Monthly Archives: July 2017

character, head, heart, humor, literary, mystery, reviews, romance, setting, strange, thriller

Dennis Lehane — Since We Fell

I met Dennis Lehane once at a book signing in Boston and I’ve seen him on television a few times. He seems like an easygoing likeable person with a twinkle of humor in his eyes. But Lehane writes dark stories. His characters are twisted. He examines his characters minds good and bad—their delights, doubts, and demons. Great stuff!

The first part of Since We Fell follows Rachel Childs from a childhood with a dominating mother and no father, through a successful career as a journalist in Boston and an unsuccessful marriage, to a breakdown on camera in Haiti while covering the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. Her husband leaves her, she’s fired from her job, and she becomes a virtual shut-in.

Enter second husband, Brian Delacroix, who understands her (unlike first husband), treats her with loving kindness, and helps her overcome her phobias. Perfect husband…or is he?

The story is filled with questions, conspiracies, murder, and surprises. Is it a psychological thriller, a literary novel, crime novel, or something that doesn’t fall into any genre or category? It fits all three of my classifications of head, heart, and even some humor.

Charles River, Boston
Charles River, Boston

The setting is mostly in Boston, my favorite city in the world. It made me feel at home.

In my opinion, Dennis Lehane is one of the today’s best authors.

character, fantasy, head, heart, horror, mystery, reviews, setting, strange, thriller

Stephen King — Duma Key

Duma Key is the first Stephen King novel I’ve read in many years. Even though he is an excellent writer, I’m not a fan of horror. You usually find his books classified as horror, but they could also fall into thriller, suspense, fantasy, psychological, supernatural, paranormal, ghost story, and mystery genres. Duma Key is all of these.

I’m not sure why I decided to read this book; maybe because the setting is in Southwest Florida where I live. I found the story intriguing from the beginning. Edgar Freemantle, builder and contractor, is almost killed in an accident that damages his right hip and leg, crushes his skull, and he loses his right arm. Due to his unpredictable behavior while recovering, his wife leaves him.

His shrink suggests Edgar should take up a hobby and go on sabbatical. He leases “Big Pink,” a house hanging over the water at the edge of the Gulf of Mexico on Duma Key. Here he begins to draw and then paint, learning at a furious pace. His ghost arm drives him.

Walking the beach, Edgar meets Wireman, and they become friends. Wireman is caretaker for an old woman, Elizabeth Eastlake, who floats in and out of dementia. Elizabeth owns the habitable part of Duma Key, including Big Pink, and she is an integral part of the story.

The story begins as psychological and/or supernatural thriller, moving on to become a ghost story. It doesn’t become a “horror story/monster movie” until about three-quarters of the way through. By that time it had me hooked, and I had to keep reading to see what would happen. Edgar, Wireman, and Jack (who was hired to help Edgar and became his friend) join forces to battle the monsters.

As I said at the beginning, Stephen King is an excellent writer.

character, head, mystery, reviews, SF

Kim Stanley Robinson — 2312

I picked this book to read because I was delighted with Robinson’s New York 2140. I wanted to read more. But there is no connection between the two novels except the author.

For me, the best part of this book was the settings. It starts with a sunrise on planet Mercury. The descriptions are breath-taking. The author continues to give us imaginative pictures of and from other places in our solar system throughout the book. It must have required tons of research combined with an ingenious imagination to create these scenes.

There are four (or five) principal characters. Swan is an artist from Mercury. She designed worlds and created habitats in moons and asteroids. Her grandmother Alex, who was the leader of Mercury and more, has died, and Swan is mourning. Swan is volatile, angry, hyper…and 135 years old. She meets Wahram, a diplomat from the Saturn system, whose personality is the complete opposite—relaxed, accepting, enjoying life. Inspector Genette is an interplanetary policeman. Kiran is a young man from Earth who helps Swan. She, in turn, helps him leave Earth and immigrate to Venus. The fifth main character is Pauline, the cube (quantum computer) in Swan’s head. There are many other characters scattered through the book, but I believe these are the central cast.

The intricate plot twists and turns. Earth is in bad shape with political and environmental issues. It is the only planet in the solar system still struggling with poverty and social inequality. Swan and Wahram are trying to fix it with successes and failures. Someone tries to destroy Terminator, the city on Mercury, but most of the people escape. An asteroid habitat was destroyed previously, and all inhabitants died. These events appear to be related. Was Alex’s death murder or natural causes? Swan and Wahram work with Genette trying to find who is responsible for these disasters.

I could go on, but you should read the book. It’s long, but you could skip the extracts and lists and get the whole story. I recommend you read everything. Those extracts give history, explanations, and descriptions that enhance the story.