The Book: Gone, Baby, Gone, by Dennis Lehane

The Story: A four year old girl, Amanda, is reported missing after having been gone several days. The private detective team of Patrick and Angie are put on the case because of their track record in being able to figure out tough cases that no one else can.

When they start to hear from Angie’s mom- a barfly and sometimes drug runner- they start to get the idea that something is way, way fishy. She had left Amanda- A FOUR YEAR OLD- in their house alone while she went down the street to watch TV with a friend on the night that she was abducted. They check out Amanda’s room and find it bare of toys or books. It’s just a mattress on the floor and a couple of blankets. When they interview people who knew Amanda, they heard over and over that Amanda was a small, shy kid who sunk into the background and was apparently used to being ignored.

With suspicions mounting that Angie’s mom is maybe not telling the whole story and their hearts breaking for this kid, Patrick and Angie start a journey through Boston to find Amanda.

What I Thought: It’s no secret that I think that Dennis Lehane is the absolute best at what he does. Sometimes I read crime books or mystery novels as little “filler” books- something that’s fluffy but readable, something without substance. Dennis Lehane takes the genre in a whole different direction. His books are thoughtful, well written and go deep. I’m a big fan.

This one especially left us with this horrible question to ponder: is it possible that wherever Amanda is, that she is better off there than with her parents? Is it possible that a mother can abuse not with fists or words but with straight up neglect of spirit? As we get a view of Amanda’s life, the whole thing just becomes more and more bleak, and in the end, Patrick and Angie are left with a very, very hard ethical dilemma. If I’m being honest, I still don’t know which side of the line I fall on. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but this is one of those endings that will keep you thinking for a long, long time.

Something that I really love about Dennis Lehane is how he writes about Boston. He writes it from his gut- you can tell that he loves it with everything he as and wants to show all the gritty parts… and somehow leave you loving it just like he does. Boston is a character in and of itself in his books. I love that.

My only real complaint about this book is that it drug a bit in the middle. I guess solving a crime is probably kind of like that- quick and crazy to start, muddled in the middle, and then this resolution (kind of) at the end. Before figuring out what was really up, Patrick and Angie followed some totally false leads. During that “muddled” part, the story seems to slow down a bit and while I was still intrigued, I wasn’t stealing minutes here and there to read like I was in the beginning and the end.

I didn’t know when I started this book that it is part of a series. I was perfectly fine reading this and didn’t feel lost, but especially when the characters were being introduced, I could tell that there was some background that I was missing. Turns out this is number four in a series of books about these detectives. I haven’t read any of the other books in this series, but if I see one at the bookstore, I will not hesitate to pick it up. I loved this book and want to know more about Patrick and Angie’s lives.

Conclusion: A great mystery novel by a great genre-bending author. Highly recommended.

The Book: One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson

The Story: Jackson Brodie (who has been in other books by Kate Atkinson) is walking down the street when he sees a fender bender followed by a pretty through beating. Also in the crowd is Martin, a writer, and Gloria, a millionaire’s wife.

On the same day, a comedian that was staying at Martin’s house was murdered and a cleaning lady from his cleaning service disappeared.

These seemingly unrelated people and unrelated events all become very, very interconnected and they are launched into a full scale mystery involving Russian spies. I kid you not.

What I Thought: I am a little…. no, a lot… obsessed with the idea of the six degrees of separation. I think it is fascinating to think about all the ways that we are connected to each other. Especially within the confines of a city, it is pretty possible that you are connected to every single person in one way or another. That’s wild, right?

I think that that is why I picked this book up. The cover talked a lot about how these people that had never met each other before end up having a huge bearing in each other’s lives and are more connected than they originally thought. This was a major theme in this book and I totally love that.

The other theme that seemed to weave through a lot of the plot was this idea of coincidence. Was it mere coincidence that these people were all in the same place at the same time, or was it fate or was it…. just something else. Each of the characters have their own views on this and it comes into play in pretty powerful ways.

Something I thought was weird: I read Saturday earlier this year, which was also about people coming together (in very similar ways, actually) through a car accident. Just earlier this week I read Run by Ann Patchett which is about, you guessed it, unrelated people, a traffic accident, and then connections galore. Is this a plot device that I have just somehow missed up until now? Is it weird that in just a few months I’ve read THREE books with this plot line? Are there others you can think of?

Anyway! I did enjoy this. I thought that the other Kate Atkinson books I had read were maybe better, but this one was very different I thought. It wasn’t exactly a mystery but wasn’t quite literary fiction either. It was kind of its own thing right in the middle. I like when authors kind of go away a bit from their comfort zone, and I think that the literary part of this was a departure for her.

There were a LOT of characters and stories here and I feel like this could have gotten way, way too big, but Atkinson really reined herself in and did it nicely. I thought that the result was a well constructed, literary mystery with some great, memorable characters. Pretty nice, huh?

Conclusion: I would start with Case Histories, but this is worth your time too!

The Book: Dismantled, by Jennifer McMahon

The Story: Ok, so this is pretty wild: These four college-aged misfits, Henry, Tess, Winnie and Suz, find each other and become BFF.  One of the girls, Suz, has this really magnetic personality… also she is a sort-of anarchist and loves doing “tricks” and just generally being crazy.  They call themselves the Compassionate Dismantlers and spend their time vandalizing stuff.

One summer, they decide to spend the whole summer at a cabin together and stuff gets a little bit nuts and Suz ends up dead.  The other three kind of take off and leave everything at the cabin.

Fast forward ten years.  Henry and Tess are married.  They have a 10 year old daughter and their marriage is on the rocks. Like big time. Like Henry sleeps in the barn.  All of a sudden, they start getting postcards that seem to be from Suz.

Meanwhile, their daughter, Emma, is pretty creepy and has a best friend who is, you know, imaginary and likes to talk her into doing clever little “pranks.”

I think you can see where this is going.

What I Thought: This was another case of great idea, crappy followthrough.  I feel like I’ve read a lot of these types of books this summer.

There was nothing horribly wrong about this book, but nothing wonderfully right either.  It was just kind of blah.

Here is what I thought was alright:  The chapters were little, 5 or 6 page chunks so the story really just clipped right along.  It kept me guessing.  While I didn’t love where it ended up, I never would have predicted it.  Creepy kids are kind of the scariest thing around, and Emma was creepy without a doubt.

Here is what I thought was not so great:  The characters were all just these horrible cliches: the disturbed art student, the wise kid, the tortured alcoholic, yadda yadda.  Nothing remotely original there.  I don’t really know how to word this but the whole thing was just kind of…. stupid.  The Compassionate Dismantlers thing, the lake thing, the whole plot was kind of ridiculous and eye rolly and… stupid.  I never really lost myself in the story or even really cared what happened.  A book can only be read with so much detachment before it is just crap, ya know?

So that’s that.  I read Promise Not To Tell by the same author a couple of years ago and remember feeling the same way- just kind of ho hum.  So the next time I see this author, I will probably skip her

Conclusion: Skip it. There are just so many other books out there with a similar premise that are done so much better.

The Book: Look Again, by Lisa Scottoline

The Story: Ellen is a reporter for the local paper.  When she gets a “Have You Seen This Kid?” flyer in the mail with a picture that looks a lot like her adopted son she uses her connections and resources at the paper to do a little bit of investigation.  What she finds out about her son and his adoption is shocking.  As she digs deeper she starts to find some information that makes her- and a lot of other people- very, very nervous.  Her motherly instincts and her love for her child push her to bring this to light and get it all figured out, but there are some very angry people out there that want to shut her up.

What I Thought: After reading One Day, I picked this up while on vacation. Let me just say right off the bat: great vacation book.  Like One Day, it is intriguing enough to keep you reading but light enough to put down and not get lost.

The plot of this one? Great.  I loved the moral dilemma that Ellen was faced with: go to the police with this information or just kind of keep it to herself.  I have never adopted, but I do have a son and I cannot even imagine the lengths I would go to to keep him close to me.  This look into a mother’s heart for her child was definitely the guts of this story.  Her struggle was believable and a little gut wrenching at times.  There were moments when I nodded along with her and times when I kind of wanted to smack her around a little bit.

The writing here was only so-so.  The whole book was sort of like a Lifetime movie or a girly thriller or something.  Nothing too deep or amazing, but a really good guilty pleasure.  It’s just brain candy, but pretty decent brain candy.

The short chapters and fast pace really kept the book moving and I felt like I read the whole thing in about 10 minutes.

I think as long as you go into this knowing that it is just a quick, easy, “filler” book, you will really enjoy it.

Conclusion: Throw this one in your suitcase too!

The Book: Mystic River, by Dennis Lehane

The Story: Three boys (Jimmy, Sean & Dave) are playing in the street when a “cop” car pulls up and asks one of the boys (Dave) to get in.  He gets in and is missing for 3 days.  When he gets back he’s pretty screwed up and is no longer really friends with the other boys.

Flash forward 20-something years.  Jimmy is a police officer, Sean is an ex-con and a father, Dave is kind of this weirdo loaner.  One night, Jimmy gets called to the scene of a brutal murder.  The victim is Sean’s teenage daughter… and Dave’s name keeps creeping up on the list of suspects.  Eek!

What I Thought: I picked this up as kind of just a throw-away murder mystery.  I think we were going on a long car trip or something and I wanted something mindless to keep myself entertained.

I was frigging blown away.

I had no idea that such incredible writing was going on in the mystery genre.  Does this make me sound like a book snob? I’m really not… but you have to admit that detective-type books don’t usually display good, solid writing.  Wonder of wonders, Lehane pulls it off.

The pacing was tight and the story kept me on the edge of my seat.  Only little bits of the story of the night of the murder were revealed at a time.  It made for serious, serious suspense. I think what what sets this apart from  a lot of other mystery books is the psychological side of it.  The whole thing is this big mind-game- with Dave and Sean especially.

I thought that the characters were really vibrant.  I loved reading about Dave’s wife.  She was just in such a tough spot:  when she first suspected trouble, she was this total “stand by your man” kind of woman.  I can respect that.  As the story started to unfold, her alliances were tested and I think that Dennis Lehane really captured her thoughts and decision making process perfectly.

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’ve heard that it is pretty awesome too.  I’ll have to check it out.

Conclusion: Give this one a go.  It is pretty awesome and makes me want to read more from Dennis Lehane.

The Book: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson

The Story: The final chapter of the Millennium Trilogy.  This is the continuing story of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist.  This one picks up pretty much the very second that book two left off and kind of gets quickly into pretty new territory. I really don’t want to give anything away about the first two books so I’m just going to leave it at that.

What I Thought: There is something about reading books that have all this crazy hype that I really, really enjoy.  I love being able to talk about the book I’m reading and I love knowing that so many other people have read these same words.  I do always wonder how certain books get crazy popular and other books that are equally amazing end up in the bargain bin.  I know that someone, somewhere must know the answer to this, but I really don’t.  I think that this series was, without a doubt, really good… but great?  Everyone-on-Earth-needs-to-read-it good?  I really don’t think so.

What makes this good is a really compelling story and interesting characters.  Lisbeth is pretty much amazing and I was rooting for her all the way.  She is maybe too smart of her own good, but the scenes with her in the hospital?  Top notch.  I love her.

The thing that makes me categorize this book as “not great” are the same complaints that I had about the previous two books:  I don’t care what kind of IKEA furniture you are stocking your house with.  I don’t care what kind of sandwich you’re eating.  I don’t need to know the name of every single road you’re driving down.  There is just TOO MUCH here.  These 700 page monsters could have easily been edited down to about 400 pages and probably made a more seamless read.  I just felt like all the characters and all the details detracted from the storyline instead of adding to it.  There were just a lot of useless facts kind of crowding out a pretty good story.

I tend to stay away from the “mystery” genre, just because I don’t enjoy it as much.  I think that this is better than most mystery books you will find, but still not worth all the hype.

Conclusion: Read this series if you want to be able to talk to other people about books and be “in the know.”  If this doesn’t matter to you at all, you could probably skip it.  Meh.

The Book: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, by Lauren Willis

The Story: Alright, there are actually two stories going on here, one in the past and one in the present.

In the present:  Eloise is doing research for her dissertation about the Scarlet Pumpernickel and the Purple Gentain.  She is lead to the house of an older lady who claims to have family information on the Pink Carnation, a spy from the same time period.  The old lady’s grandson comes in and he’s handsome and angry.  I think you can see where this is going.

In the past:  Amy is living in the country and is super jealous of all the spies and intrigue happening in the city.  She, her cousin and an older woman set out to visit Amy’s brother.  Amy’s secret plan is to come into contact with one of the big spies and become one herself.   They end up in a boat with Richard, who we know to be the Purple Gentain.  Amy obviously has no idea and she and Richard end up bickering from the first minute.  He is handsome and angry.  I think you can see where this is going.

What I Thought: I know I told you guys before that I’m on the search for a really good series to keep my attention.  I had heard that this one was pretty good so when I saw this at a library sale, I grabbed it.

Ugh.

I am not sure who I got this recommendation from.  If it was you, I’m sorry that I’m about to crap all over your stellar review. I thought that this book was kind of awful.

Here’s the thing. I’m not big into chic lit.  I don’t mind a fluffy read from time to time, but the thing that bugs me about 95% of chic lit is that it is beyond predictable.  As each character was introduced I could immediately tell what role they were going to play and what was going to happen with them right up through the end.  I hate that.

The past story didn’t bother me half as much as the present one.  I honestly think that the author could have left out the whole part about Eloise and it would have had no effect whatsoever on the book. It may have even made it better.  It was just boring.  I thought that she was way to ditzy to be going to Harvard and I found myself rolling my eyes at her over and over.  I don’t know what woman wants to read about silly, weak women.  I want my women characters to have some umph.  Eloise has pretty much none.  Amy’s umph is what made the past part readable.

And… enough whining.  The thing is I really didn’t hate this while I was reading it.  It was pretty readable and kept me turning the pages.  The writing was not horrible, just kind of average.  It was after I read it that I was annoyed.  When I got to the end and it was exactly what I thought would happen I was just annoyed at myself for wasting time reading it.  So. Even after all the complaining, I guess I didn’t hate it too bad if I kept reading it.  I even read it in the bath a couple times.   It was light and bubbily and didn’t require much brain work.  There really is a time for books like that.

Conclusion: If you’re into chic lit and historical mysteries, I think that you’ll probably love this.  If not, pass it up.  That’s all.

The Book: The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson

The Story: This was an ultra-complex storyline if you ask me, so I’m just going to give you the bare-bones rundown.

Mikael is back on the warpath, but this time he’s got other people helping him out.  He and the staff at his magazine are planning a book and magazine that will blow the top off of the sex-trade in Sweden.  There are some higher-ups within the government and the police force that are going to be revealed.  They know that this is touchy and is going to make a lot of people really mad, but they figure it is worth it.

Right before all of the info comes out, two of the reporters (one being the author of the book) are shot and killed.  Mikael is on the scene quickly and becomes caught up in the investigation to find out who did this and what their motive was.  When it comes out that the fingerprints found on the murder weapon are Lisbeth’s, Mikael is shocked.  No one has seen or heard from her in over a year and he just knows that she had nothing to do with this.  Thus begins his journey to prove that she didn’t do it and find who did.

What I Thought: I know that I told you last week sometime that I was struggling through this.  I stand by the fact that the first 300 pages are kind of dull.  There’s a LOT of set up and about 400 characters with similar sounding names that are introduced, but outside of that…. ugh.  I was not buying it.

The last 500 pages?  They made up for it.  Once the action got going it never let up and I couldn’t put the book down.

The part that I thought was really great was getting to know Lisbeth’s background a little more.  During the first book, I thought she was pretty bad ass but didn’t feel like I knew her at all or how she ended up so broken and so brilliant.  Now I know and that alone makes me want to read the third book.

There was probably too much going on here.  I know that some people would say that it was “ambitious” of him to take so much on, but for me all the extra stuff kind of took away from the story as a whole and made it hard for me to get all the way into it.  And I want to reiterate: the names were impossible to pronounce and I got people mixed up straight until the very last page.  That annoys me.

That being said, for a suspense/mystery book, this is the good stuff.  That is a genre that I’m not really sold on, but I’ve recommended these books to a bunch of people.

The ending is a pretty major cliffhanger and I plan on picking up the final book soon!

Conclusion: Not as good as the first, but still readable.  If you liked the first one, give this one a go.  You won’t be disappointed.

The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson

So, I know that I raved, raved, raved about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I’m kind of struggling with this one.  I’m not sure if it is the story so much as the pacing.  I’m getting towards page 300 and… huh?  I feel like absolutely nothing has happened.  We’ve kind of seen where everyone is now, but should that really have taken 300 pages!? Meh.

And maybe it’s all set up for something amazing, but I’m struggling.

I have to say that part of it is all these crazy frigging names.  I should have started a little log of who was who because none of these names are pronounceable to me and there are probably 30 characters at this point.  They are all starting to blend together.

I have no intention of giving up on this one because of how much I loved the first one, but I just wanted to let you know that I’m struggling….

I’ll let you know in a few days (hopefully!) if the last 500 pages were worth it…

The Book: Eye Contact, by Cammie McGovern

The Story: In a small patch of woods outside of an elementary school, a young girl is murdered.  The only witness to the murder is Adam, a nine-year-old autistic boy.  Even on a good day, he is almost completely non-verbal, but after this, he totally shuts down.

His mom, Cara, has always been drawn to people who are broken or need fixed.  She has worked endlessly with Adam and can read his non-verbal clues like a book.  She has his mannerisms and routine down to a science.  Using this knowledge, she starts investigating why Adam (a rule follower to the max) would have been in the woods, and what could have caused the responses that he had.  This investigation takes her back to her past to her relationship with Adam’s father and her best friend at the time.  This untying of the past actually becomes pretty important as the book goes on.

There’s a lot of other stuff going on here: police officers with other motives, a middle-school boy who casts himself as a junior detective, over-bearing parents, and a lot of issues about dealing with special needs within the education system.

This book starts off strong, builds up the pressure, then offers twists everywhere until you can’t see which way is up.  I’m not going to ruin this for you, but the ending is wiiiild.

What I Thought: A lot of times, after I read a book, I’ll go to goodreads.com and read a few reviews just to see what other people think.  One of the reviewers said that this book seemed like a cross between I Promise Not to Tell and The Curious Incident of the Dog at Midnight. I think that is an incredibly fair assessment.  If you end up reading this and liking it, pick up these other two.  Peas in a pod.

I thought that the first part of this book was totally intriguing.  The mystery was part of that, of course, but really the family at the center was the biggest intrigue.  Would Adam come out of his box to tell who did this, would Cara be able to figure it out or get Adam to talk?  How would the police and the school administration treat this gentle kid involved in a really horrid killing?  All these questions are what kept me reading late into the night one night.

I have to admit to a little bit of disappointment in where this ended up going.  I felt like there were way to many characters introduced to be supported by a little 250 page book.  The ex-boyfriend, his crazy mom, the ex-best friend, her brother,  the middle school boy, his mom, his friends, the special ed teacher, the middle school bullies…. I could go on and on and on.  These characters all had interesting stories, but it was all just a little too much.  The author didn’t give me time to truly get involved in these characters so they just seemed kind of trivial.

To be fair, the twists at the end were pretty much crazy and at several different times I thought I had it figured out, only to be totally blown away with just how wrong I’d been.  I like a mystery that does that.  So, there ya go.

Conclusion: If you like a quick little mystery between heavier books, try this one out.  Probably a book that I’ll forget about in the next couple of months, but it was a good distraction for a couple of days. Like I said earlier, I think if you liked Curious Incident of the Dog at Midnight, that you will probably get into this one too.  It’s worth a shot.