pages: 320 published: 2014
The story of a well known divorce lawyer who finds himself falsely accused of the murder of an famous model, ex-girlfriend of a portuguese football star.
Not the best of Paul Colize's books, but a fun read nevertheless. This one is much lighter, and is more of a beach read than his previous two books.
pages: 300 published: 2009
Two couples meet for dinner at a fancy restaurant. The husbands are brothers. One is a school teacher who has been put on an indefinite sick leave, the other is set to be the next prime minister of The Netherlands. Relationships are cordial at the best of times, but tonight differences need to be set aside to discuss an important topic: the two couple's sons, who have committed a crime which can no longer be ignored.
What a very strange book. It left me with a most bizarre and uncomfortable feeling. I didn't particularly enjoy the book but I kept on reading because I was curious to get to the bottom of what the crime committed by the boys was, and how the parents were going to deal with it. Things definitely did not turn out the way I had expected, which I always enjoy when reading a book, nothing worse than an obvious ending that you can smell straight from chapter 2 or 3. But in this case, the turnout left me feeling very troubled. I'm unsure what point the author is trying to make. Does he agree with the main character's view? Or is this a way for him to criticise certain members of society? What will happen next? I felt the ending to be quite a cliffhanger, up to the reader to make up his/her mind on the issue and to imagine what the consequences will be I guess.
pages: 320 published: 2004
In the second novel of the Maisie Dobbs series, Maisie is hired by a successful businessman to find his missing daughter. This is not the first time his daughter has left home and Maisie feels that there is a deep conflict between father and daughter that needs to be fixed. She sets the condition that the father must be willing to speak with his daughter and really hear her out, if Maisie is to bring her home. But on her quest to find the missing girl, Maisie stumbles upon some unlikely coincidental deaths. Maybe her missing person is in danger after all.
pages: 390 published: 2011
This is a book about star crossed lovers. In the 1960s, Jennifer Stirling wakes up from a coma after a horrible car crash suffering from amnesia. Her family remains very vague on the circumstances of the accident and very little information in general is given to her on her life. She is expected to slip back into it without making a fuss. Hard as she may try, she feels a disconnect and something feels broken between her and her husband. Things start to make sense when Jennifer stumbles upon a lover letter hidden in her personal belongings, signed simply "B". In 2013, a young journalist named Ellie finds this very same letter in the archives of her newspaper, and decides to investigate.
I would have given this book an extra star if the story line of Ellie hadn't been such a cliche of "lucky coincidences" and "happy ending" chick lit. The main storyline of the story, Jennier and Bs' story, is much more authentic.
pages: 330 published: 2012
A cheating husband, who has clearly announced to his wife that he is leaving her, is found dead in his home after drinking a cup of coffee. But the most obvious suspect, his wife, was out of town at the time of the murder.
This is the second book in the "Detective Galileo" series. I thoroughly enjoyed the first novel "The devotion of suspect X". As often with detective series, the following books are not as great. Not saying that this was not an enjoyable read. It was, but knowing the characters, I was a bit more suspecting of the upcoming twists and turns. The main mystery in this story hangs mainly around specific impossibility and I felt more tangible information should and could have been shared with the reader, without giving away the final explanation. It would have made it a more enjoyable read, as I would have felt like I had more of a chance to come up with my own theory rather than know that all I could do was wait for the end of the book to finally have the clues to work everything out.
pages: 423 publisheed: 2013
The CEO of a big construction company has been kidnapped, along with his wive and daughter. No ransom notice is sent through in the first 24 hours, leading the inspectors to believe that this crime is of a more personal nature. But who would go to such lengths to kidnap three people and keep them alive, and why?
This is the second novel in the "Tessa Leoni" series. This is the type of book that we call "roman de gare" (train station novel) in French. Not great litterature, but it'll do to pass the time. Tessa went through a traumatic event in the first novel, and that's basically the "backgound" story that gives her character so much "compassion" and "understanding" of what the victims in her books are going through. A bit of a romantic touch in there as well, with Tessa finding a possible love interest.
pages: 336 published: 2016
This is the autobiography of Ruth Wariner. Ruth's mother was in the clutches of a religious cult, whose main cornerstone of belief was polygamy. Ruth was the 3rd of her mother's 10 children, and had a total of 43 siblings. Her step father having 4 wives and countless numbers of mouths to feed, needless to say that she and her brothers and sisters lived in terrible poverty; constantly moved from one place to the next as her step-dad tried to earn a buck.
Wow, this was a really interesting but tough and frustrating read. What a childhood for Ruth, and what strength of character and good sense she manage to show despite all of the hardships that were thrown her way. It is so reassuring to know that some people can pull themselves through but terribly depressing to know that so many other children are out there suffering because their parents are weak and let themselves be overtaken by manipulative people. So many times Ruth's mom had the opportunity to walk away from it all, to protect her children, give them a brighter future. But she was so weak, and let her own children suffer. It's tragic really that people's beliefs and faith can lead them to turn a blind eye to their children's well-being.
pages: 368 published: 2011
Tessa Leoni is a state trooper, she is married and has one daughter. Her husband is lying dead on the kitchen floor, three bullet wounds in his chest, her daughter is missing, and she is the prime suspect. Something doesn't add up and Tessa isn't being completely honest with the detective on the case. Is she playing the authorities or trying to find her own way out?
This was a pretty good read for a crime novel. Sometimes these kinds of plots are annoying because you know something is being hidden from you (the reader). And it feels like the whole book is just playing on that one piece of information that you are missing, but apart from that there isn't actually any story to tell, so its just way to get more pages in? and then you get to the end and you finally get to find out what the big secret is, and it's kind of a disapointment. And you think, gosh they could have told me that 150 pages ago. This one had a bit more twists to it. Also, interestingly enough, if I'm not mistaken this is a crossover book between two detective series. It is the 5th book of the Detective D.D. Warren series, and the first of the Tessa Leoni series. Yeah, that was a bit of a spoiler, but to be honest, it was kind of obvious from the start wasn't it??
pages: 192 published:1945
Linda is one amongst a number of siblings in a larger than life family in England in the early 20th century. This book is the story of her life, and her misfortunes in love.
I read a biography on the Mitford sisters a few years ago, that I found extremely interesting. So when I stumbled upon a reference to one of Nancy Mitford's books a couple of weeks ago, it sparked my interest. I had no idea what to expect, and to be honest I expected it to be hard to read and boring. It was quite the opposite. Very easy read, much more modern than I thought it would be. Wikipedia classifies this book under the genre: Comic Fiction. I would classify tihs as chicklit, but it's not anything like our modern chicklit. I guess there is the Victorian chicklit (Jane Austen), the modern chicklit (Marian Keyes) and then there is this ... "war chicklit"... I just don't know how to name it or classify it. It's the first book of its kind that I've ever read. I'm intrigued. And convinced. There are two sequels to this book, and they stand firmly on my TBR now.
What I really enjoyed about this book was the narrative style. The book is written in first person, but not through the eyes of Linda, although she is the main character, but rather through the eyes of her cousin Fanny. I enjoy this kind of prose rather than having a third-person, god-like narrative who knows what everyone is thinking, which I find sometimes doesn't quite manage to convey emotions well. And a first person narrative by the main character also lacks an outside perspective. The whole story ends up being really quite one sided. With a first-person narrative by someone other than the main character, you get outside perspective and judgement (whether good or bad) but also various views, since the narrator will relay other character's opinions too, which they would not have necessarily shared with the main character.
Pages: 323 Published: 2011
Lincoln's job is to read people's emails. But, only emails that get flagged to him because they contain a word that appears on a list. His job is to check whether the content of the flagged email requires him to follow up with a warning to the sender, to ensure that company policies are followed when it comes to communication via email and the use of the internet during office hours. Beth writes a lot of personal emails to her colleague Jennifer. They talk about their personal lives, their ups, their downs. Their messages get flagged a lot. But Lincoln doesn't have the heart to issue them with warnings. The contents are harmless, and truth be told, he's enjoying reading these emails... maybe a little too much.
Ok, this is another chicklit to add to my list. I enjoyed this one more than I did some of the other chicklit I've already read this year. Once again, the ending was a bit too easy, but this book wasn't as nearly as infuriating as some of the chicklit I've read before (see my review of Going Dutch). And this book is seen through the eyes of a guy, rather than a girl, which is a refreshing change too.
