[close]
The Museum of Dr. Moses by Joyce Carol Oates
2★
In "The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza" a woman's world is upended when she learns the brutal truth about a family friend's death--and what her father is capable of. Meanwhile, a businessman desperate to find his missing two-year-old grandson in "Suicide Watch" must determine whether the horrifying tale his junkie son tells him about the boy's whereabouts is a confession or a sick test.
In "Valentine, July Heat Wave" a man prepares a gruesome surprise for the wife determined to leave him. And the children of a BTK-style serial killer struggle to decode the patterns behind their father's seemingly random bad acts, as well as their own, in "Bad Habits". In these and other stories, Joyce Carol Oates explores with bloodcurdling insight the ties that bind - or worse.I believe the marketing people for this book had entirely different definitions for the words "Mystery" and "Suspense" than I do. I found very little of either in any of these stories. The kindest thing I can say for these offerings is that the author took a different approach in her writing and produced some very good investigations into character study. The 2 stars I gave the book in no way reflects on the author's abilities...heaven forbid that I would dare to give literary advise to an author that has successfully produced over 60 plus books...it merely reflects how the the book as a whole appealed to me. If you are looking for mystery and suspense though you won't find much of it here.
