accident . . .

My thoughts about the book :

The Hunting Party is described as ‘ Gripping ‘ by Sophie Hannah . It also has other one – adjective praises by authors like A J Finn and Laura Marshall . I picked up this book on seeing these praises and am resolved in future not to pick up any book based on any author ‘ s recommendations alone . . . The most questionable adjective that can be given to this book is from Laura Marshal – ” Eerie ” .

The narrative covers the period from Dec 30 2018 to Jan 2 2019 . The story has 4 first person narratives  from Miranda , Katie , Emma and Heather ( the Lodge manager ) and a third person narrative  for Doug (  the Lodge gamekeeper ) . There were a few aspects of the writing which did not sit well with me . . .

Too many dandelions :

I seemed to trip upon the dandelions – sometimes a lone one and sometimes in clusters almost in every single chapter . I was trying to make allowance for one or two popping up occasionally , but the more often you encounter them , the less patience you have left to deal with them . When I trip upon a dandelion , my brain goes – ” Here comes the next one . . . Doesn’t it sound . . . “  . I get interested in the choice of words put together for the newly – minted simile / metaphor and for the next 5 minutes this one is going to have my attention .

” And there is a red bloom around her head where it has struck the rocks – a starburst , a supernova of red . . . “

The problem with the current crop of suspense / detective fiction writers  is , they try to emulate the literary fiction in terms of  language & narrative  – with disastrous results . While experimenting with hyper-realistic narratives and flowery language , the current breed of crime fiction writers seem to forget that they are writing for the suspense genre where a good pace is the key to guarantee the reader a great reading experience [ ” the ending that leaves the reader breathless ” , ” the shocker that you can never see coming ” and other similar reactions . . . ]

Thankfully , the author stopped with the flowery language and did not go for the hyper – realistic narrative . Perhaps , none of the characters  are portrayed with a depth that would require a hyper – realistic approach or any innovative narrative technique to actually peel off the layers off the character the reveal the real person .

The usage of  ” millennial ” slang  in the narratives :

While the narrators are millennial , trying to capture that in the slang is not a good idea . I never realized millennial conversations ( with those filler words ) , when put on paper looks so bad . . . There is the liberal mindless usage of the f*** word , the afterthoughts without which some characters can’t seem to finish a sentence – all these were major put – offs . Here is one :

” ‘ But who wants Westminster – all those sweaty bodies pressed together – when you can have this ? ‘ Emma asks . ‘ This place ‘ , she spreads her arms wide , ‘ and best friends . ‘ She links her arm with mine , and smiles at me , a proper , warm smile . I want to hug her . Thank fuck for Emma . ” 

The thing which amused me highly is this one :

There is a chapter which is narrated by the character when she is drunk . ” Being in a temporary state in which one’s physical and mental faculties are impaired by an excess of alcoholic drink ;  intoxicated ” is the definition provided for the word drunk . And here , the narrator is perfectly aware of her surroundings .  Here is a second one from the same narrator  –

” It’s the way he says it : so quiet , under his breath , so that no one else can hear . I suddenly feel cold in a way that I don’t think has anything to do with the freezing air . I take a step back . . .” 

For someone who says ” I feel numb . I’d forgotten I had so much wine before the champagne . My thoughts are jumbled , my mind fuggy . . . “ , she sure has a heightened awareness of self and her surroundings to be able to pin down even the smallest reaction she had to somebody ‘ s words . . .

Frankly , I was so disappointed with this one – I was looking for a solid closed circle mystery  and the setting looked promising for a good mystery . Instead  the average writing and a not-very-convincing solution to the question ” Who is the killer ? ” only made me wish that I hadn’t bothered with this one . . .

Rating : 2 . 75  / 5

Is there something in the post you disagree with ? Feel free to write about it as well in the comments section . . .

Until the next review then . . .

A final note :

This might be the last post for this year – unless I get a short read I need to rave about . . . Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year in advance . . .