Tag Archives: Mystery

Madapple by Christina Meldrum

American Literature July 16, 2008 Superfast Reader 2 Comments

Synopsis: Accused of murder, a troubled young woman tries to piece together the odd facets of her life, starting with her supposed immaculate conception. Review: The chapters in Madapple alternate between a teasingly opaque courtroom case, and defendant Aslaug’s reminiscences about life with her disturbed mother and eventual reunion with her long lost aunt and cousins. Nothing about Aslaug’s life has been ordinary. Her mother claimed that Aslaug had no father because she had never had a lover. She raised Aslaug in the woods, among…

A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine

British Literature July 28, 2007 Superfast Reader 2 Comments

Synopsis: A long ago summer idyll at a manor-turned-commune ended in tragedy, and the recent discovery of the bones of a woman and a baby threaten the secrets carefully guarded by the young man who inherited the home. Review: It may be a lesser Barbara Vine, but A Fatal Inversion is still an above average read.

Secrets, Lies, and Algebra (Do The Math) by Wendy Lichtman

American Literature July 9, 2007 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: 8th Grader Tess sees the world through algebra, but when her mother reveals her best friend might have murdered his wife, Tess can’t make anything add up! Review: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra is a great book for middle school readers. Lichtman intersperses mini-math lessons throughout, but she does it in such a way that it feels organic to the story and not message-y at all. Of course, any kid who’s determined to despise math will chuck the book across the room at the first…

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie Farrell

British Literature June 19, 2007 Superfast Reader 2 Comments

Synopsis: Upon discovering that she has a great-aunt who’s been in a mental institution since the age of 16, Iris has to decide how much she’s willing to allow her life to be changed.

What Happened to Cass McBride by Gail Giles

American Literature June 15, 2007 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: Trapped in a coffin, popular teen Cass McBride works to find a strategy to reach freedom, even as the police trace down dead lead after dead lead.

The Uses of Enchantment by Heidi Julavits

American Literature May 21, 2007 Superfast Reader 2 Comments

Synopsis: When Mary was 16, she may or may not have been abducted and raped by an older man, whose life was ruined by her accusations.

The Price of Silence by Camilla Trinchieri

American Literature May 15, 2007 Superfast Reader 5 Comments

Synopsis: After she befriends secretive An-Ling, a menopausal wife and mother’s family collapses under the weight of a lifetime of lies that may have lead to An-Ling’s murder.

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand

On Reading May 14, 2007 Superfast Reader

My review of Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand is up on Blogcritics.org. Here’s the opening paragraph: How Cass Neary, the protagonist of Elizabeth Handâ€™s latest novel Generation Loss has stayed alive this long is anyoneâ€™s guess. Super young, super talented and super stoned at the birth of punk below 14th Street in the 1970s, Cass started taking photographs of her friends and ended up publishing a briefly sensational book called Dead Girls. Now itâ€™s 30 years later and Cass has never managed to make more…

The House of Stairs by Barbara Vine

British Literature April 21, 2007 Superfast Reader 7 Comments

Synopsis: A woman haunted by the uncertain onset of a genetic disease sees a woman from her past, and struggles to fill in the gaps between truth and lies from a time in her life marked by violence and murder. Review: House of Stairs is yet another knockout from Barbara Vine, the British crime writer who pens the Inspector Wexford mysteries as Ruth Rendell. The tease here is that Vine isn’t going to reveal the identity of the murder victim until the final pages, and…

Anna’s Book by Barbara Vine

British Literature April 1, 2007 Superfast Reader 3 Comments

Synopsis: After the death of the tortured aunt who edited her grandmother’s best-selling diaries, a second-generation Danish-British woman seeks to find out the truth of her aunt’s parentage, which may be linked to an infamous murder case. Review: The complexity of Anna’s Book (originally published as Asta’s Book) is reminiscent of A Dark-Adapted Eye, and both books are now tied as my favorite of the books crime novelist Ruth Rendell has written as Barbara Vine. Both books deal with a tangled family history as revealed…

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