Skip to main content

Secrets of Eden 30%

Got a nice note from Bohjalian thanking me for commenting on his book--what a good guy!

Finished (at least for a while) with narrator 1, the minister. Really well done--he slowly reveals himself to be an unreliable narrator (a man of the cloth with a strong sex drive), but is he unreliable when it comes to the murder?  He leaves his small town quickly after the funeral because (he says) of a crisis of faith.  He also rather quickly beds Heather, the "Angel" author who he visits in NYC.

Just started Narrator Two.  I should know whether she's a DA or a detective, but listening in the car does that to you. Anyway, she definitely is throwing suspicion on our reverend.  Maybe not a murder/suicide. Maybe a murder/murder. Why did the good reverend beat it out of town so quickly?  Pathologist is skeptical, too.
Plot thickens as characters develop--what more could I want?

(Audible reader of the Reverend section was terrific. Just a little defensive tone in his voice on occasion, the suspicious "slips" aren't signaled overtly.  Very convincing.  I've only listened to a few pages of the female law officer, but that narration seems equally good. Playing golf to tomorrow 40 minutes away--80 minutes of listening!)


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin . . . finished

 Follows Sadie and Sam (Mazer) from childhood to mid-thirties when both are feeling old and a bit out of it in the gaming world.  Characters are well-rounded, develop throughout the novel in interesting way.  Plot is involved but sensible.  Not a single, "Oh, come on!" moment.  The book could have been faster paced. Odd, since the main topic is video games which are not for their speed of engagement and Gabrielle Zevin clearly knows her video games. Recommended by Michael Connelly in an interview.  He also has Bosch pick up the book in his novel, Resurrection Walk, as Bosch tails a possible witness to a crime as she moves through a bookstore. Sadie and Sam do not get together at the end, which is good.   Marx killed by homophobic nutcase who really wants to kill Sam, but Sam isn't there. Marx is father of Sadie's child. 

The Secret, Book and Scone Society

Cozy mystery with a "women are superior creatures" underpinning. The four women have all had their struggles, which we will learn about one-by-one, but they all remain/emerge wiser, kinder, smarter, etc. than the men in the novel, most of whom are corrupt, narrow-minded, unfeeling and potentially violent. (Nora's encounter with the paramedic-hunk is the exception, though it occurs to me that he may be the murderer.) Even Estelle, who uses sex to get what she wants, is portrayed positively.  The men are comically manipulated by her curves.  In one scene, she goes skinny-dipping with a married man but is rescued by her buddies before she actually has sex with the guy. Nora, our main character, is told by her female friends that she is beautiful despite her scars. No male says this to Nora because males are just too crass to see beyond surface beauty.  I hope I'm wrong and the book is more nuanced. If not, then this author is a one-and-done writer for me.