The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

June 4th 2013 by Mulholland Books




Second novel I read by that author and I find The Shining Girls better than  Broken Monsters which end was a little disappointing  for me because it was a bit too easy.

Again, I find back with pleasure the writing style of Lauren Beukes, fluid and nervous at the same time.

This time, the author takes us from one year to another, from one character to another, from one victim to another, in a constant coming and going neither obvious nor easy to follow, it's a hurly-burly!

It's a story that asks us to take the time to read it not to lose ourselves in it. It is also a novel in which time, or should I say times, are passing at breakneck speed. No time to be bored or to linger, we are lead by the nose.

Here, a serial killer striking in several decades without aging, because time does not pass for him, he travels in it. Here, a young girl, a survivor of the killer, who seeks to understand why, who try to find her murderer, who seeks the truth but the truth is not easy to accept.

Cleverly written characters, victims who do not just die, you get to know them even slightly. We discover brilliant women, dedicated, full of boldness and courage, whose life is shattered because of these qualities.

An end a little fuzzy, leaving an unfinished feeling. Maybe, ending isn't Lauren Beukes strength? But, over all, a gripping story, thrilling, to which one must cling, certainly, but worth it!

The blurb

In Depression-era Chicago, Harper Curtis finds a key to a house that opens on to other times. But it comes at a cost. He has to kill the shining girls: bright young women, burning with potential. He stalks them through their lives across different eras until, in 1989, one of his victims, Kirby Mazrachi, survives and starts hunting him back. Working with an ex-homicide reporter who is falling for her, Kirby has to unravel an impossible mystery.

In a nutshell

In short, a novel that is best read in one sitting not to lose the thread. A time vortex for a murderer traveler, this is a 4/5 for me.

 

Written in the Blood by Stephen Lloyd Jones

Mulholland Books (May 26 2015)

488 pages

Just to make a change from all these bloody and violent thrillers... I let myself be tempted by Written in the Blood, a fantasy story in a "vampire", hemoglobin and horror fashion (well, that's a real change !)

Good to know, this book is the sequel of another book - The String Diaries (not read yet). So yes, there are references to what happened before, but the explanations are enough to understand the context and allow us to read the story without feeling too much lost.


So, I'm not used to this kind of story but I found it to be a pleasant reading. The characters are well written, they are very well thought and one takes a liking for Leah who tries to save her world and her mother who's trying to protect her as well. Small note for moms who'll read this book: moms have the spotlight in this novel between Hannah, the mother, who cares for her daughter who takes risks to help her people and mothers who sacrifice themselves for their children.

The world imagined by Stephen Lloyd is very well done and change from usual vampires stories. In fact, there is relatively little interaction with the "human" and Lloyd never mentions a constant need to drink blood to stay alive. We're not talking about immortal beings, since they can die but beings with longevity and exceptional life, not really vampires in the traditional sense. Lloyd created a hierarchy among the "eternal", a past, a "police", the eternal hunter, a disappearance of their kind... One has the impression of being on the other side of the mirror, the side that allows us to understand the way eternals live.

Written in the Blood isn't just a story of a chase but also a story of struggle against the inexorable, struggle for power, love-hate, revenge, consequence of past histories. All that told with some talent. So, admittedly, the terms were not always easy to understand and the fact that I had not read the first book hadn't help neither but if you start this book by seeking something different, you won't be disappointed! Written in the Blood makes Twilight look like a story from the Care Bears world! Here, no schoolgirl love story but a girl who wants to save her clan from extinction, no schoolyard quarrels but politicized groups fighting against each other and mortal enemies.

The blurb

See the girl. Leah Wilde is twenty-four, a runaway on a black motorbike, hunting for answers while changing her identity with each new Central European town.

See the man, having come of age in extraordinary suffering and tragedy in nineteenth-century Budapest; witness to horror, to love, to death, and the wrath of a true monster. Izsák still lives in the present day, impossibly middle-aged. He’s driven not only to hunt this immortal evil but to find his daughter, stolen from an Arctic cabin and grown into the thing Izsák has sworn to kill.

See the monster, a beautiful, seemingly young woman who stalks the American West, seeking the young and the strong to feed upon, desperate to return to Europe where her coven calls.

In a nutshell

A really different vampire novel, a well-conducted plot, it's a 4/5 for me.

Disclaimer: An e-galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.

The Killing Kind by Chris Holm

Publisher: Mulholland Books (Sept. 15 2015)

Sold by: Hachette Book Group Digital, Inc.

Format: Kindle Edition

Print Length: 320 pages

Again, this excellent author offers us a novel that you will not let go!

The plus with Holm: his books covers are always beautiful, whether in a retro style like in his trilogy The Collector (Dead Harvest, The Wrong Goodbye and The Big Reap) or this one, very James Bond-esque. Personally, it's silly I know but a nice cover weights a lot in my reading choices.

And with Holm the story is always as good as the cover. Fourth book read by this author and I am never disappointed. Holm is right in line with authors of noir fiction with, always, this humor of his he perfectly gauged at the right time.

Chris Holm also has the knack to make completely hateful character in every respect, super friendly. Because let's be honest, a hitman who becomes the target of another hitman, one would have a slight urge to tell him, "serves you right mate, you just had to choose another career" But ultimately, well, we tend to find Hendricks qualities that make him the guy we would like to have as buddy.

The author draws up in few words the portraits of quite all the characters involved, both good and bad, and makes a very realistic picture of the protagonists. And in The Killing Kind, there is no shortage of protagonists! In the pure style "the hunted hunter", Hendricks tracks different hitmen themselves hunted by a hitman to flush Hendricks... that's a lot of hunters! It would be enough to lose tracks of the story (pun intended!) but the quality of writing, the rhythm that does not fail and the sharp wit make this book a delight.

And at one point, I shouted "NOOO" then "Phew !!" and ending with "Oh no...." Because Holm's like that, he plays with your nerves. And the best? We want more!

The blurb

A hitman who only kills other hitmen winds up a target himself.

Michael Hendricks kills people for money. That aside, he's not so bad a guy.
Once a covert operative for a false-flag unit of the US military, Hendricks was presumed dead after a mission in Afghanistan went sideways. He left behind his old life - and beloved fiancée - and set out on a path of redemption... or perhaps one of willful self-destruction.

Now Hendricks makes his living as a hitman entrepreneur of sorts - he only hits other hitmen. For ten times the price on your head, he'll make sure whoever's coming to kill you winds up in the ground instead. Not a bad way for a guy with his skill - set to make a living - but a great way to make himself a target.

In a nutshell

I'm sold, I love the writing of this author that never let you down. It is a 4.5 / 5 for me.

Disclaimer: An e-galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.

The Doll Maker by Richard Montanari

(Byrne and Balzano)
487 pages
Mulholland Books (April 28 2015)



Richard Montanari is a discovery for me, although it's not his first novel (far from it, as this is the eighth book in the series!)

I admit I loved the book cover, intriguing and disturbing at will and the story really attracted me. The good news is, although I never read the first books in the series, it never felt like I missed an episode. This makes it easy to discover this fine team with this book (and then read the others). Byrne and Balzano are two different and yet very similar character, one Irish and one Italian, they are nonetheless as stubborn as a mule and very close to their family. I don't know if it's because the characters are already anchored in the series, but it brings out an air of familiarity with Byrne and Balzano, even if I just discovered them. These are two very nice people and I was going to say "normal" to the point that one soon feels as if they're family.

Initially - and especially because of the cover (don't juge a book by its cover...) - I was afraid that the children are turned into dolls, but fortunately it's not the case. There is a certain tension in the narrative, an insidious side to the murders that mixes the horrible (killing is bad) to the very sophisticated, a very disturbing part due to a certain delicacy in the murders. It's a bit like eating with Hannibal Lecter (in the series of the same name), where you eat very elaborate things, very classy, ​​but frankly disturbing (I am eating veal or the pig from upstairs?) Montanari managed the same atmosphere, with a mixture of French elegance and quite disturbing suspects. The suspects (with an s so as not to tell if it's a or some people, mwahaha)(talk about taking great lenght not to spoil the story!) are very different from what I used to read! I can't say anything so as not to spoil the surprise (horror?) of the discovery, but it is very troubling.

What's the story?

Detectives Byrne and Balzano return to the streets of Philadelphia to put an end to a macabre succession of murdered children.
A quiet Philadelphia suburb. A woman cycles past a train depot with her young daughter. There she finds a murdered girl posed on a newly painted bench. Beside her is a formal invitation to a tea dance in a week's time.
Seven days later, two more young victims are discovered in an abandoned house, posed on painted swings. At the scene is an identical invitation. This time, though, there is something extra waiting for Detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano: a delicate porcelain doll.
It's a message. And a threat. With the killers at large, Detectives Byrne and Balzano have just seven more days to find the link between the murders before another innocent child is snatched from the streets.

In a nutshell

An excellent novel, a disturbing, sophisticated atmosphere, engaging characters and very troubling suspects. It is a 4.5 / 5 for me

Disclaimer: An e-galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.

The Lost Girls of Rome by Donato Carrisi

Mulholland Books (Nov. 19 2013)

I bought The Lost Girls of Rome in 2013, as much to discover an Italian author (especially as I mostly read French or English authors...) as for the story that seemed promising. In the end, I discovered this author by reading The whisperer, bought and dedicated last year at the Quais du polar festivla. I also really liked Donato Carrisi's full of intelligence interventions.

So at last, I finally read his second novel and I must say that I did recognized his pen. Carrisi seems to enjoy confusing us to better surprise us. The POV alternate between different characters, including a corpse that wakes up every day wondering who he is. Marcus is a strange character, we feel that he has experienced a lot of things, that he is capable of violence and we're all the more surprised when we know what's his "job". Sandra, a young widow, is unable to recover from what she thought was a ridiculous accident until she discovers that the fall was done on purpose. She also hides things and will have to face her own guilt and choose between forgiveness and revenge. We also follow a hunter stalking his prey, all in a series of chapter linked by a date, a time, a character.

Several plots unfold and eventually meet and are explained with always - author's brand - twists that we did not see coming. That is the Carrisi's effect: you think you're reading a linear book and wham! he changes the rules. Talking story: Sandra and Marcus' paths intersect as they track a serial killer, a master of manipulation and old investigation come to a final outcome, all that wrapped up in a reflection - another brand of the author - this time about forgiveness, revenge, and the choice that is up to each person. How would we react if a stranger served us the murderer who destroyed our lives and that justice has missed on a plate?

Again, Carrisi offers us a good thriller, with well-crafted story, grounds for thought and very ambiguous characters. Only drawback in my case, the somewhat too religious angle. As much as I love to learn more about the history of religions (especially the secret things!) And then I have to say that I was served and delighted, as much as a good reflection about good and evil does doesn't bother me, bringing God as an explanation bothers me. The non-religious and non-believer I am is struggling with the church's moral lessons... It is probably what makes The Lost Girl of Rome a tad less good than The whisperer in my case.

The blurb

A grieving young widow, seeking answers to her husband's death, becomes entangled in an investigation steeped in the darkest mysteries of Rome.

Sandra Vega, a forensic analyst with the Roman police department, mourns deeply for a marriage that ended too soon. A few months ago, in the dead of night, her husband, an up-and-coming journalist, plunged to his death at the top of a high-rise construction site. The police ruled it an accident. Sanda is convinced it was anything but.

Launching her own inquiries, Sanda finds herself on a dangerous trail, working the same case that she is convinced led to her husband's murder. An investigation which is deeply entwined with a series of disappearances that has swept the city, and brings Sandra ever closer to a centuries-old secret society that will do anything to stay in the shadows.

In a nutshell

A very good thriller, well written and with twists as we like. This is a 4/5 for me.

Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

Mulholland Books (Sept. 16 2014)

448 pages - 29 $

Lauren Beukes has created quite a phenomenon on the web after the release of her book The Shining Girls. So I decided to read this author who seems very appreciated. Seeing that her new book Broken Monsters was available on Netgalley, I did not hesitate!

Before reading this book, it's good to know that part of the novel lies in the horror category, I didn't know it, since it was categorized as mystery & thriller. Sure, The Shining Girls, her first book, is the story of a serial killer plaguing in different time periods (time travel, all that), which suggests a penchant for the supernatural. But even after reading the summary of the book, I had not predict that the horror side would come quite late in the book. This has baffled me and it didn't appeal to me, I must say, but knowing it, my opinion would probably have been even more positive, so... an informed reader is forearmed!

The blurb

A criminal mastermind creates violent tableaus in abandoned Detroit warehouses in Lauren Beukes's new genre-bending novel of suspense.

Detective Gabriella Versado has seen a lot of bodies. But this one is unique even by Detroit's standards: half boy, half deer, somehow fused together. As stranger and more disturbing bodies are discovered, how can the city hold on to a reality that is already tearing at its seams?

If you're Detective Versado's geeky teenage daughter, Layla, you commence a dangerous flirtation with a potential predator online. If you're desperate freelance journalist Jonno, you do whatever it takes to get the exclusive on a horrific story. If you're Thomas Keen, known on the street as TK, you'll do what you can to keep your homeless family safe--and find the monster who is possessed by the dream of violently remaking the world.

If Lauren Beukes's internationally bestselling The Shining Girls was a time-jumping thrill ride through the past, her Broken Monsters is a genre-redefining thriller about broken cities, broken dreams, and broken people trying to put themselves back together again.

Disclaimer: An e-galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.

What's good about it

What I like in a good book is for the writing to be fluid, for the story to flow and that it has a tone, humor, a little cynicism and good dialogues. Lauren Beukes gives all that. I liked her writing style and I've never been bored, even in descriptions! 

Lauren is really good in the writing of her characters, we are able to know which character is at the forefront in two seconds. The story is told from several points of view and without transition (you know, sometimes we change chapter, there are small ***,etc.) but at no time do we wonder "but who is talking now? "And oh my, it's a pleasure to read. 

The characters are numerous and Detroit is one of them. So I'm quite sure that the tourist office in Detroit may not love the book... because Detroit is pretty creepy, thank you! I do not know if you've seen pictures of deserted buildings of this former splendor? Well, that is quite like that but worse! 

The story is well done and the different stories lived by the characters all end up overlapping or if this is not really the case (I'm thinking of Layla hunting pedophiles), they help to bring a little more of seedy narrative to add to the prevailing malaise. The end of the book has a little bit disappointed me in the sense that I did not expect that kind of end and it completely changed from the rest of the book. This is the only negative point in my case, because until that time, I found the book excellent. 

In a nutshell 

A good pace, very well written and differentiated characters, smooth and nice writing, but an ending that leaves me wanting more, it's a 3.5/5 for me. (an end that did not stop me to buy The Shining Girls!)

Disclaimer: An e-galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.