i had no idea what i was getting into...

i came across this book at work when it first came in, and i was drawn to its cover, with its little subtle swirly bits and creepy dollface, and when i saw jonathan carroll had blurbed it, i put it on the mental to-read list. i didn't read any reviews of it, i didn't know anyone who had read it, and all i expected from it was a crime thriller involving mittens and obsession.

and so i was just reading along, doodley doodley doooo and then wait WHAT???



and aft More...

What an arresting, addictive little genre-tapdance, this novel. It's a matroyshka doll of a story masquerading as lit-fic murder mystery, which manages to combine the plot set-ups and Big Bads of a dozen or more X-Files episodes were they to mate with some random police procedural with more "realistic" intentions (already a stretch, I know, but you seriously have no idea the stretchy). I've maybe already said too much, but even my hint-hint shoulder-nudges won't take away from all the surprises More...

If you liked Ender's Game this may be a novel for you. I cite Orson Scott Card and his self-delusions for a certain reason. The Man From Primrose Lane inspired such a foaming rage on my part, I could only think of Ender playing video games while REALLY saving the world. My bullshit immunity was breached, there was no vertigo nor fever. What a fucking hack, I screamed, well, muttered, as my wife was watching tv in the next room.

I wanted to like the book. I won't spoil such. Sweet stars above, af More...

The Text Publishing cover of The Man from Primrose Lane runs the line “PROMISE: You will have never read anything like this before.”

“That’s the case for every book you’ve never read,” points out my husband; and he’s right – but don’t let the marketing put you off this part crime novel, part sci-fi work that’s an incredibly enjoyable read… as long as you’re aware that it’s going to get wacko at about page 250.

The Man from Primrose Lane will hook you from the first sentence – it’s well written; de More...

I've puzzled over a review, not wanting to unwittingly cue or clue potential readers about the tricks up Renner's sleeves. Of course, maybe I shouldn't fret about (view spoiler)[the way a space alien is revealed to be more fecal than froggy (hide spoiler)]. Because there's much more than sleight of hand going on here.

It's always neat to see a magician testdrive a new bit of stagecraft, rather than yanking the same old rabbits out of threadbare hats, sawing the same lady, stepping into the same locked cabinet only--yawn--to d More...

I'm liking this so far. I'm close to the end and I can sense it in my bag...beckoning me!

Update:
I just finished the book. First, this is the first book I have finished this quickly in years. I read all day at work and I just really gave up reading for pleasure, which is idiotic, but I'm glad this was the book that pulled me back in.

I gave it four stars because I loved it. But five stars is going to be saved for books that hold my heart over time. Chronicles of Narnia, books that I reread until t More...

The author of this book, James Renner, is a friend of mine.

Reading this book is like watching a freight train barrel toward you and being unable to move, while remembering a time in your past when you watched a freight train barrel toward you, only to wake up to find out there's a freight train barreling toward you.

This is the kind of novel that should appeal to anyone, and the ingredients it contains that aren't to your taste should be more than made up for by the things that are. There are thr More...

You may also read my review here: http://www.mybookishways.com/2012/11/...

The Man from Primrose Lane. Man With a Thousand Mittens. No matter what you call him, he’s dead. In fact, he’s sitting in his living room in a pool of blood, one gunshot to the chest and missing all of his fingers. Those are in the blender, by the way, only so much mush now. When a young patrolman Tom Sackett responds to a call from the man’s delivery boy, he immediately senses something is wrong. He never could have imagi More...

No one really knew the Man from Primrose Lane. Tom Sackett always called him the Man with a Thousand Mittens because each time he left the house he appeared to be wearing a different pair. When he is found brutally murdered, the police try to track down his family only to find he was using a fake identity. With the investigation at a standstill, true crime writer and widower David Neff is approached by his publisher to write a book about the man and perhaps uncover the truth. But soon David beco More...

After becoming obsessed with the murder of a young girl, crime writer David Neff learns that the man executed for the crime was innocent and he finds the real killer. He tricks the killer to confess on national TV and his book sales make him a millionaire. But, David cannot stop obsessing over other similar crimes and when a mysterious recluse is murdered in Akron, David investigates that crime, too. As his life unravels, the police come up with evidence that supports David as the killer. Just w More...

I would never have read this book had the author not friended me suggesting we had the same weird taste in books ;)
Thank you Mr. Renner for a story so full of twists and turns that I was totally blindsided at times. I liked the writers style and really cared and ached for the characters. I promise you, this book is like nothing you've ever come across before. It's equal parts mystery, crime drama, sci-fi and yes, sometimes flat out weird, but oh so compelling!!! Future books from this author wil More...

The Man from Primrose Lane was a real genre bending novel. It was like episodes of Dexter and Six Feet Under mixed with a bit of the Twilight Zone.

I thought this book was very well written and liked the use of dark humor sprinkled throughout the book. James Renner's writing is similar to Stephen Kings's in that it mixes horror with humor and does it quite well. The book had a complicated plot which confused me a bit in the end but overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.

More...

I thought this was going to be a crime/mystery book. Nowhere in the description does it say anything about time-travel, so this book surprised me. The time travel also doesn't reveal itself until halfway through the book, so I was often left in the dark trying to figure out WHAT was going on ... The first half of the book I was literally confused with every passing page, I found myself struggling to read it, there was so much and nothing happening at the same time. It was all over the place. But More...

This book was just plain crazy. Overall I liked it, and thought it was a satisfying ending but wow, lot of weird turns (and I usually like weird). Felt a little rush in spots.

edit: the best thing I can say about this book is that I read this months ago and I am still thinking about it. I would definitely recommend this to people who like mystery and/or time travel in their science fiction. It's an interesting take on obsession and the lengths we go to to fill the needs of our obsessions. Was a v More...

This book is about a man's obsession with a crime. This review is about a woman's obsession of this book - I simply couldn't put it down. It was even in my dreams. Wonderfully bewitching.

Loved this book. It defies description. Just do yourself a favor and read it. Wow! I have never read anything like it, and doubt I ever will again.

The cover of the book says "Love. Murder. Time Travel."

I admit I have a few guilty pleasures in reading and spend most of my fiction-reading time consuming murder mysteries and time travel/love stories. But a book that promised to combine all three? Yes, this was an impulse book store purchase. I didn't know the author, didn't know anyone who had read the book, and didn't know anything about the book other than the first four words which caught my eye.

Oh MAN am I glad I bought it! It does have s More...

Hmm. The reviews don't surprise me. Lots of twists and turns, jumps backwards and forwards and weird things happening. Nothing is quite what it seems.

I guess if I had the time to read this in one sitting or at least in big chunks, it might had made more sense. It started out well and I was interested in David's predicament but then as Katy came into the picture, the credibility of the relationship made me start losing momentum. I'm sure that everything makes sense in the end, but when I can't re More...

I read this because it sounded interesting. I like mysteries and I like SciFi, so why not give it a try?

Well I read the entire thing, mainly because I wanted to find out who dunnit. But also because it was really well written. Such a smooth writer.

But the dunnit part was rather disturbing. I really didn't like the crime topic.

That being said I wasn't at all surprised by the switch in genre half way through as I felt the first half foreshadowed it quite well.

And the ending was incredibly unsat More...

I picked this book up because it is by a local author, set in my home state and area(s). The book started off a little slow, which is ok, and kept my interest. Parts of the story were told in flashback, part in present and the author did an ok job of weaving the two together. About 2/3 of the way through, the book got weird. It became a sci-fi book. It started off as a mystery/thriller book and then wham! it's science fiction. I was like what!??. By this time I had read 2/3 of the book and the m More...

I suspect it will be challenging to write a review of "The Man from Primrose Lane" by James Renner without giving any of the twists away. I'll do my best.

I have to give kudos to Mr. Renner for attempting a very intricate and delicate procedure in this work. Most authors (with a few notable exceptions) attempt to stay far away from any kind of hybrid "cross-genre" novels. And to muck with it even further by introducing a chronology which doesn't actually read the way the story goes makes it even More...

I really love books that manage to confuse the hell out of me until that one moment where all the pieces of the puzzle come together and it suddenly makes sense.
This book has a very haunting opening, with the discovery of the body of the Man From Primrose Lane. Shot in the stomach, he lies on his kitchen floor and his fingers are found pulverized in the blender. While still alive, this man was a bit of a mystery, keeping to himself and rarely going outside. He owned more than 100 pairs of mitten More...

This review contains hidden spoilers:

Mind-bending is the perfect adjective for this book! It is so exciting when an author takes ideas so seemingly impossible (view spoiler)[(loveland frog/time travel/ split universe) (hide spoiler)]) and through scientific explanation and seamless writing, it become a possibility so real that it blows your mind!

In 'The Man from Primrose Lane' you are treated to a book fully of mystery and suspense with an ending that ties everything together in a way that leaves you thinking well after you More...

Twisty! Cunning and Devious! Wow! Rad! Bad! And did I mention twisty? This one started out as a common garden variety mystery-suspense novel, slowly developing its plot rather like British suspense novels. Despite its leisurely pace, I was enjoying it, when slam-bang, it turned into a techno, hard science fiction rush that totally blind-sided me. I was shaking my head and muttering "I did NOT see that coming." This was written with skill and reveals a truly scary plot in itsy-bitsy increments. I More...

This is a really interesting book, from the start you think it will be a straight crime story and as that it works pretty well. However after a short while the story diverges onto a more fantastical tangent. Despite this the whole thing still manages to be entirely credible, don't be put off by the fantasy aspect of this, despite including some really complex science at times the whole thing hangs together perfectly. The plot line is complex and yet never loses track of where it is headed. If yo More...

More twists than a twisty thing! I did not want to put this one down so keen was I to see what happened next. You really need to keep your wits about you with this one, and it is difficult to review without giving away the biggest twist of all. The story is that of David Neff, a fledgling journalist who solves a murder, at great expense to his personal health, and the well-being of his family. The story starts several years after the investigation, and jumps back and forward detailing his relati More...

I was already sold on is book before I even picked it up--because when you get a good review from Harry Dolan (whose "Bad Things Happen" is one of my favorite contemporary mysteries), then you're already starting out ahead of the pack in my eyes.

From word one, I was in love with and invested in the characters with the same level of intensity that fuels the main character's own obsession. Whereas people exaggerate about being unable to put a book down, I speak nothing but the truth. I just kept More...

Great book, James! I was a tad worried at the beginning: some of the dialogue seemed a bit over-earnest, plus it's a story that should have been a big fucking mess. It touches on too many different subjects/themes: love, obsession, science, the quest for knowledge, human nature, destiny vs. free-will, quantum physics, the list goes on) but it works. In some ways it reminded me of Ernest Cline's novel READY PLAYER ONE, not because the stories are similar, but because both books seem to have an au More...

Now this a book that warrants serious attention from readers and critics alike. James Renner’s debut ‘The Man From Primrose Lane’ is marked by it’s refusal to conform to the normal boundaries of the crime fiction writing genre, and instead plays with the conventions of a linear story, imaginatively taking the reader in a whole new direction. Over the last few years it has not been unusual for renowned fantasy writers such as China Mieville and Tad Williams to circumvent the constraints of their More...