Book Review: THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD

Title: The Greatest Story Ever Told

Author: Bear Grylls

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Pages: 276

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

When I first read the title, it reminded me of the book (same title) by Fulton Oursler, which was a fictional retelling of the Gospel. Bear Grylls’ version tells the story through the first-person accounts of five key people: Jesus’s mother, Maryam; a sceptic called Ta’om (more familiar to us as Thomas); one of his first disciples, Shimon (Simon Peter); his disciple and friend, Yohannan (John); and Maryam of Magdala (Mary Magdalene).

The Prologue takes us to the aftermath of the crucifixion, when two men travelling on the road to Emmaus, are joined by a third man who they don’t recognize initially. The author doesn’t mention the name Emmaus here, calling it Hammath instead, possibly the Hebrew name, but one of the two men, who are unnamed in Luke’s gospel, is named Alpheus here.

Maryam’s story starts from the Annunciation, including Elizabeth’s unexpected pregnancy, and her husband’s lack of faith, the Nativity in Bethlehem, the Presentation with the prophecy of Shimon (a sword shall pierce your heart) and Anna, and the finding of the Child Jesus in the temple, then on to the Baptism at the river Jordan, 40 days in the desert, stopping at the wedding at Cana.

To’am’s account starts from the wedding at Cana, and then covers the bulk of Jesus’s ministry, stopping at the calming of the storm. He brings us up to speed with the meeting with Nicodemus, the upturning of the merchants’ tables at Jerusalem, the Samaritan woman at the well, the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’s garment, the man possessed by demons, the house of Shimon’s mother-in-law, the healing of the leper, the invitation to Levi, the tax collector etc. We get a sense of what it was like to be a disciple, constantly on the move, following Jesus, no comforts. To’am’s account helps us understand how Yeshua’s growing influence made the religious leaders uncomfortable.

Shimon’s account doesn’t give us details about Jesus’ ministry because To’am has already covered that ground. Shimon takes us deeper, riffing off the calming of the storm. But he shares the miracle of the blessing of the loaves and fish to feed 5000 people, (Typical Yeshua. Giving away far more than is ever asked for), the miracle of walking on the water, the Our Father, Yeshua asking His disciples, Who do you think I am?, the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, raising Lazarus from the dead etc.

Yohannan’s account takes us to the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. And then Maryam of Magdala takes us through the days after the Death and Resurrection, and finally the Ascension.

 

WHAT I LIKED: The use of the original names and spellings for people and places hints at a desire to be authentic. The story hits the right beats. For instance, Maryam’s story starts with the Annunciation, then the visit to her cousin, Elizabeth, the journey to Bethlehem for the census, they all follow in sequence.

The personal viewpoint reveals the character of every PoV. It also highlights the humanity of Jesus, within His divinity, through his playfulness, his laughter, compassion, and occasional frustration.

Each PoV reads almost like a journal. Each voice holds its own. Through each, we can sense the author’s faith, something he has been vocal about.

Mother Maryam’s account of the visit of the three wise men was a chapter I really enjoyed. It showed us the Child Jesus, shy, unsure of stranger. He watches the foreigners worship Him with one eye, while His head is tucked sideways against His mother’s hip. How cute is that! The chapter also talks about the emotions stirred by the gift of myrrh.

Maryam’s account impresses us with the fear and uncertainty that must have gripped her and Joseph through the tumult of their son’s early childhood. They were after all refugees through those years, constantly fleeing danger.

Ta’om’s PoV threw up an insight that I appreciated: that they celebrate Passover — freedom from Egyptian oppression — while being under Roman rule. Hope is dangerous to the oppressed. Ta’om is the disciple we know as Doubting Thomas. Here Grylls builds him a back story of disbelief, and we get a ringside view as Ta’om’s scepticism slowly crumbles. To’am crosses over from scepticism to belief when Jesus calms the storm.

Incidentally, Christians in India have a special bond with Ta’om since it was he who brought Christianity to India.

One strong point of the book is the structure. The PoVs lead onward chronologically, but always stay true to the core gospel.

Maryam of Magdala reinforces that it was to her, a woman, considered second-class citizens in that era, that the Lord first revealed Himself after the Resurrection. I loved particularly her recounting of how Peter came to drop his shame, after he denied the Lord three times, and how the Lord forgave him. The number 3 is crucial here.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: The narrative could have done with better and tighter editing. In some places, prepositions or conjunctions were missing. Some of the phrasing was awkward. For example, “A coming king who would hold the very keys…”

“His local name was Yeshua.” What is a local name? Did the author mean to say His name as pronounced in Aramaic?

There is a spelling mistake in Yohannan’s PoV. The author meant to say, I wanted to retch. But he used the word, wretch, instead.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME: The author refers to the Sabbath as shab-ta. Isn’t it Shabbat in the original?

ALL SAID AND DONE: The writing in this book has a slightly modern slant, which has its own appeal, and might bring in a whole new group of readers who are unfamiliar with the Bible. Grylls gives us just the right amount of detail to help us to picture the Gospel story. I would definitely recommend this one.

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: ALIBIS: WHERE WERE YOU?

Title: Alibis Collection: Where Were You?

Authors: Frieda McFadden, Sally Hepworth, David Lagercrantz (tr. Elizabeth Denoma), Chris Bohjalian, Chad Zunker, Wanda M Morris

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories

Pages: 328

My GoodReads Rating: Mentioned below for each story

 

This was my first time reading any of these authors.

 

Death Row by Frieda McFadden ⭐⭐⭐

Talia Kemper is on Death Row for murdering her husband, Noel. If her appeal fails, she will be executed in two weeks. She insists that she didn’t kill her husband. Is she lying?

 

I felt cheated with this story, first of all, because it upturned the theme in a manner that was clever but unjust to the theme. When I hear the word, alibi, I expect a murder, and there was that here, until there wasn’t. Many twists too many ruined the effect for me. The conclusion of this story left me feeling both sad and disappointed.

This could have been a good story, and it was, but not in a book themed, Alibis.

 

Ex-Wives Club by Sally Hepworth ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ian Curley, a philandering and wealthy restaurateur with three ex-wives in his past, is now going steady with his much-younger girlfriend, Emma, who is as old as his older son, Max. On the night when Ian is stabbed to death, his body left in the meat freezer, he has had conflicts with all his ex-wives, Anita, Mary-Jane and Rosie, his son and his daughter, Daisy.

DI Charlene Li is determined to find the killer but it’s going to be tough, especially when she has dumb and lazy detective Adrian Collins as a partner. Besides, every one of the suspects has a strong alibi.

Strangely, the three wives are thick with each other, and meet for drinks every Friday at Curley’s restaurant, no less. The two children are employed at the restaurant.

Then there’s Yvette Renard, the French waitress who has never got along well with Ian, but is very good at her work. 

It was interesting to note that the author’s sympathies didn’t lie with the police at all or even with the victim, but with the larger cast of Curleys.

 

False Note by David Lagercrantz; translated by Elizabeth Denoma ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wille hates his father, Knut, an opera singer who became famous. The man has a reputation for loving outrageously and cruelly. Having lost his mother when he was less than five years old, Wille hates the cruelty of his father and vows never to become like him.

As a student of medicine, he falls in love with Ebba, and she with him, or so it seems. But then she insists of meeting his father and becomes besotted with the older man, and breaks up with the son. A betrayal that Wille comes to know of only six weeks later.

The night after he confronts his father and leaves him to go away and drink his sorrows to death, Knut is found beaten to death. Wille is accused of murder, but he won’t reveal his alibi.

The story is written in the past tense PoV of Wille. We come to know his name, Wille, more than halfway into the story. Till then we know nothing about him, yet we are drawn to him. This young man who has suffered so much.

We learn eventually of the alibi, and it leaves us feeling confused. The conclusion of the story felt justified and sad at once, as it hurtles towards disaster. The story ended on a cliffhanger of sorts. I could definitely have done with closure on what happened next.

 

The Skydivers by Chris Bohjalian ⭐⭐⭐

A woman who is out biking stops by the wayside to watch two men skydiving. She is not prepared for what happens next. One of the two skydivers heads straight in the path of a harvested and is shredded to bits. The police believe that it is a suicide, that Pete Hamilton, the younger of the two brothers, who skydived together to spray the ashes of their dead father on his beloved field, was crazy with grief and chose to kill himself. But the lone eyewitness knows better. She thinks it is murder, and that the older brother, Leo, is guilty.

Though well written, this story took too long to get going. The story is drawn out needlessly. We are drawn into the conversation of the brothers over nine chapters from The Night Before and The Day It Happened. If the story had turned out the way the witness’s suspicions led her to believe, I think it would have been a better story.

Instead, the story went completely off-track after that, ending with a huge infodump that way absolutely not the way a story should end. So much information that we readers are left with and we don’t know what to do with it, because the story ends there, with a hint that events will be continued. Which is more than a short story can bear.

 

Good Neighbours by Chad Zunker ⭐⭐⭐

Kara Reed is a good neighbour to her friend, Mindy McGregor, who suspects that her husband, Bill, is having an affair. Her husband, Jackson, tells her not to get involved but Kara wants to be “good neighbours”. So when Kara sees someone sneaking into Mindy’s home while Mindy is away with her two kids at another child’s birthday party, she decides to investigate and find out who the Other Woman in Mindy’s marriage is. But Kara is thrown when she sees the visitor shooting Bill at point-blank range.

Pretty soon, Kara is fleeing for her life as the killer chases her to kill her.

The Alibis theme wasn’t so clear here.

 

Small Things by Wanda M Morris ⭐⭐⭐

Hannah Ferguson has always loved small things, pretty button, small seeds, coloured pebbles etc, things her husband hates. Rusty is always talking down to her, telling her how cheap her tastes are, dissing her hobbies. His verbal abuse increases with her inability to conceive. When she does get pregnant, she miscarries thrice. And Rusty’s cruelties get worse.

This story was well written. However, even though it was true to the theme, we are left in the dark about how a critical plot event takes place. This weakens the conclusion.

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: THE GODCHILD

Title: The Godchild

Author: Miranda Rijks

Publisher: Inkubator Books

Pages: 270

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

Head teacher Carina Ruff lives with her stay-at-home aspiring writer husband Don, and their three children, 16yo daughter Tegan, 14yo son Arthur, and toddler son Ethan in a lovely home. When Carina’s 17yo godchild Alicia Watts, daughter of an old college friend, Gina, drops in, asking for a place to stay, Carina agrees, against the wishes of Don and Tegan.

Very soon Don and Carina begin to appreciate Alicia, impressed with her helpfulness, her kindness and intelligence. Arthur is totally smitten with her. Tegan is the only one who sees that there is something off about Alicia.

Then Tegan is arrested for the murder of another student. Who could be behind these wild accusations? Carina will have to sift through her own memories if she is to find a way to save her daughter.

The story is written in the present tense PoVs of Carina – Then, Carina – Now and Tegan – Now. Alongside these three PoVs, we have four chapters from the PoV of the school psychologist Kathryn Friar, describing her experience during her sessions with Alicia. This PoV gives us insights into Alicia. It reveals that Alicia’s gratitude may be a front.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

The reason behind the unconventional living arrangements of the Ruff family is revealed without making it seem like an infodump.

The book throws light on the pressures and the bullying faced by children and teenagers at school, not just in terms of sexual pressures, but also incidences of rape, extortion and intimidation, things that authoritative figures are often completely unaware of.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

Don and Carina trusting Alicia blindly and not paying heed to their own daughter wasn’t clever plotting. Stupidity seems to be a common character trait among the adults here. Even the psychologist doesn’t realise that she is being played.

Pretty soon, Carina decides to admit Alicia into her school on a scholarship. Right away you can tell it’s a decision that’s going to bite her. Inviting Alicia to stay in their home is the domestic thriller equivalent of going to the attic in a haunted house.

As I read, I began to feel increasingly uncomfortable with Alicia, as if she was a disaster waiting to happen. But Don and Carina remained blissfully unaware.

The book needed tighter editing. In Carina’s Then PoV, she uses the word, secret, as a verb. “He was going to secret me into his room”. In another chapter, she uses the phrase, visible by the neighbours. That should be visible to the neighbours.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

Once the revelations start, they are poured out thick and fast, hastily bunched together. But it all falls flat, given that Carina never once mentioned that there was anything that she regretted in her life. Something she wished she had not done. Or even that she had any secrets.

As a reader, I feel cheated when a character suddenly becomes important to the story, particularly when the author hasn’t spent time building them up previously.

Also, neither Carina nor Don are Christian. Why then the determination to honour a promise of being a godmother, particularly to someone you have never met? Also, Carina doesn’t once ask Alicia to show her a recent pic of Gina. They basically let a stranger live with them, pay for her needs and give her pocket money too.

Carina says the arrangement is on until they find Gina, but neither she nor Don put in any effort to look for Gina. Carina doesn’t even do a basic online search until the 68 percent mark.

At one point, Carina tells us that she has “never checked out how that [adoption] actually works”, an unbelievable statement, all things considered.

None of the characters were likeable. Also, the author doesn’t seem to have done much research for this book. In this book, prison authorities don’t read the letters that prisoners receive, a massive security violation.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: The first half of this book had promise, but the second half didn’t quite fulfil it.

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: THE MURDERER'S GIRL

Title: The Murderer's Girl

Author: KL Murphy

Publisher: Level Best Books

Pages: 308

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

Gordon Little, whose podcast, Catch a Criminal, went viral with the cold case he last investigated, is now in small-town Hampstead at the invitation of dear friend and ex-girlfriend Lynnleigh Lawson. He plans to investigate and cover on his podcast the cold case of the murders of Lynnleigh’s mother Lisa and Lisa’s best friend, Tina Cox, 15 years ago. Lynnleigh’s father Harry, who insisted he was innocent, that he was in Washington DC at the time, was arrested for the murders.

Fifteen years later, a video has surfaced showing that Harry was exactly where he said he was, absolving him of the crime. Unfortunately, the video has come too late, as Harry died in prison.

Now there are two investigations running parallelly. Detective Callie Forde and Gordon are both running their own investigations, determined to find out who was the real killer and to clear Harry’s name posthumously. But there is someone in town who is determined to put an end to the investigation.

Meanwhile, there is another issue that is plaguing the police. Two houses have been robbed, with some trinkets, a laptop and some cash stolen. Is it a random case or is it connected with the Lawson and Cox killings? And will the truth ever surface?

 

The story is told in two timelines, 15 years ago and now, and from the 3^rd person past tense PoVs of Callie Then and Now, and Gordon Now. Set in a small town, the story has the air of a cozy mystery.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

I enjoy stories about cold cases, where a long-suffering innocent person is finally acquitted, and so I was eagerly looking forward to this one.

I enjoyed the parts that showed the podcast coming together, and the details shared about what it takes to run a podcast, the equipment etc. Gordon and sound engineer Jeremy made a good team.

Every chapter ended with a mini-cliffhanger, which was nice. The last few scenes had a good spell of action and description, and a brisk pace. Major and minor characters were both drawn out well, giving them the required motivation and increasing stakes. The character that touched me the most was Harry; I wish there was more of him, in flashbacks or in the narrative of the past. Even the old records and testimonies didn’t include any interviews with him.

We get bits of the past in the present, memories which give way to flashbacks, but it was done well enough.

The author brings up the question of the nature of today’s media where opinions and lies are often passed off as fact.

There were some sweet and warm scenes as when Maura, Callie’s mother, tells her the owl story, related to Callie’s grandmother, and another scene, Lynnleigh’s flashback, when Harry tells eight-year-old Lynnleigh that he would always choose her to be his daughter.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

The initial dump of back story about Gordon, as soon as his character was introduced, was unnecessary.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

The mystery of who had broken into the houses and how whatever came to be found there had come to be put there in the first place was not adequately answered. We also learn nothing about who released the video that proved Harry’s innocence.

Henderson and Chang were hard to relate to. At the outset, we learn a little bit about them, but then they turn into flat characters, always in the background, never taking any initiative at all.

There were too many characters whose names began with the same letter. For instance, Lynnleigh Lawson’s mother is Lisa Lawson. Then Gordon’s previous case was that of Hamilton Hayes. In Hampstead, another H, for the Lawson case, he meets police officers Henderson, another H, and Chang. A minor character is salon owner Karen Huddleston, another H, who is interviewed by Gordon.

It was odd that even when the story was told from the PoV of Callie Then, the narrative shifted to referring to her mother as Maura, something a daughter would hardly do.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: Early on, I had an idea about the identity of the real killer, and it was satisfying to be proved right. I still enjoyed the story and how it was drawn out.

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: ALL BECAUSE OF YOU

Title: All Because of You

Author: Lissa Lovik

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Pages: 331

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

For software coder Chris Fox, it is love at first sight. He is smitten with single mother Serena Archer and starts planning ways to make her part of his life. Stalking her, he comes to know that she is a real estate agent. He fixes up a showing with her, and then asks her out, just before agreeing to pay full price for the house she has shown him.

After a successful first date, the relationship grows smoothly and fast, until it’s time for Chris to be introduced to Serena’s parents. Chris wants Serena to move into the new house he has paid full price for, just so she can get a big commission. But Serena doesn’t want to upset the life of her 14yo son, Cole. Pretty soon, he’s going to great lengths to ensure that his relationship with Serena is perfect. That includes bugging her house, and hiding cameras around so he can see exactly what she is up to.

If there’s one thing he knows, it's that Serena needs to be protected from other men, particularly Derek, who Serena thinks is her best friend. But Chris knows better. He knows it’s only a matter of time before Derek makes a move. But Chris is prepared to act, to do whatever it takes, to secure his love. After all, isn’t that what true love is all about?

 

The story is written in the first and second, addressing Serena, past tense PoV of Chris. The book reminded me so much about You by Caroline Kepnes. Chris seemed to me to be a wannabe version of Joe Goldberg.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

Chris’s interactions with his grandfather make us feel sympathetic towards him. The back story ascribed to Chris, particularly related to his mother, help explain to an extent why he is the way he is. He is also deeply influenced by his grandfather, whose advice, stemming from his experiences with his wife, Chris’s grandmother, direct Chris’s actions.

The writing was good. Here is one metaphor I really liked:

My eye is a corroded garage door that won’t open after Derek punches Chris’s eye. So clever!

I found it very interesting that his name is Fox, and hers is Archer, hunted and hunter, when it is the other way around.

Thankfully, this book was light on the sex scenes. Not completely devoid of smut, but toned down to a great extent. It was something that I had found annoying about You, and I was glad to see that this one was different.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

It was too much like You.

The title reminded me of You. Once I started reading, the similarities continued. Chris is very like Joe Goldberg, though not quite as much on edge. He also has a tendency to address Serena directly, so there is a lot of second person, much like You. Some of the sentences, which directly addressed Serena, also had a rhythm which Kepnes had pulled off in You. For instance, “I hear the metal clink of a paint can hitting the tile . . . a humming that buzzes in my ears, and how long has it been since I’ve been this close to you, Serena?”

Again like Joe, Chris stalks Serena physically and on social media. Just like Joe, Chris is a gentleman, when it seems he is going to get what he wants. When he won’t get what he wants, it might be another story. One not all that different from You.

I told myself that I would have to stop comparing All Because of You to Kepnes’s book, You, if I wanted to enjoy this book. Even so, I found Chris to be not quite as menacing as he could have been. A lot of his actions were predictable. The story itself pans out along predictable lines. There are no shocks or surprises.

Towards the last couple of chapters, the writing flits between 2^nd and 3^rd person, sometimes in consecutive paragraphs, while addressing Serena.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

While we get the back story of Chris as a child, we don’t hear of his previous relationships at all. He’s 34. Surely Serena can’t be his first relationship? He does make a casual reference to his previous relationship, but the author doesn’t tell us anything more.

There is a murder around the 69pc mark, that seems so pointless and unnecessary.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: A good read, especially towards the end when the action moves at a brisk pace. Unfortunately, it was too influenced by You.

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: THE MYSTERY OF THE HAUNTED HOUSE

Title: The Mystery of the Haunted House (Sycamore Street Mysteries #1)

Author: Willow Night

Illustrator: Elizabeth Leach

Publisher: Willow Night Press

Pages: 116

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐

 

Sixth-grader Noah and his fourth-grader brother Josh are excited about a supposedly haunted house in their neighbourhood and the single word, Beware, that has been painted high above on one wall.

While Josh is free to indulge his curiosity about the haunted house, Noah feels the weight of his age. Poor boy! As a sixth-grader, he has too much Math homework to do. Soon, they learn that they aren’t the only kids who are interested in the house. There is a girl called Olivia, a new girl in Noah’s class, who is just as keen to know more about it.

The kids decide to join hands in the investigation and it helps that Olivia knows a lot about cameras and electronic bugs and how to spy on the house. But when Josh disappears, Noah and Olivia are forced to act quickly to save Josh. There’s no doubt that he is trapped in the haunted house. How will they ever manage to get him out?

The story is written in the 3^rd person omniscient PoV.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

Olivia is very tech-savvy, and it is really good to see a girl in such a role. She knows a lot about computers and cameras, how to shoot, record and post the evidence to the authorities.

The illustrations by Elizabeth Leach were very nice.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T:

The book ended very abruptly. There should have been some hint that there would be another adventure in the future, or that they couldn’t wait to do some more investigations. Some kind of a cliffhanger to invite young readers to join the kids on their next adventure.

Instead, we are told that the doughnuts were very delicious. I thought it was the end of the chapter, but no, it was the end of the book.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

The flat ending.

Also, the mystery was quite insubstantial. The kids weren’t in any real danger. It is hard for readers to feel invested in characters who are not in danger.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: The book might be of interest to young kids who are first-time readers. 

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: SUMMER'S EDGE

Title: Summer’s Edge

Author: Dana Mele

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Pages: 336

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Spending a summer weekend at the Hartfords’ lake house has been an annual ritual for high schoolers and childhood friends, Emily Joiner; her best friend Chelsea; her other best friend, Kennedy Ellis Hartford, who is also Chelsea’s ex-girlfriend; Emily’s twin, Ryan, and Ryan’s best friend, Chase. But things have changed now.

Exactly a year after the lake house burned down, trapping Emily inside and killing her, her friends, Chelsea, Kennedy, Ryan, Chase, and Chase’s girlfriend of two years, Mila, have gathered together again. They have all been invited to the grand reopening of the lake house. The survivors will gather at the lake house on the anniversary of the tragedy of Emily’s death, after a year of no contact whatsoever with any of the others. They will spend one last weekend together before they all go off to college.

But the reunion is fraught with tension. They are all wary of each other, as they trade grievances and accusations. Chelsea finds the others, except Ryan, untrustworthy and their explanations and statements fraught with lies. And then Chelsea begins to hear Emily’s voice.

Everyone believes that Ryan wants revenge. But is the truth as simple as that?

 

The story is written in the first-person present tense PoV of Chelsea in the present known as the Summer of Egrets, the PoV of Kennedy two years ago in the Summer of Swallows, and Emily one year ago in the Summer of Swans. It was Emily who had the idea of naming the summers they spent at the lake house after birds. If the summer of egrets sounds a little too much like regrets, there’s a reason why.

Besides the three main PoVs, there are short chapters, the longest a mere 106 words, from an unknown PoV, alternating with every chapter in Chelsea’s account. This unknown PoV seems to have vengeance on their mind. All the action in the book, in each of the three PoVs, takes place on just one night, June 17, in different years in each of the accounts.  

The book is named after the Hartfords’ boat, Summer’s Edge, where some of the most critical action takes place.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

The author does a good job of creating an atmosphere of menace, especially in the scene with Chelsea in the attic and later in the cellar. The tarot cards, the accusations and counter accusations and the unsettling game of Truth or Dare, all add up to a sense of uneasy and brisk action in the story.

The characters are all friends, but there is enough relationship drama to create trouble for everyone. And when Chase introduces Mila to his friends for the very first time, the friendship dynamic gets all messed up. Mila is particularly annoying, as is often the case when an unknown person is initiated into a group where the dynamic is already settled and accepted.

Kennedy’s PoV introduces a paranormal element into the story.

The writing was nice. Here’s a sample of quotes I liked:

Love changes things. It redraws the map.

There are a lot of ways to be haunted. A place, a person, a memory.

No one who hates flowers haunts a garden.

In a hit and run, it isn’t the hit that’s the crime. It’s the run.

Parts of the truth as just as deceitful as blatant lies.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T:

Except for Ryan, I didn’t find any of the characters likeable. They claim that they would die for the others, but they would just as soon be ready to kill their friends too.  

The voices of the three PoVs sounded exactly alike. There was nothing by way of tone or vocabulary to let us know whose head we were in.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

I found it odd that the author gave Emily and Ryan surnames, and Kennedy’s full name is repeated several times. But Chase, Mila and Chelsea don’t get a mention of their surnames even once. Also Chelsea and Chase sound too alike. The author should have come up with names that didn’t sound so similar.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: The book is a delicious blend of the paranormal with the mundane reality of how mistakes have the capacity of destroying young lives and promising futures. 

 

Book Review: THE HOUSEKEEPER'S SECRET

Title: The Housekeeper’s Secret

Author: Sandra Schnakenburg

Publisher: She Writes Press

Pages: 290

My GoodReads Rating:⭐⭐⭐

 

 

At first the book reminded me of The Help by Kathryn Stockett, where a young white woman, Skeeter Phelan, interviews black women, such as Aibileen, Minny and ten others, who work as maids for white families, and writes down their true stories in a book later published as The Help. As I read on, I realized that the similarity, a member of the family writing about the person who worked for them, was the only similarity. Lee Metoyer, who works as a housekeeper to the Krilich family, is white and this is a different time and a different part of the US.

In 1965, Lee joined the Krilich family as a housekeeper. When she joined, Lilian, the author’s mother, had only one instruction for her children, five girls Roseann, Debbie, Robin, Barb, Sandra, and a boy, Rob. They were not to ask Lee any personal questions about her family or her past.

Lee remained part of the household until 1994, becoming a friend to Lilian, and a second mother to the children.

In 1994, Lee tells Sandra to write a book on her, the book she herself often said she’d write someday but wasn’t able to. Sandra makes a solemn promise to Lee and decides to start interviewing Lee and getting to know her story the very next day. Unfortunately, Lee passes away that night.

In the absence of the primary source, Sandra is unable to follow through with her promise, and it is only decades later that she is able to piece Lee’s story together by interviewing others and through research.

 

The Housekeeper’s Secret is the book that Sandra promised to write. While Lee’s secret is compelling enough, the book falls short as it ends up being about so many things other than Lee.

We learn that Sandra’s father was unreasonable and autocratic, planning a family vacation to Disneyland at just 30 minutes’ notice, another trip to Puerto Rico at just 4 days’ notice and bringing back three baby crocodiles as pets. I was amazed to read about the expanse and luxury of the author’s childhood home, with its laundry chutes, among other things.

The story is written in four parts, divided into Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring. When Summer begins, the children are all young. When the Fall section begins, the timeline has moved ahead by seven years. Lilian gets to know of her husband’s infidelity (he has a second family) and decides to ask for a divorce. But then Sandra, in middle school, meets with a bicycle accident, and suffers traumatic brain injury. She has to relearn to speak, read and write, and rebuild her life from scratch. This section ends when Sandra turns 23, when she goes to college and earns a degree without her father’s financial or emotional support. This is when her parents finally get divorced. The family home is sold, and Lee and Lilian move to a smaller home.

By the time the Winter section starts, 59 percent of the book is over. By now, Sandra is married, and has a job, and she gets busy with her family. She forgets the promise she made to Lee. It is only after her mother’s death in 2008 that the siblings find an urn containing Lee’s ashes in the house, sparking Sandra’s journey anew. This is the 64 percent mark.

The secret is finally revealed at the 74 percent mark. At this point, the prose becomes mellow, more emotional.

I couldn’t sympathise as much as I wanted to with Lee’s past. I felt emotionally distant from her story.

Lee must have extraordinary resilience, I can imagine, but there should have been more commentary about it. The story would have worked better if it had been all about Lee, whether as fiction or non-fiction. As it was, so much of the story was about Sandra’s childhood and family, her college, her husband etc, with a mere 36 percent devoted to the promise in the title.

Of course, it’s not the author’s fault. Lee never revealed her secret herself. Had she done so, we would have learned about how she renewed herself, how she learned to tamp down the parts that brought her pain.

All the questions that Sandy has about Lee, how she is the only one who knows how to help traumatic brain injury, how she lost her teeth and needs dentures, how she knows how to deal with abusive men, her strange walk, her dread of bathtubs, her craze for baseball, are all answered through conjecture.

I have one minor quibble too. Frustrated by an inability to get any answers on the Internet, Sandra’s search gets a boost when a friend, Vickie, gives her valuable information about Lee’s siblings, down to their ages and dates of birth. The author never reveals how Vickie came by this information.

The ending was nice with the Krilich siblings getting a chance to meet Lee's children. 

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: IT WAS HER HOUSE FIRST

Title: It Was Her House First

Author: Cherie Priest

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Pages: 349

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

Bartholomew Sloan, a celebrity detective who never loses a case, becomes the sole heir to the home and estate of his best friend, Oscar Amundson, who was executed by the court for the murder of his wife, the silent era star Venita Rost. Venita was found dead at the bottom of a rocky overlook, supposedly murdered by Oscar. Sloan believes that she died by suicide and framed Oscar because he didn’t blame Sloan for the death of their eight-year-old daughter, Priscilla.

When Sloan enters the Amundson house after Oscar’s execution, he drinks a peg of his favourite gin, which the couple always stocked for him, and drops down dead.

In the present time, Veronica ‘Ronnie’ Mitchell, a woman with severe anxiety issues, buys the house sight unseen with the insurance money from her brother’s untimely death. Ronnie doesn’t know that Venita haunts the house, along with Sloan, the man she hated the most. Then a man comes along, Coty Deaver, Sloan’s grandnephew, with strange intentions regarding the house. Will Ronnie’s dream of a forever home come true? Or does she face danger from both the living and the dead?

 

The story is written in the past tense PoV of Sloan and Venita (in the form of a diary) in 1932, and that of Ronnie in the present time.

 

WHAT I LIKED/WHAT I DIDN’T:

I love stories set in old houses, and I was looking forward to this read. In keeping with the theme of renovation, there is a scene (and this isn’t a spoiler) where everything that Venita’s ghost touches appears restored to its full glory. I liked this extension of the theme.

I liked Venita from the diary. The mix of personal observation and dialogue was interesting.

I liked the last part of the book, when all the main characters came together, more than anything that preceded it.

I liked the writing. Here’s a sample:

On a staged performance of spinning plates, thirty might pirouette correctly—but if even one should wobble and fall, the magic is shattered and the trick has failed.

Naïve is a word that powerful people use to shut you up.

Heavy and limp, like a fortune teller’s pendulum

 

The author did a fine job with the description of the house but didn’t quite manage to create a sense of menace or dread, which was absolutely required in a haunted house story. The scenes relating to the remodeling of the house were interesting at first. But then they just went on and on. The narrative took a long time, nearly the 67 percent mark, to get to the point. The ghost story should have started playing early in the book.

 

I didn’t know what to make of Ronnie. She narrowly missed being insufferable thanks to her sense of humour. But she could have been fleshed out better. She doesn’t google the house, even though the real estate agent pointedly tells her to. She tells us about losing her brother, about feeling crushing guilt with reference to his death, but then she doesn’t give him much of a thought, except in relation to Kate, Ben’s fiancée, and Coty. While Ronnie acknowledges her loneliness in a roundabout way, the themes of grief, regret and guilt aren’t fleshed out enough, given that Venita too is grappling with grief and Sloan with guilt.

Also, while Sloan seems to keep raising the matter of Ronnie’s sexual orientation, just because of her nickname, her profession and the way she carries herself, Ronnie herself shows nothing of the kind. There’s no talk of past partners, lovers, nothing. Surprising, given that she is in her mid-forties. Not even one line saying she’s single, whether by compulsion or by choice. In fact, the first time, she meets Anne, Ronnie tells us that the woman is a lesbian plumber. That meeting is unremarkable. Days later, however, when Ronnie has to tinker with the pipes to get the water running, she tells us that she knows what to do as she had observed the “cute plumber” at work. Cute? Where did that come from? No attraction was visible at the first meeting.

The back story regarding Ben isn’t introduced organically. Ronnie tells us readers the story directly.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

Ronnie never reveals the insurance amount but she keeps investing in renovation and repair activities, as if the money is limitless.

 

The blurb wasn’t entirely true. For the most part, Venita’s spirit is too silent, displaying no malevolence. Nor is the house teeming with paranormal activity, so the claim that the “once-beautiful home that's claimed countless unlucky souls” is just as false. Inspector Bartholomew Sloan is referred to as Venita’s “eternal nemesis” which again makes no sense as, in the afterlife, he is quiet for the most part, exhibiting no nemesis-like actions. “And a deadly game unfolds” – again, not quite.
“Caught between a vengeful ghost and a ruthless living threat, Ronnie's scepticism crumbles. The line between living and dead isn't as sharp as it seems, and she realizes too late that in Venita's house, survival might be just an illusion.” Only half-true. The living threat was ruthless but the ghost showed no malevolence towards Ronnie.

 

The long list of items that Ronnie says can potentially scare her didn’t sound natural. It sounded like something downloaded off the Internet. And then, having mentioned this long list, suddenly Ronnie isn’t worried about anything, despite being off her medication.

 

I found it odd that both Venita and Sloan referred to Priscilla as a duckling. Twice each. Separately. In their own individual accounts, not in conversation. How strange is that! 

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: The premise of this book, with themes transcending life and death and the value of a soul, was interesting, but the execution didn’t quite do it for me. If only there had been more of Venita and Sloan and less of the home improvement show.

  

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)