Category Archives: POV

character, POV, reviews

Elly Griffiths — Stranger Diaries

Much of the story takes place in a school building that was once the home of gothic author R. M. Holland. His ghost story is given to us piecemeal throughout the book. His wife died in the home and is said to haunt the building. An old mystery hangs over the school about how she died—accident, suicide, or homicide—and a mystery of his daughter if there was one. Two current murders of teachers from the school are the central plot.

Three main characters switch first-person points of view—Police Detective Harbinder, English teacher Clare, and Clare’s teenage daughter Georgia—all well-written with distinct and likable personalities. One small problem with the plot is that we know that two of Harbinder’s main suspects, Clare and Georgia, are not the villain because we follow them throughout the story. The author left no hints about the actual killer until close to the end (or did I miss them?).

I like reading mysteries and crime novels by British authors. There’s something about the style that’s different from American authors. Griffiths is new to me, and I’ll look for more books by her.

character, heart, mystery, POV, reviews

Gytha Lodge — Watching from the Dark

There is something about a good British police procedural that captures my imagination. Lodge gives a step-by-step description of the police unraveling the clues to find the killer of a young woman, Zoe. The crime looks like a suicide, but Zoe’s boyfriend is watching via Skype when someone creeps into her apartment and her bathroom. He anonymously reports it to the police.

The author follows the four policemen on the case and several of the victim’s friends, who are all suspects, giving us insights into all the characters and their relationships with the crime and the victim. She also goes back in time for the story of Zoe’s time leading up to her murder.

The writing style is methodical and detailed but holds your attention from beginning to end. I had a vague idea of who killed Zoe before the reveal at the end.

Good writing, good plot, good characters.

character, head, heart, on writing, POV, reviews, style, thriller

Karin Slaughter — The Last Widow

Even though this book is the ninth in a series, it’s my first book by the author. It reads well as a stand-alone. From some of the reviews I read, I might get tired of the characters if I read all nine.

I found Slaughter’s unique style of writing fascinating. She covered the exact same events in the same timeframe in separate chapters from different characters’ points of view. Although interesting, it probably could have been done without repeating all the details and action multiple times. The book is looonng!

Good writing, good plotting, interesting characters (both good and evil), lots of themes, lots of action, but very dark, needs some fact-checking, and her political POV is sometimes overbearing.

action/adventure, character, head, heart, humor, mystery, POV, reviews, SF

Hank Green — A Beautiful Foolish Endeavor

“…Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Lord Acton, 1887

Let me first say that I’m an eighty-year-old woman who loves to read most fiction genres. I receive my books from the local library Books by Mail program. Most are not specific requests and they cover a wonderful variety of subjects and styles. Second, I almost didn’t start this novel because it’s a sequel to a book I haven’t read, and reviews indicated it was aimed at a young audience with a theme about social media, which I avoid.

But I loved this book (even without reading the previous installment). It’s not only about the abuse of money and power, it’s about humanity, encompassing our worst and best traits and in between.

character, fantasy, head, heart, horror, POV, reviews, SF, strange, thriller

Dean Koontz — Devoted

I’ve read Dean Koontz in the past with mixed feelings. Some are excellent and some I haven’t finished due to lack of interest. This one is somewhere in between. The differences in Koontz’s writing styles makes me wonder if he uses ghostwriters, or if he has multiple personalities.

Devoted is a mix of fantasy, suspense, genetics SF, horror, psychological thriller, paranormal, and maybe a “shaggy dog story” without the humor. It’s the story of an intelligent dog, Kipp, and an autistic eleven-year-old boy, Woody, who has never spoken a word. The boy screams a psychic cry for help that is picked up by “The Wire,” a telepathic communication network for a group of dogs. Kipp comes to the rescue.

My biggest problem with this book is the characters all appear to be seen from the point of view of the dog. All the people are either very bad (haters, liars, greedy, etc.) or unbelievably good (loving, truth-tellers, sympathetic, loyal, etc.). The good people have no bad characteristics, and the bad have no good. And of course, all the dogs are noble.

The best part of the book is the hopeful ending.

character, head, mystery, POV, reviews, setting, thriller

Lisa Gardner — When You See Me

Hikers find a girl’s bones off the Appalachian Trail in northern Georgia. They turn out to be the remains of a girl gone missing 15 years earlier, a suspected victim of dead serial kidnapper Jacob Ness. The incident brings together a team of crime investigators, led by FBI agent Kimberly Quincy. She recruits a group from Boston who have been tracking Ness’s crimes—police sergeant D.D. Warren, civilian kidnap-survivor Flora Dane, and Flora’s sidekick, computer guru Keith Edgar.

The book combines police procedural and thriller. The first part, mostly procedural and introduction to the characters if you haven’t followed the series, is a bit boring if you’ve followed Gardner’s novels. The pace picks up as it goes along, and the crimes and criminals pile up. The last few chapters are action-packed. The story pace feels like a train slowly chugging out of the station, picking up some speed as it goes through the city, then turning into high-speed rail.

The plot is chilling. Hopefully no real towns exist like the one in this story. Gardner’s excellent writing kept me reading even through the early slow chapters.

The pace and the proliferation of characters keep my rating at 4 stars, not 5. I would prefer fewer POV characters. Four women carry the story, each picking up separate pieces of information—Kimberly, D.D., Flora, and a girl without a name or voice who is held captive by the bad guys.

Even with these flaws, When You See Me is an excellent read. I recommend it, and I recommend that if you haven’t read other Lisa Gardner books…do it now!

character, head, heart, mystery, POV, reviews

Carly Buckley — The Liar’s Child

Sara is running from a Hurricane headed for the Outer Banks of North Carolina and also trying to escape witness protection. She rescues two children, Cassie and Boon, who are home alone in the apartment next door. She’s torn between finding someplace to drop the children and staying off the radar, so the agents don’t track her.

All the characters are intense and twisted but interesting. I’m not sure who the title character is supposed to be, since everyone is lying and/or a liar’s child. Hank, a retired sheriff, is almost unnecessary to the plot. He’s haunted by a missing son who disappeared years earlier at age ten. Whit, Cassie and Boon’s father, is dealing with the disappearance of his wife while holding down a demanding job and taking care of the two children. Cassie, age twelve, tries to fit in with the older kids in the neighborhood by dressing Goth. Five-year-old Boon sleeps in his closet.

The story feels repetitive at times, but each time we see the “facts” from a different point of view, we learn a little more of the “truth.” It kept my interest to the end, and I liked the ending.

character, head, heart, literary, mystery, POV, setting, strange, style, thriller

Tim Johnston — The Current

The Current is a strange story written in a strange style, and it leaves unanswered questions at the end. It’s closer to real life where everything doesn’t get neatly tied up. There is mystery here, but not your typical “whodunit” mystery, maybe a literary mystery.

I enjoyed the story, but it took a little while to understand the flow. At times Johnston writes stream of consciousness, sometimes he uses second person POV, head-hopping from one character to another, and he skips back and forth between timelines. But he digs deep into the psyches of his characters—love, hate, grief, curiosity, need-to-know, vengeance—and tells all that is going on around them—sights, smells, heat and cold, sounds, skin sensations.

I enjoyed the book but only gave it four stars. It grabbed my attention, my heart, and my mind. But the author could have made it a little easier to follow without losing the grip of the story.

character, head, heart, humor, mystery, POV, reviews, setting, style

Louise Penny — Kingdom of the Blind

I have not read any of the previous books in this series, which may be a disadvantage in reading Kingdom of the Blind, but it reads well as a stand-alone.

The cozy comfort of the small town of Three Pines stands in stark contrast to the back streets of Montreal. Some of the gatherings of Gamache’s family or friends in the village, discussing the murder or just babbling about life, at times seemed confusing or unnecessary, possibly due to my unfamiliarity with the characters. But these gatherings were comfortable, friendly, and humorous. The story is filled with family connections (both relational and families of friends or coworkers), some full of love and understanding and some underlined with distrust.

One unusual thing about Penny’s writing is her use of omniscient point of view. You might even call it “head-hopping.” She often jumps POV from one character to another and back. I found it distracting at times, but overall, she did a reasonable job of making it feel seamless.

The setting in Canadian winter made me feel the chill and the crunch of the snow underfoot. The plot was interesting. Occasionally I was ahead of the story and guessed what would happen, other times I was surprised.

I may go back in time and read other novels in Ms. Penny’s Gamache series.

character, head, heart, mystery, POV, reviews

Lisa Gardner — Never Tell

Never Tell is a book of secrets told from three women’s POVs. Evie Carter finds her husband dead—murder or suicide—picks up the gun and shoots his computer. Homicide detective D.D. Warren knows Evie as a girl who sixteen years ago “accidentally” shot and killed her own father. D.D.’s civilian informant, Flora Dane, sees a picture of Evie’s dead husband and recognizes him as someone she met while a kidnap victim of Jacob Ness.

The three distinctive characters are well-defined and interesting, revealing secrets as the story progresses and uncovering other secrets about Evie’s husband, father, and mother, and about Flora’s kidnapper. Peripheral characters are also distinct and interesting. The setting is in Boston, my favorite city. The complex plot kept me guessing.

An excellent novel by a first-rate author.