Book review: Dark places

"I was not a lovable child, and I'd grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it'd be a scribble with fangs."

Libby Day was the only member of her family who survived when the rest were massacred and strangled in 1985. She was the only witness, too and based on her testimony, her brother Ben was the one accused of the murders. Decades later and after a difficult upbringing, Libby is a "broken", hardly normal adult; she still tries to forget this traumatic incident and to avoid going back to those "dark places" in her mind.

However, the money people had donated to her all these years are about to run out and she does not want to begin a conventional life to earn her living. The Kill Club approach her; its members have an obsession with famous crimes and a group of people are fascinated by the slaughter of Libby's mother and sisters. They, also, believe that Ben was not the one who killed his family. They agree to pay Libby to visit the people who played a role in the story in order to find out what really happened.

The story alternates between the present and 1985, and among three characters; Ben, Libby and their mother offer their perspective of the accounts that led to the crime. The end of the story and the answer to "who did it" could not be more surprising. Gillian Flynn offers an exquisite thriller with the ability to keep the reader till the final page and very well developed characters. All of them have issues, all do horrible, unforgivable things. The story touches issues like drugs, underage sex, Satanic worship, bullying; but it is full of suspense, well-paced, beautifully wrought.

It is a fantastic, freaking, gripping, Southern gothic, twisted, fascinatingly insane novel. Get yourself hooked.

+ well written, gripping, well developed/realistic characters

- violence, language, disturbing

(written by FK for Walkley Library)

Have you read the book? Give us your opinion in the comment section.

Book review: The Son

Niccolo Machiavelli had said very wisely that 

Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.

Yet, this is not the case in this story. 

Sonny Lofthus' father, a police officer, committed suicide when his son was still young. He left a note in which he admitted to corruption, leaving his son and wife devastated. After his mother died of an overdose, Sonny becomes a heroin addict and agrees to go to prison as a scapegoat for a number of murders getting supplies of the drug in return. 

During the twelve years he spends in prison, Sonny is being treated as a saint by the other inmates, who believe his hands have healing power and they go to him and confess their crimes. One day one of them tells the boy that his father was actually killed, that he was not the mole the police force had been looking for all those years and that the corruption accusation was fake. Sonny decides to stop using drugs, escapes from prison and starts his plan to avenge his father and, at the same time, take revenge on all those who had committed the crimes for which he stayed in prison for over a decade. 

The chapters go back and forth between Sonny and Simon Kefas, the main detective character of the book and the one who causes the final catharsis. Junkies, gangsters, corrupted state employees, ordinary people - all act and interact in the warm Norwegian summer.

The book is an excellent example of the Scandinavian noir, as all Nesbo's books. The characters could have been more developed to engage the readers, but the story still remains captivating, the action is fast and, at last, the 600+ pages do not seem as intimidating as in the beginning. 

The fans of Nordic noir are going to be more than satisfied.

+ excellent translation into English, fast plot, suspense 

- violence, characters lacking of depth, too long

(written by FK for Walkley Library)

Have you read this book? What did you like/not like in it? Leave us a comment.

Book review: Child 44

I decided to have a look on "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith when I saw the advertisement for the film, which is based on this book, on the tram. The "best-selling" phrase caught my eye. And after I had an idea what it's about and read reviews on the Internet, I placed a reservation at the library.

The book covers the last years of Stalin's regime in Russia in the early '50s and a bit of the period after his succession by Khrushchev. Apart from the political, moral and social issues it raises due to the totalitarianism of that era, it is a thriller that keeps readers' interest till the last page.  

The setting could be compared to a paranoid, totalitarian dystopia: no one is safe. Stalin's enemies are the enemies of the State. The uneasiness of a dictator to solidify his regime leads millions to their devastation, humiliation, death or exile to the other side of the Soviet Union. The State does horrible things to people; they live in a nightmarish world of mistrust where it is a matter of luck not to be accused of treason. The political system has to survive at all costs and the individual is sacrificed for the common good. Moreover, crime is a notion and practice that simply does not exist. Crime is a product of the West and in Stalinist Russia it has no place among the people that are committed to work for, produce for and consume what the State has decided. All needs are met by the Nation.

So, when a series of hideous murders start to occur the authorities do not believe there is a serial killer who travels all over the country and goes after children. Leo Demidov, a secret MGB agent, is reluctant to do any investigations when the four-year-old child of one of his colleagues is found gutted next to the railway lines. However, the regime does not trust anyone; when Leo refuses to turn his own wife in when she is accused of being a spy, he becomes dispensable for the State, an enemy like those he used to arrest and torture. He and his family are deprived of all privileges and he is sent with Raisa in a remote province to work for the militia as a low rank officer. From there the story proceeds with a fast pace towards the solution of the mystery: who is the killer, why he kills children in such an appalling way, how Leo finds him and in what way his past is intertwined with the present. 

It is a fascinating story, grim and dark. It may be disturbing to those who have a sensitivity around crimes against children and animals. However, it is a book that will not let you down; a perfect companion for that (boring) hour of commuting. 

+ good plot, strong characters, thought-provoking 

- screenplay-like story, weak ending, violence against children



(written by FK for Walkley Library)

Vote for your favourite Agatha Christie book

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan was born on 15 September 1890. In order to celebrate the 125th anniversary of her birth the Agatha Christie estate is searching through public vote the best-loved novel by the queen of crime.

Christie is listed as the best-selling novelist of all time on the Guinness Book of World Records. With books that have been translated into 103 languages and 2 billion copies sold worldwide, she is claimed to be the third most widely published author behind Shakespeare and the Bible.

Christie is the author of 66 detective novels and 14 short stories, which she wrote under her own name and feature Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Parker Pyne. She, also, wrote "The Mousetrap", the longest-running play in the world.

So, which one is your favourite Agatha Christie novel? I admit that I haven't read all sixty-six of her detective stories. Every time I do read one, though, I feel...good. 

Her plots are simple ones; they may not seem to be at first, but they all follow a certain pattern that she re-uses in her books. For example, murders by numbers or rhymes, like "The Seven Dials Mystery", "The Thirteen Problems", "Five Little Pigs", "Towards Zero" or "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" and "Hickory Dickory Dock". There is more than one dead body, the least possible suspect turns out to be the murderer, butlers and maids always know something, details and accidental events are important, and there's a final explanation of the mystery where everyone involved gathers to hear the solution to the problem.

Christie follows simple ideas and turns them into mysteries we cannot solve easily. Most of the time we try to figure out who is the killer, which one of the characters will die next, who knows something and does not say. Perhaps that's what makes her stories so alluring; the power to drag the reader into the plot as if were there ourselves.

I cannot distinguish among her books which one is my favourite. But if you can, you are requested to cast your vote for your favourite here: http://worldsfavouritechristie.com/books. 

The winning book will be announced in September, the month of Christie’s birth. So, there's plenty of time for you to read more of her novels or go through again some of her stories that have captured millions of people around the globe.


Is there a book by the queen of crime that you like most? Leave a comment below :-)

Read more on The Guardian.

(image source: http://worldsfavouritechristie.com/pages/about-agatha-christie / info source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie , https://www.librarything.com/topic/20848 )

(written by FK for Walkley Library)