The Perfect Crime...A Perfect Thriller!

During my weekly trip to my local library, I make a point to check out the "de-circulated" book shelf...It's like the library book graveyard, where books that haven't been signed out a lot, get the chop (for no good reason other than shelf space for crap--see my last blog post and you'll understand). Our local sells these slow movers for a mere 25 cents (paperbacks) while hard covers run a buck each (Criminal isn't it, and no wonder writers are starving). 

After a little looking, I uncovered a novel called A Perfect Crime by Peter Abrahams. I bought this novel because on the front dust cover, Stephen King is quoted as citing Abrahams as the best American suspense author of our times. NOW THAT'S HUGE PRAISE. I bought it for a buck and boy, was that a dollar well spent.

The Perfect Crime is the story of the affair between Francie and Ned who are both married to other people. Everything gets more and more complicated as their lives become entwined. Deception, jealousy, madness and murder...this one has it all!!

I read it in a couple of days...and I have to admit that the second half of the novel was much more entertaining than the first half.  Francie's husband Roger, is an arrogant prick who might drive Mother Theresa to adultery. Anne, Ned's gentle and ever kind wife is a lovely woman...maybe a bit too soft but alas, wonderful. This story gets the reader hooked in the first few pages and takes him on quite a good ride. 

Of interest is that Peter Abrahams has written 27 novels...How is that possible, and why haven't I discovered him before now? Am I that OTL?...

Here's a bit about Abrahams courtesy of Wikepedia:

Peter Abrahams (born 28 June 1947) is an American writer of crime thrillers. His works include Oblivion, The Tutor, The Fury of Rachel Monette, Hard Rain, The Fan, Crying Wolf, Last of the Dixie Heroes, the Echo Falls Mysteries, and Lights Out, the last of which was nominated for an Edgar Award for best novel. His literary influences are Vladimir Nabokov, Graham Greene and Ross Macdonald. Stephen King has referred to him as "my favorite American suspense novelist". Born in Boston, Abrahams previously lived in Ottawa and worked as a CBC television producer. He is currently living in Falmouth, Massachusetts on Cape Cod with his wife and children.

This is a great site for more info about this talented and prolific writer: 

http://www.peterabrahams.com/index.html

This novel is entertaining, and makes for riveting reading. I recommend it and have already lent it to my friend Mary! And by the way, I'll buy his next novel...I want to support his talent!

Random Picks and Pictures of Books

Here are a few quick pics of books that I came across this week.

I am within walking distance to my local public library. My daughter is becoming an avid and so we make it a weekly event to go and drift through the stacks and spend an hour looking at all the lovely books. While I was there this week, I took a few snaps of things that caught my eye.

Question: How much crap can one shelf hold?
Answer: Apparently, lots more than it should.

Does it even need a caption? Ugh.

My next cover pick: A couple of weeks ago, I took out a book called Novel About My Wife. It was a pick based purely on the appearance of the cover. (See my older Blog). Here's the next random book that caught my eye.

The Title Caught My Eye...

My Next Cover Pick...
Who Knows if it will Be Good

Refreshing...Water For Elephants

What a refreshing novel! In Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen takes the reader on a train ride through the life of circus entertainers of the 1920's. The story of a young veterinarian who runs away and joins the circus in an effort to avoid the reality of a terrible car accident that takes the lives of his parents.  After finding out that his parents have mortgaged everything that they own to put him through vet school at Cornell, he has an emotional breakdown and can't face his new reality.

Here's a quick summary courtesy of Teenink:

The story is told in a series of memories from Jacob Jankowski as a 93-year-old man in a nursing home. Twenty-three-year-old Jacob learns about his parents’ death in his final semester at Cornell where he is receiving a degree in Veterinary studies. He learns that his parents were deep in debt trying to pay for his Ivy League education. This was not unusual during the time period, The Great Depression in the United States. He breaks down and boards a slow moving train in the middle of the night. He learns later that the train belonged to the traveling “Benzini Bros Most Spectacular Show on Earth”. He earns a job tending animals. 

Jacob develops a precarious relationship with the head trainer, August and his wife, Marlena. Jacob falls in love with Marlena. August, a paranoid schizophrenic, becomes suspicious of their relationship and beats them both. Marlena refuses to be near August and stays in a hotel while not performing. This bothers Uncle Al, the owner of the circus and he summons Jacob to his quarters. There he threatens Jacob with the task of reuniting August and Marlena or having his two best friends and roommates “redlighted”*. (thrown to their death from the moving train during the night).

The story combines memorable characters, with a love interest, suspense, and one or two really exciting  "dust ups".  There is a great balance of adventure, action and solid character development.

I always know that I am onto a good book when I find myself waking up early, before the kids get up so that I can enjoy a quiet hour of reading before the busy day starts.  I highly recommend this one!

Villa Incognito by Tom Robbins

I discovered Tom Robbins' writing about 20 years ago. Mitra, a friend from my College St. days recommended his writing as a bit of fun reading. I started with Skinny Legs and All, and then read his more well known Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.  I still have my copies of both those novels on my office bookshelf. They were very entertaining, and I highly recommend them!

The always playful and quirky Tom Robbins continues to entertain his readers with Villa Incognito. One of the most inventive writers I have yet come across, Robbins unabashedly frolics with language. His endless literary jousting almost creates a new verbal sport. He runs amuck with alliteration, and is more verbose than Webster's thesaurus:

“Simultaneously a frantic, high-tech juggernaut and a timeless Asian dream, Bangkok straddles like no other metropolis the boundary between acrid and sweet, soft and hard, sacred and profane. It’s a silk buzz saw, a lacquered jackhammer, a steel-belted seduction, a digital prayer.”   

The language alone makes for a riveting read, that is like being on an amusement park ride with your eyes closed. There is no way of knowing where the story is going, and all the reader can do is sit back and enjoy the ride. You have to let Tom Robbins "happen".   His invented "tanukis" are a badger-like animal that speaks and understands english, boasts a scrotum as large as a parachute and is able to seduce even the most virtuous woman.


Just when Robbins lulls you into thinking that the entire novel is purely created for fun, he slips in a remarkable thought:

“It doesn't matter how sensitive you are or how damn smart and educated you are, if you're not both at the same time, if your heart and your brain aren't connected, aren't working together harmoniously, well, you're just hopping through life on one leg. You may think you're walking, you may think you're running a damn marathon, but you're only on a hop trip. The connections gotta be maintained.” 

There is no doubt in my mind that he is a creative genius, albeit playful and "out there"! (I won't even attempt to analyze the possible social commentaries that his work makes...I'll leave that to the academics.)

But besides the fun, I have to admit that the story fell apart a bit in the middle. I was lost trying to find the plot's progression, and I found myself skipping paragraphs of description. I found it a bit waffling at times, and needed the story to have more momentum. 

Sadly, I doubt that Robbins will ever achieve mainstream popularity. He touches on taboo subjects so frequently, that I almost think he is making a sport flying in the face of our cultural norms. Some of the more controversial topic include the medicinal use of heroine, interspecies copulation (animals with humans), desertion from the US Armed Forces, the ineptitude of the CIA.

I really enjoyed this entertaining work. Tom Robbins is an original. I'm leaving off with a final thought from Tom Robbins...Probably a good way to conclude:

“Why," Tanuki grumbled, "would they fell trees but leave men standing? Trees are a damn sight more useful than people, and everything in the world knows that but people.”