This is one of the darkest tales I've read in a long time, probably since I read Gregorio's last mystery a year or so ago. Gregorio's protagonist, Magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis from a small city in Prussia, is ordered to investigate why Prussian women are being murdered along the Baltic coast while they are employed in mining for amber.
Gregorio weaves a psychological thriller mixed with Gothic mystery and the reader is left to decide whether the women are being killed for the amber they frequently smuggle to other communities in Prussia in 1808, or are there other reasons these women are being brutally murdered and mutilated? Are the French to blame? A mysterious Prussian doctor? A student at the Kantian school in Konigsburg? Stiffeniis has promised to solve the mystery within two weeks to be home in time to see the birth of his new child. He needs to figure out why the murder suspect knows so much about him and his family.
This book will take a strong stomach. It begins with a graphic description of a putrid cow dung problem in Stiffeniis' town, and continues with extremely graphic details in both sight and smells, about a mutilated body. The gore doesn't let up throughout the book.
Michael Gregorio, which is a pen name for a husband and wife team Michael G. Jacob and Daniela De Gregorio, are on top of the game in this taut and graphically written Gothic mystery.
Liz Nichols
Showing posts with label psychological thriller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psychological thriller. Show all posts
Friday, October 9, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
31 Hours by Masha Hamilton
In the hours following 9/11 it's especially appropriate that my review is for Hamilton's "31 Hours," a dark exploration into the thought process of a domestic terrorist. Masha Hamilton is the perfect novelist to tell this tale. She is not only an accomplished fiction writer, but also a journalist with experience in such hot spots as Afghanistan, Russia, the Middle East and Africa. She understands how
Americans are seen in developing countries and she has obviously very carefully thought through how such a disaster as is told in "31 Hours" could happen-- very easily.
The plot is entirely plausible: a jihadist alien resident from Saudi Arabia has recruited a seemingly normal white, middle class student from New York City to be among the suicide bombers to detonate explosions in the major subway and rail stations in New York City on a given day and time.
We follow the last 31 hours of this young terrorist's life (or we assume it is) We watch as the terrorist, Jonas, shaves himself from head to toe. We don't necessarily get an explanation of why each of the rituals performed is important to the pre-suicide bomber protocol. We just know that the many activities and prayers that Jonas offers in that last 31 hours are on the list that Masoud, his Saudi friend, has given him following his return from terrorist training in Pakistan.
Jonas' reasons for this impending action are given, but most Americans will find it very hard to identify with his concerns. Essentially, Jonas believes that it takes extreme violence to end American intrusion into the affairs of other countries. He believes that other countries will back away from supporting U.S. imperialism if the price exacted by terrorists is truly fearsome. Somehow Jonas doesn't see that violence actually begets more violence most of the time. Perhaps the mindset is similar to that of the U.S. government when they dropped the atomic bomb. In that case, extreme violence did beget peace, but only because Japan was too weak by that time to continue.
This is an extremely well written, chilling psychological thriller that delves into the dark recesses of the mind of a terrorist. It is highly recommended.
Liz Nichols
Americans are seen in developing countries and she has obviously very carefully thought through how such a disaster as is told in "31 Hours" could happen-- very easily.
The plot is entirely plausible: a jihadist alien resident from Saudi Arabia has recruited a seemingly normal white, middle class student from New York City to be among the suicide bombers to detonate explosions in the major subway and rail stations in New York City on a given day and time.
We follow the last 31 hours of this young terrorist's life (or we assume it is) We watch as the terrorist, Jonas, shaves himself from head to toe. We don't necessarily get an explanation of why each of the rituals performed is important to the pre-suicide bomber protocol. We just know that the many activities and prayers that Jonas offers in that last 31 hours are on the list that Masoud, his Saudi friend, has given him following his return from terrorist training in Pakistan.
Jonas' reasons for this impending action are given, but most Americans will find it very hard to identify with his concerns. Essentially, Jonas believes that it takes extreme violence to end American intrusion into the affairs of other countries. He believes that other countries will back away from supporting U.S. imperialism if the price exacted by terrorists is truly fearsome. Somehow Jonas doesn't see that violence actually begets more violence most of the time. Perhaps the mindset is similar to that of the U.S. government when they dropped the atomic bomb. In that case, extreme violence did beget peace, but only because Japan was too weak by that time to continue.
This is an extremely well written, chilling psychological thriller that delves into the dark recesses of the mind of a terrorist. It is highly recommended.
Liz Nichols
Sunday, November 2, 2008
"Alone" by Lisa Gardner
I've been pulling books off my shelves that I acquired via the Mystery Book Club a few years ago and hadn't gotten around to reading.
One of these thrillers is "Alone" by Lisa Gardner, published in 2005. This mystery pairs a likable Massachusetts SWAT team member, Bobby Dodge, and a less likable socialite, Catherine Gagnon, who was the survivor of a horrendous abduction and rape as a child 25 years before. What Bobby needs to find out is whether Gagnon intentionally loured him into shooting her husband during a domestic incident, and whether Catherine is responsible for her own 4 year old son's chronic illness. When people surrounding Catherine start being murdered it becomes clear that Bobby, Catherine and her young son, Nathan, are targets.
As I read this suspense novel my own community has been gripped by the murder and attempted murder of two young boys. Their mother is accused of the crime and, reportedly, even she can't really identify why she did it. It is clear that children who face trauma of this type need a tremendous amount of psychological counseling and lots of support by family and friends for years in order to grow up feeling secure and in charge of their own future.
Dodge and Gagnon both suffered abuse and parental loss as children, and both showed the emotional scars into adulthood. With professional help, both managed to recover some semblance of normalcy, and the book does in that respect have a "happy" ending.
This book is not for the faint-hearted. There is a considerable amount of gore and multiple gruesome deaths in this book. It is an interesting psychological thriller, and one that is hard to put down once started.
Liz Nichols
One of these thrillers is "Alone" by Lisa Gardner, published in 2005. This mystery pairs a likable Massachusetts SWAT team member, Bobby Dodge, and a less likable socialite, Catherine Gagnon, who was the survivor of a horrendous abduction and rape as a child 25 years before. What Bobby needs to find out is whether Gagnon intentionally loured him into shooting her husband during a domestic incident, and whether Catherine is responsible for her own 4 year old son's chronic illness. When people surrounding Catherine start being murdered it becomes clear that Bobby, Catherine and her young son, Nathan, are targets.
As I read this suspense novel my own community has been gripped by the murder and attempted murder of two young boys. Their mother is accused of the crime and, reportedly, even she can't really identify why she did it. It is clear that children who face trauma of this type need a tremendous amount of psychological counseling and lots of support by family and friends for years in order to grow up feeling secure and in charge of their own future.
Dodge and Gagnon both suffered abuse and parental loss as children, and both showed the emotional scars into adulthood. With professional help, both managed to recover some semblance of normalcy, and the book does in that respect have a "happy" ending.
This book is not for the faint-hearted. There is a considerable amount of gore and multiple gruesome deaths in this book. It is an interesting psychological thriller, and one that is hard to put down once started.
Liz Nichols
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