Don't Look Now

Don't Look Now
by Mary Burton

Blurb:

Austin homicide detective Jordan Poe is hunting a serial killer she fears is the same man who assaulted her sister, Avery, two years ago. The details line up: the victims are the same age, same type, dead by the same grim MO. Luckily Avery survived. But the terrible memories linger, making Jordan more determined than ever to stop this monster in his tracks.

Texas Ranger Carter Spencer isn’t one to poach on a detective’s territory. Yet no matter how resentful a capable lone wolf like Jordan is, when she is attacked at a third crime scene and suffers a trauma that leaves her with limited vision, it’s up to Carter to help Jordan navigate a world she no longer recognizes. He needs her instinct, her experience, and her fearless resolve to crack this case. A case that’s about to get even darker.

A stranger is watching. He’s closing in on his ultimate prey. And no one but the killer can see what’s coming.

My Reaction:
I had to check out a book available on Prime, to qualify for a promotional deal.  This one looked okay.  I liked the name, and it had a good average over tons of reviews.  Apparently this author is prolific and successful, so it seemed promising.  Unfortunately, this simply isn't for me.  I like murder mysteries, but I don't enjoy anything too "police procedural"-y.  After years of watching Original Flavor CSI, I'm kind of burned out on that genre.  Films and miniseries are about as far as I'll stretch for a police procedural, these days, unless they are something very special.  They need to grab me by the collar and pull me in.  This didn't meet that requirement. 

Specifics?  I found certain aspects of it awkwardly written; fairly basic information any crime reader would already know was shoehorned into the dialogue, for instance.  The dialogue didn't feel natural to me.  Also, the level of detail on minor, inconsequential items and actions was over the top.  I just couldn't face slogging through a whole novel of that.  

I declared this a DNF (Did Not Finish) at the 10% mark.  No hard feelings, just not my style. 

Death in Kenya

Death in Kenya
by M.M. Kaye

(Edited) Blurb:

When Victoria Caryll is offered a position at Flamingo, her aunt's family estate in Kenya's Rift Valley, she accepts-- knowing full well that the move will mean seeing Eden DeBrett once again.  She was once engaged to Eden, but it's been years since he broke her heart and married someone else.  The desire to return to Kenya, her childhood home, is strong, but she doesn't realize that the Rift Valley is now an unstable region still recovering from the bloody Mau Mau revolt. Worse yet, her aunt's household has just been thrown into grief and chaos by a gruesome murder. 

My Reaction:

I've been slowly working my way through M.M. Kaye's "Death" series of mystery novels.  After this one, there's only one left, and I'll be sad to see the end of them.  They're solid suspense novels set in the 1950s.  I think of them as historical, but I guess that's not technically true, as they were contemporary when written and published.  Still, to a modern reader, they have that very specific quality of mysteries written in the golden age of the mystery novel.  The "Death" series are all set in exotic locales, too, with the powerful atmosphere of the setting usually acting almost as a character in its own right.  

This was exactly what you'd expect it to be, if you're familiar with any other books from this series. It's very much a book "of its time", meaning that some of the attitudes might rub modern readers the wrong way.  Some are disturbed by the colonialism.  Others might be annoyed by statements like this:  "Eden's superior male intelligence had saved her from disaster..."  What's that, now?  To be fair, this heroine probably is of inferior intelligence, but why the need to include the word "male" there?  Surely the author didn't believe that men are generally more intelligent than women!  Then there's the irritating old trope of the momentarily unhinged woman needing to be slapped back to her senses due to hysterical laughter.  How much these things ruin the reading experience will vary from reader to reader.  I can overlook them, for the most part.  

I'd give this 3.5 stars if I could, but I'll have to round down to three for a variety of reasons-- coming down mainly to my gut reaction to the book. (That's how I determine most of my star ratings...)  But despite my quibbles, it's a great choice for escaping to a different place and time.  I do recommend Kaye to fans of Agatha Christie or Mary Stewart.  I can always count on these authors to deliver fiction that's charmingly unlike anything being written today.  (Or anything that I've come across, at least!)  The romance element is slight, but the mystery kept me guessing and uncertain until the end.  I saw one reviewer describe the conclusion as sad, and I'd agree, but on the whole, it's an entertaining read.  

Gump & Co.

Gump & Co.
by Winston Groom


Blurb:

The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. has gone bust and now Forrest is flat broke, sweeping floors in a New Orleans strip joint, when a fresh opportunity to play championship football puts him back in the limelight—and in the money. But fate turns fickle again, and he's soon out on the road selling phony encyclopedias and trying to raise his son, little Forrest, who needs his father more than ever.

Forrest's remarkable, touching, and utterly comic odyssey has just begun: in store for him is an explosive attempt at hog farming; his own dubious recipe for adding life to New Coke; an encounter with Oliver North of the Iran-Contra affair; and a chance yet again to unwittingly twist the nose of history.

My Reaction:

First things first:  This was another "372 Pages We'll Never Get Back" podcast/book club selection.  Like all the others, it was a shared read with Donald.  We'd both seen the movie before, but never read the first book.  I vaguely remembered having heard that the movie veered sharply from the book, and I had the impression that it wasn't something I would enjoy.  I'm not sure I even knew there was a sequel, but I wouldn't have cared if I had known.  

There's not much to say about this one... It's just boring!  As a native of coastal Alabama, it's vaguely interesting to see Mobile and one or two other local-ish places mentioned in the pages of a book, but the novelty wears off pretty quickly when there's nothing to back it up.  Simply mentioning that a character is in Mobile doesn't exactly paint a picture.  There's zero local color, unless you count Forrest's bizarre, exaggerated accent.  There's no atmosphere of the South, in my opinion.  (And one or two things about this book are rather insulting and annoying to me, as a born and bred Southerner.  These are cheap choices that show a painful lack of imagination and creativity.)  

Then there's the fact that the cover shows Forrest with his young son, so you expect that his son will play a large role in the story.  That's misleading.  Now, it's not that I loved "Little Forrest" or wanted more of the character in the book, but intentionally misleading covers irritate me.  

Nothing about this lived up to my already modest expectations.  The historical references are either dull or depressing, and there's precious little humor to be found in a book that's intended to amuse.  It's a dud.  

I'm sad to say that even the podcast didn't make this read particularly enjoyable.  It seemed to be a struggle to find much to say about it, and-- eh, I'm just glad this one's over.  Time for something different, thank goodness!

The Roanoke Girls

The Roanoke Girls
by Amy Engel

Blurb:

Lane Roanoke is fifteen when she comes to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin at the Roanoke family's rural estate following the suicide of her mother. Over one long, hot summer, Lane experiences the benefits of being one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls.

But what she doesn't know is being a Roanoke girl carries a terrible legacy: either the girls run, or they die. For there is darkness at the heart of Roanoke, and when Lane discovers its insidious pull, she must make her choice...

My Reaction:

This was not what I was expecting, in the worst kind of way.  The "secret" of the Roanoke girls is very obvious, for starters.  The blurb makes it seem like it might be something more mysterious or eerie, but it's quickly revealed to be just what you'll soon guess after starting reading-- and really, there's not much more to it than that, certainly nothing worth so many pages.  It's not so much an eerie mystery as it is a disgusting tale about some deeply unpleasant people.  The subject matter... It's dark.  It's weird.  I don't really know what to say about it, beyond that.  It's deeply uncomfortable and doesn't feel like an accurate portrayal of how girls in this situation would actually feel or behave.  (But then again, it's not something I have the misfortune to know much about.  Maybe I'm wrong.)  The book tries to redeem itself in the final chapter, but it's not enough to save it.  

I'll try to avoid spoilers, but these are some of my gripes with the book:

--I hate nearly everyone in this book.
Yes, some of the characters supposedly behave the way they do because of how they've been raised, but that only gets you off the hook for so long.  The protagonist and her cousin (Lane and Allegra) are just... yuck.  Horrible, unlikeable characters.  I'm supposed to care what happens to them?  I'd like to give them a good slap, to be honest.

In particular, Lane is just so nasty about other women in the book.  Compared to the amazing Roanoke girls, they're not as attractive, lack style and sex appeal, and are generally inferior in every way.  I think Lane achieves her peak bitchiness when she visits Sarah.  She is so over-the-top mean about everything to do with Sarah-- her home decor, how clean she keeps the house, the fact that she's cooking a meal for her husband.  I mean, how dare she?!  It apparently "smacks of trying too hard".  There are also rude references to Sarah's clothes and hair.  UGH.  It just makes me angry.  

Lane does somehow claw herself an inch or two towards decency at the end, by which I mean that she's not so blatantly mean-spirited and awful, but I suspect that's mostly because she's too busy wrapping the story up to work in more of her horrible remarks (and there are no easy targets in sight).  

--Hot, sweaty grossness.

Yeah, we get it.  It's hot, sweaty, and gross in this place in... Kansas?  I don't even remember where the book is set!  Look, I live in Alabama.  Trust me, I know heat and humidity.  I (resentfully) live and breathe it for months every year.  "Air you can wear" is nothing new to me.  And yes, I can see how it might be used to create an atmosphere or sense of place in a book, but I just got sick and tired of reading about hot sweatiness on every other page.  I spend enough of my life feeling hot and sweaty if I dare to step outside.  I don't need to read about it, too!!  Besides, it seemed like it was hot in parts of the house, too, which is odd.  These people are rich.  Why don't they have effective A/C all through the house?  

--Feeling hungry?  You won't be after this book.
You know how some books leave you feeling hungry because of all the great descriptions or mentions of delicious food?  Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy is a great example of this.  Well, this book is the exact opposite.  Nearly all the food sounds disgusting or is reviled by the characters.  The Roanoke family's cook... can't cook.  It's such a good joke (???) that it's a recurring theme.  ("LOL, Sharon can't cook.  Because we hate Sharon, let's make imbecilic, repetitive comments about her cooking.  Aren't we clever?" So much fun to read.)  

The restaurants in this hicksville town are of course pathetic, too, and are run by people who don't know the difference between Japan and China.  Rural people, amiright?  SO unsophisticated and racist-- and they never know how to make good food.  Nope, there's nothing decent to eat in America's Heartland.  (Of course, Lane knows China from Japan, because she's smarter than all of these hicks-- except that, no, she actually makes many, many stupid decisions.  Oh well, at least she's still sexier than every other woman in town.)

There are repeated attacks on the sacred casserole-- "dozens of cheese-and-mayonnaise-clogged casseroles".  Ma'am, this has to stop.  Now.  I don't know what a casserole ever did to hurt you, but casseroles aren't automatically bad.  Casseroles can be damn fine eatin', to put it elegantly.  Excellent comfort food.  Now, I probably wouldn't put mayo in one, because I don't really like mayonnaise... but "cheese-clogged"?  What a joyless person you'd have to be to think this way! (Unless you're dairy intolerant, you poor soul, you.)   

Oh, and this character who turns her nose up at every food around?  She must be practically a chef herself, right?  Or at least one of those annoying, sanctimonious people who ruin a good "food high" by extolling the virtues of so-called "clean-eating"?  No, she apparently lives on booze and the very occasional boring, slapped-together sandwich.  (Imagine insulting casseroles when you can't even think beyond a sandwich and a beer!)

--Please, stop with the sex scenes!
The only thing I hate more than these characters is reading endlessly about their sex lives.  Can we please just not?  I can handle a little of this stuff; this was not a little.  It's boring (and makes me hate these nasty, disgusting characters even more).  I resent being made a voyeur for these characters I don't even like. 
 

--Disturbing, questionable subject matter.  
The various girls' reactions to (fill in the blank-- the person and the situation) made me raise my eyebrows in skepticism.  Abuse is romanticized, though not very skillfully, in my opinion.  I just can't believe all these girls/women would behave this way.  Not plausible.  Also, this portrayal feels insensitive-- insulting, even-- to actual victims of abuse.  I don't know what the goal of this book was (besides making money and titillating with one of the last remaining taboos in our culture), but it ended up being nothing more than a disgusting mess.  


--Laughable fight scene.
I can't go into details without spoiling things, but let's just say there is a fight scene at some point in this book that had me laughing-- and it wasn't supposed to be funny.  I just couldn't take it seriously.  It felt like it was carefully choreographed-- written for the screen, but... Nope.  So silly. 

--Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. 
The book dragged for me.  I realized early in that I didn't like the characters, but I thought, eh, it's going pretty fast.  I'll just keep reading and see where it goes.  I did stick with it until the end, but it certainly didn't keep feeling like a quick read, beyond that first section of the book.  There is a lot of repetition, with genuinely interesting scenes doled out sparingly.  Cutting out some of the sex scenes would've helped keep the plot tighter.  (Just sayin'...)

Again, the end of the book feebly tries to "do something" with/derive some type of meaning from all the mess that comes before, but it's not enough for me.  This is not something I'd ever recommend or want to revisit.  I will say that I felt compelled to keep reading until I was so far in that I preferred gritting my teeth to admitting defeat.  I suppose that's something, even if it didn't quite deliver anything worth the effort.  However, I'm relieved to be done with it so I can move on to something where I don't hate almost every character quite so much!