false 9 237 195 true 5642369 read 1 true 4807302 currently-reading 41 true 4807291 to-read 130 false 6741728 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77779218 Gallows Lane: An Inspector Devlin Mystery (Hardcover) by Brian McGilloway
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77782255 to: The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection (Hardcover) by Dorothy Hoobler
bookshelves: 2009
This was an okay read for me. I think I would've liked it better if I had never read The Banquet Years The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France, 1885 to World War One - an absolutely incredible and fascinating look at France during the same period, but in particular at the artists and writers who made things interesting there. I also would've liked it better if I hadn't read Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York - at this point it is the definitive template for how to look at crime in a city in the past. The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection sort of wants to do what each of these other books each do in their own way, but the writing was just a little too dry to hold my interest. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77152151 to: The King of Lies (Mass Market Paperback) by John Hart
bookshelves: 2009
I'm fond of Scott Turow, so when the back of this book compared the author to him, I figured it would be worth a shot (and it was). This is a combination legal thriller and portrait of a man at the end of his rope.

Our hero, Work, has always been his father's son - following his father into the practice of law, marrying the woman his father chose for him, living the life he was supposed to live. His father's disappearance and the subsequent discovery of his body (with two bullets in the head) has widened the cracks in Work's life. Convinced his sister, abused by their father and suffering from long-term suicidal depression, shot their father, Work sets out to take the blame (or at least to deflect the attention away from her).

There are times when this book is truly absorbing, but at times it is overblown and a bit melodramatic and you really want to tell Work to stop being such a pussy. Amusingly enough, shortly after you want to tell him that another character does.

This was a decent read, but I'm not rushing out to find the author's other books. Still, it kept me entertained throughout several days of public transportation and there's a lot to be said for that. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76397832 to: The Secret History (Paperback) by Donna Tartt
bookshelves: 2009
This is one of my all-time favorite books. I've read it numerous times since it first came out and I enjoy it every single time and every single time I am so sorry to finish it. It belongs to what I think of as a trio of books about school along with Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand and Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers. Let me be clear - these books are nothing alike - the only thing they have in common is their college setting. In a way, though, they are alike - they each deal with Dionysian events and their consequences in closed and exclusive college settings.

The Secret History isn't so much a whodunit as a whydunit - you know the who immediately, the why is somewhat more mysterious (and in many ways is never fully revealed). I love the sweeping romanticism of this book - set at fictional Hampden College in the eighties. I was in college at the same time and some of the characters are familiar - the punk rockers, the druggies, the incredibly annoying hippies. Our hero is a California transplant, at college on scholarship and thrust into a small group of privileged students studying the Classics with the enigmatic Julian Morrow.

This is a winter book - cold at its heart, colder in its setting. There are deaths and funerals and philosophizing - lots of masks constantly worn. At its center is the narrator, Richard, and his love of the picturesque and Henry, who may or may not be a psychopathic killer. In this reading I found Julian Morrow to be the most chilling character - he is the old man in the road with the answers you probably won't like once you get them.

If you haven't read this, it's worth reading. Donna Tartt is a good writer and a good storyteller (a worthwhile combination). It takes her forever to write a book (this one took 8 years). Her second book, The Little Friend, is an odd Southern gothic that I also enjoyed, although it doesn't have the staying power of the first. It was 10 years between the first and second novel. Her third novel is due out in 2012. I'll be interested to see how she gets past her sophomore slump. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77782495 Gods in Alabama (Paperback) by Joshilyn Jackson
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77780298 Sarah's Key (Hardcover) by Tatiana de Rosnay
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77780029 Black Water Rising (Hardcover) by Attica Locke
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77779735 Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel (Hardcover) by Audrey Niffenegger
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77779399 The Time Traveler's Wife (Paperback) by Audrey Niffenegger
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77779027 Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler (Hardcover) by Anne Nelson
bookshelves: to-read
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