I have only not finished one book (so far), but a lot of these things on this list sure ring a bell with me!
#’s 1, 6, 8, 13, and so many more!
Check it out:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/31-completely-acceptable-reasons-to-break-up-with-a-book/
Of Course.
I think since I haven’t been a bit confused enough (no, that does not make sense, but it makes my point exactly), Mr. Campbell x 2 are going to throw in some more characters. So, into the character pool we dive, and boy is it getting crowded in here!
Venhi does the deed, and Eleanor is no more; just a Jane Bloggs (the British version of America’s Jane Doe) on a slab in the morgue, waiting for someone to figure out who she is. The clever assistant technician doing the autopsy catches the hole in her neck from the needle rather quickly.
Edwin returns home, waiting for the phone to ring; some type of news that Eleanor is eliminated.
Into the story comes David Morton; Detective Chief Inspector. We also meet Peter K. Sugden-Jones, so far not connected to anyone else in this story. Seems to be well-to-do, and have a bit of a snobbish attitude to go right along with it. We learn he trades in the market, but that’s about all we know about him so far.
And we see Chelsea, waiting for her mum to pick her up, but obviously she is going to be a bit late since she’s in the morgue, waiting for someone to ID her. Edwin eventually gets a call, and can barely contain his glee as he goes to pick up his daughter. He does everything necessary to look like the concerned husband; sends messages, leaves voicemails, calls friends. He figures he covered his bases, and once Chelsea goes to sleep, he sends Vanhi a message, asking if it is OK if he takes care of his end of the deal in a couple weeks.
Now we get to enter Mr. Peter Sugden’s home, where his wife is waiting for him with dinner ready. (I am not the one who made the huge typo error here, I went back and looked and a few pages ago, he was Mr. Sugden-Jones, now it is Mr. Sugden and Mrs. Sugden. hmmm). Mrs. S lets him know that she saw all 3 of the new neighbors, and he is not going to be happy. Why won’t he be happy, you ask? Because they are foreigners. And yes, he is that bigoted, racist, idiot neighbor that everyone seems to get to experience one of in their lifetime, right? (Hopefully only 1).
And Mr. David Morton (remember, the Detective Chief Inspector?) is over at the park where Eleanor was found, looking for anything and everything that could help him solve this case.
We catch up with Edwin on a flight to Vancouver, where his job prospect in Human Resources is located.
It hops right back to Vanhi, in the middle of a nightmare, seeing nothing but a pockmarked-faced man who has her bound and gagged. Waking up, and finding no cocaine to ease her nerves, she decides to get on her darknet account and find an anonymous dealer. Of course, she finds Edwin’s posting about needing a problem taken care of. Vanhi decides she has a problem that needs to be taken care of as well; Mr. Pockmarked-face. She quickly replies with her own message.
And we are back again to Edwin, who nails his interview for the HR position, and returns home to see his computer flashing with a received message.
OK, now here is something that really bugs me when I am reading. When something seems to just fall out of the sky and right into the story. Like facts, or information. Here is the next part I read, word-for-word.
‘Seems like a fair swap. What is your problem?’ he read.
Did she understand what she was proposing? Was she an undercover cop? Did it make a difference even if she was? He was, after all, anonymous (Campbell & Campbell, page 30).
How does he know that the person replying is a woman? (I re-read this section several times thinking I had to have missed something where she identified herself to him as a woman. Nope). Did she sign her name? Attach a picture of herself? This is the kind of thing that bugs me. I am used to the grammatical errors that seem to be in every single book I pick up lately (Do we not hire editors anymore people?) but random stuff like this is just ridiculous.
…….OK. Putting my soap box away…….
Back and forth Edwin and Vanhi continue to message. It seems like they can both close on this deal. Vanhi has a picture of Eleanor and her morning jogging schedule. Edwin decides to hang out in Vancouver for a while longer; not only for an alibi, but also because he needs to start getting used to his future home.
Vanhi preps a hypodermic with cocaine and ethanol, enough to get the job done. She starts staking out Eleanor’s morning jogging path, vowing to herself to take care of the problem the first clear chance she gets. She has a week to get it done and over with.
I absolutely love this one!
The beginning of Chapter 2 introduced Yosef, and his first born son. We learn that as time passes, at a very young age, his son is diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease. It is incurable, and his son will slowly lose his sight, hearing, and the ability to move and breathe on his own. He will die very young. They will make him as comfortable as possible, but he vows to himself he will not let his son suffer in agony. (We all see where this is going, right?)
Back to Edwin, who decides to not off his wife, because of course he is going to get caught. Yet as the debt piles up, he again revisits the idea, and posts a straight-to-the-point post looking for someone to do the deed for him. He gets a reply rather quickly, and starts figuring out how he would pay for this service. In between all of this, he is job-searching, and has a great prospect lined up.
Realizing he cannot pay cash or touch any money in his bank, he decides the best option is to trade one favor for another. He now has to post a new advert on the internet.
At the beginning of chapter 4 we are introduced to Vanhi, a prostitute in central London. (Did I forget to tell you that this story takes place across the “big pond”? Sorry about that.) After she takes care of a client, she cleans herself and her apartment up before Jaison, her boyfriend?, gets back from work. He is a cleaner.
I am sensing an Alfred Hitchcock story going on here. Strangers on a Train, anyone? I love that movie 🙂
So I will keep plodding along on this story. Apparently it was written in less than 90 days (intentionally) and has seriously mixed reviews online. Apparently numerous spelling and punctuation errors as well, which I haven’t seen yet.
I am really hoping that the best thing about this story is not the title. I have to say I have only read the first chapter, but all through that first chapter I kept asking myself “Do I really want to keep reading this?”
Why was I thinking this? Mainly because this story does one thing I do not like in the books I read: it introduces a whole town’s worth of characters and all the twisted ways they may or may not be linked together. Most books take a while to do this, but I think this book did it all in the first chapter. At least I hope they did it all in the first chapter, because if the next one or two chapters do this, it will be the second book in my lifetime that I could not finish. It reminds me of reading “The Casual Vacancy” by J.K. Rowling. The only book I read from front to back and had no idea what I had just read when I finished it. (Honestly, I would sell that book at a yard sale or donate it to my local library but I would not want to be responsible for someone else reading that book).
So in chapter one, we meet Edwin, over-worker to avoid his wife, Eleanor. Drew, their son that died, and Chelsea, their daughter that lived. Betty, who is Edwin’s secretary. Derek Wood, the owner of the newspaper that Edwin works for. Wood’s personal assistant, so-far unnamed. Palmer, advertising employee for the paper. Mark, Edwin’s brother-in-law. Caroline Flack, Edwin’s just obtained divorce attorney. Jeremy Kyle, news reporter and likely Eleanor’s new boyfriend.
Now, they did not give a huge backstory for all of the characters I just mentioned (just most), but they were all mentioned; in the first chapter. 16 pages.
Now the first sentence of chapter two, and when I stopped reading this morning? “When his first son was born, Yosef Gershwin had paced back and forth frantically.” (page 17).
Having a sneaking suspicion I was about to learn all about Yosef, his son, and his extended family, I had to stop reading. I will pick it back up; but if too many more characters get added to this story, it is going back on the bookshelf, gathering dust, never to be looked at again.
The meaning of this story? Edwin is online, looking for someone to take care of a problem he has. Yep; that problem.
Author: Lewis Carroll
Born: January 27, 1832
Died: January 14, 1898
Wrote: Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland, The Hunting of the Snark, Sylvie and Bruno.
Interesting Facts: Lewis had a stutter as he was growing up. He began writing stories and poetry at a very young age. He also had a knack for mathematics. He continually encouraged letter-writing, inventing a penny stamp holder, and wrote and received over 90,000 letters.
Okay, truth be told, it is 5 am, I cannot focus on my statistics book, and it is Friday, which is when I usually search for and find free books for my Nook. Which I am on right now (Friday fun facts will post later; I need my actual laptop for that!)
Always a critic of electronic readers, I do still buy books. But, I cannot just walk into Barnes & Noble and take several (or even one) book home without paying for it, right? Right. And I have discovered some great authors through these free books whose other works I will now be purchasing for my bookshelves.
With that being said, what is up with all of the books about BDSM (or whatever the hell its initials are), women falling in love with ghosts, and people are really still writing about women falling in love with werewolves? Still? Yes, I read through all of the Twilight books like a crazy person and I’m not embarrassed to admit it; and yes I also read the 50 Shades books.
But good gracious, is no one capable of coming up with an original idea anymore? Have all the good storylines and plots been used up? Is this what we have to look forward to? Recycled and regurgitated stories with new names for the characters, a different city, and the same ol’ same ol’?
This is one of the reasons I read To Kill a Mockingbird at least once a year. And luckily, there are still a few classics out there that I haven’t gotten to yet. And if you read these type of same storyline/different author books and I just pissed you off, I would apologize but this is nothing more than my humble opinion, and no; I will never apologize for my opinion.
Is it really just me who gets annoyed by this type of writing? What annoys you (other than this post) about books?
The Bad Guy Is Caught
Janet and Dean/Dennis keep working the case together, although she will not cut him a break and stop being angry with him. She just cannot see that he truly does like and care for her; something he had promised himself would never happen again.
The next step to find the missing link? That is with Tom. And who is going to work over Tom to get this much needed information? Right again: Janet. (She is sorry she even asked!) She sees it as much needed punishment for herself though for what she is doing to Lisa. They may have their issues, but she was still her best friend, and likely about to ruin her wedding plans and lock up her fiancé, even though he appears to be as clueless about the situation as Lisa.
Janet calls up Tom to have him meet her at a bar; Dean/Dennis just happens to show up there as well. An earlier deal with the bartender had Tom sloshed beyond belief and Janet and Dean/Dennis sober as a church choir. They get Tom’s drunk self home, and rush back to Janet’s with Tom’s laptop in hand. Dean/Dennis has no trouble getting past the initial password, and finds what he was looking for.
Apparently Tom can handle his liquor better than anyone thought; barely minutes after they hack into his laptop and get what they need, he is ringing Janet’s intercom, asking to come up to her apartment.
Back to Jon in the office. The first lawsuit comes in, as well as a subpoena from the SEC. He knew this was just the tip of the iceberg, and left work for the day. As he never leaves work for anything, his wife knew there was something terribly wrong, and he spilled everything to her. She vowed to stand by him, no matter what, and told him he needed to do the right thing and confess everything, likely for a more lenient sentence.
And now we’re back to Lisa. Sitting in her office, daydreaming about her wedding. Until her paralegal brings in a copy of The New York Post. She plays it off as nothing to worry about, until she is again alone in her office. Then the panic sets in.
Janet meets Dean/Dennis’s boss, and he offers her a job at the Treasury. She is too shocked to answer, but takes the envelope with the details of the offer with her and promises to call. And she still will not forgive Dean/Dennis, whom she also just at that very moment found out his real name was Dennis. Why don’t you add some more fuel to the fire, Dennis?
So how does it end? Hanging. Dennis asks Janet out, and she agrees. And that is it. There is no resolution to what happens to Bostoff Securities, Jon, Paul, or Lisa. Does this bother me? Not at all. It was a good read, easy and fun, and I will definitely be reading the next one in this series, “Catching the Bad Guy”. An except for book 2 lets us know that she did indeed take the job at the Treasury, is working with Dennis, they are strictly friends, and they are also both attracted to each other but refuse to admit it.
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