Open and Shut: An Old Murder Case, An Old picture, and An Inheritance

Just finished reading Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt.  Held my interest to the point that I was reading till minutes to 3:00am on Thursday night and had to wake up 6:30 next morning for work.  What seemed like a clear open and shut case turned out to be a really big case for the protagonist Andy Carpenter, a defense attorney.

Andy Carpenter is a likable character; he is youthful, superstitious, with a quirky sense of humor. At the beginning of the story he is separated from his wife who was his childhood sweetheart and daughter of his Dad's friend. He has a romantic relationship with his female investigator that he ends when the wife suddenly moves back in the marital home. We learn that Alex loves his Dad and his dog, a golden retriever.  His Dad prosecuted a case years ago and it ended with Willie Miller being sent to prison for murder and facing the death penalty in four weeks time.  Daddy Carpenter asks his son to look into the case, get the facts and get an appeal, because he now has information that a juror in the Miller case may have lied and Miller may have been innocent. The Dad dies suddenly (and conveniently) and shortly after that Andy finds an old photo of his Dad with some of his friends. Andy meets with his Dad's lawyer and discovers to his shock that he has inherited millions of dollars from his Dad.

This legal thriller was about how an old photo, the millions of dollars inherited and the Miller case were all connected.  This was the first novel in a series by David Rosenefelt. The next book in the series is First Degree.

The Dinner by Herman Koch

When a Mom says these words, it is usually a positive thing, an indicator that a Mom is expecting her child to be responsible and independent: "He doesn't have to wait for his Mom to tell him everything. He's old and wise enough to decide for himself."  However, in the story of  The Dinner by Herman Koch, those same words written on page 271 and spoken by a Mom named Claire indicate something ominous. Claire wants her only child, a teenager named Michel, to hide his wrong doings by any means necessary.

One steady theme in the story is sibling rivalry and this is the focus of the narrator who is also Claire's husband, Paul.  Paul, an unemployed teacher with a mystery illness resents his brother, Serge, a popular Dutch politician hoping to campaign for the post of Prime Minister.  The characters; Claire and Paul, and Serge and Babette; meet at an up-scale restaurant for dinner then there are flashbacks explaining why all the characters have come together and how each one is connected. The chapters in the story are divided into parts starting with Aperitif, Appetizer, Main Course, Dessert and ending with Digestif. This is a well written story even though it starts off slow in the Apertif section. The story is not for every reader; it is dark. All the characters in The Dinner set in Holland are horrid and the writer makes you dislike them all.

The story makes you think, What would I do in a situation like this?  Would I cover up my child's wrong doing by any means necessary?  Many people do just that.  I am thinking about a teenager in Brunswick, Georgia, De'Marquise Elkins, who tried to rob a mother and ended up murdering her baby. That teenager's Mom, Karimah Elkins, his sister and his Aunt tried to cover for him.  The story makes you think about genetics.  It is not clear if Paul's illness was a mental one but whatever it was, I believe readers are supposed to think the child is not totally responsible for his behavior, that Paul and his son Michel suffer from the same illness.

I have read some interesting books in October.  I finished reading Bel Canto and The Dinner. I have moved on to Open and Shut by  David Rosenfelt which is actually our book club selection for November.

Listen to the writer Herman Koch on NPR.

I Am Loving Bel Canto

I am still enjoying Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and am on page 202 of this 318 page book.  I  like the humor in the story and I am fascinated by the characters.  I am going to recommend this book to the book club. There is a mixed group of about 58 high level officials in a hostage situation. The women and children had been released except for an opera singer, Roxane Coss. The story revolves around her. The male hostages and the terrorists which include two girls are captivated by Roxane's voice; the pure sweetness of her upper register. Page 201 says of Roxane, "She sang as if she was saving the life of every person in the room."  She has become close to one female bandit, Carmen. They braid each other's hair as if they were BFFs.  According to Carmen, Roxane is in love with a Japanese businessman also in captivity, Mr. Hosokawa.

Mr. Hosokawa's personal Japanese interpreter, Gen, is a key character in the story because he speaks several languages and is needed to keep the communication going.  He is very busy in this hostage crisis interpreting Russian, French, English, Spanish, Japanese. Much of the communication is between various male hostages and Roxane and also between the Red Cross official Messner and the terrorists. Gen is in love with Carmen, the young female bandit who wants to improve her education in the midst of this hostage crisis.

Father Arguedas, a young priest and another major character, seems very happy to be a hostage. He loves opera and is grateful to be in the presence of Roxane.  He prays for love, protection, and safe delivery for all but not  for rescue.

The Vice President, Ruben, of this unnamed South American country is an interesting character in the story. The hostages and terrorists are in his home and he is busy cleaning, organizing the cooking, and generally playing host as if this were a normal situation. He's given Roxane some of his wife's clothing. It was funny when he approached Roxane to get guidance on how to prepare dinner. He assumed because she was a woman she would know about cooking.

I am hoping this has a satisfying resolution.

Creating a Reading List for 2014

What will our book club read in 2014?  Club members are checking out certain books to see if the rest of us would be interested in selecting them for 2014. Linda is checking out Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. Tom read Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls and reported that he loved it. And I am reading Bel Canto by Ann Patchett.

I am on page 56 and I am loving it so far. Bel Canto is loosely based on the hostage crisis in Peru in December 1996 when members of Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) took hundreds of high level officials as hostages while they were attending a party at the Japanese Ambassadors residence.  President Fujimori sent in Peruvian troops in April 1997 and freed the hostages. One hostage died and all the MRTA members were killed.  In Bel Canto, however, a group of young armed bandits have entered the residence of the Vice President of an unnamed Spanish speaking South American country and are holding the guests hostage. Their intent was to kidnap the President but the President happens to be absent because he chose to stay home to watch his favorite soap opera that night.

Our club meets next Friday to discuss Blood of the Prodigal: an Amish Mystery.

240 Year Old Automaton

This is so cool. If you have read The Poisoned Pilgrim, fourth novel in The Hangman's Daughter series by Oliver Potzch,this article about a 240 year old automaton will be very meaningful to you.  The book club selected the first book in the series in October last year.  Since then I have read all four books.  These books are worth adding to your reading list.

The Book Thief Movie Clip

We read and discussed The Book Thief in April 2010; death was the very unusual narrator in the book. Here is a clip of the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-f4u70RqQc

What will Okefenokee Book Club members read in 2014?

I have some suggestions already:  Tinderbox by Lisa Gornick, 320 pages; Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri,352 pages; Spymistress by Jennifer Chiaverini, 368 pages; Silver Star by Jeannette Walls, 288 pages; Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear, 294 pages. 

We read The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri in October 2004 and loved it. Note that Spymistress will be published in October. 

Fancy Pants Jonah

Jonah, son of Bishop Eli Miller, was a rebellious Ohio Amish child who loved to wear "fancy pants".  When he had a chance to do his Rumschpringe or Rumshpringa (from the verb rumspringen meaning "to jump around"), he never wanted to return to his community. He was banned by his father, the Bishop, and shunned by the community.  I have just finished reading Blood of the Prodigal, an Amish Country Mystery. 

This is actually our book club pick for October.  It is a murder mystery that starts off with the thoughts and feelings of Jonah's ten year old son Jeremiah who is being raised by his grandparents. Jonah takes his son and leaves a note for Bishop.  The Bishop-grandfather seeks help from a local pastor and also from a college professor to locate the grandson. He does not want the help of the police. I loved the unexpected twists to this very short story, 230 pages.

I found the Amish life portrayed in this book very interesting. For readers who do not know, "Rumshpringe" is  a period for Amish adolescents to experience the world of the non-Amish, called the "English",with the hope that they will eventually return to the community to take Amish vows of commitment through baptism. I certainly did not know that any form of adolescent rebellion or exploration of freedom in the non Amish world was acceptable as part of Amish culture. 

I will seek out the next book in the series, Broken English. There is a sneak peek of the first chapter at the back of this book and it opens with violence from a criminal just released from prison.

What are you reading this weekend?

I am reading the fourth book in the Hangman's Daughter series, Poisoned Pilgrim by Oliver Potzsch.  I am on page 264 and so far some relics and a monstrace are missing, monks have been murdered, the abbot's brother is missing, and there is talk of an automata running around as if it may be possessed.

Book of the Month: Revolution

It's been a while. I am still reading but have not had time to blog about my readings. Our club chose Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly for the month of August. This is a Young Adult book. I could not identify with the teenage angst in the first 60 pages of the book. The book became interesting to me when the main character, Andi Alpers, a teenaged musical genius went to Paris and found a diary, written by a teenager named Alexandrine, in a guitar case. The diary was all about her life during the French Revolution and specifically her connection with the royal family.   I would give this book 41/2 out of 5 stars.

Cerca Trova/Seek and You Shall Find

Protagonist: Symbologist Robert Langdon. Setting: Florence, Italy. Themes: Hell, overpopulation, bio-terrorism threat. Mystery Message: Seek and you shall find or Cerca Trova in Italian. Put all those elements together, add some chases, and some mysterious characters with secrets and we have Dan Brown's latest novel, Inferno. 

The book gets its title from Dante's epic poem Inferno about his journey through the nine circles of hell with roman poet Virgil.  The storyline is that Langdon is in possession of a tube-like projector.  On the projector is a picture of Boticelli's painting titled, Map of Hell. It depicts the nine circles of Dante's hell. The mysterious element about this particular projection is that the circles are depicted incorrectly. From what I have read so far, there is a female hired killer, Vayentha, chasing Langdon and a mysterious British female Doctor named Sienna Brooks, around Florence. Also chasing and tracking them with the help of a drone, is an organized group of men, seemingly working with the American Embassy in Italy.  Langdon does not remember why he is in possession of the tube and why all these people are trying to kill him.

Among the mystery characters are a silver haired female WHO official named, Dr. Elizabeth Sinskey, an otherworldly type character who calls himself the Shade, yet another man on a yacht called, The Mendacium, and who is referred to as the provost or the devil's enabler. What service does his Consortium really provide to clients? I am anxious to see how all these characters will connect.

I am only on  page 154 (of 461 pages).  There is so much more to come.  This book brought back memories of my visit to Florence a few years ago.  There is so much detail about the buildings and artwork,I am sure there will be a Dan Brown Tour of Florence any day now.  In the meantime, enjoy some of my personal pics of Florence, the first one is Ponte Vecchio:

Fans of Inferno should check this interesting link out: Nine Circles of Dan Brown.