Fractured – Print

Fractured
is Karin Slaughter’s latest gift and I thought it showed a growing maturity to her writing style. The story kicks off with a wealthy Atlanta housewife strangling an intruder in her home. I won’t give away more than that, as there are a number of twists, typical of Slaughter, that really make the story. This book was not a continuation of the Grant County series, but is a continuation of Triptych. Further the story isn’t as over the top gruesome and viscerally confronting as her previous works, but she hasn’t lost that edge that makes it difficult to put her books down. I for one don’t miss some of the more gruesome elements, and I think I enjoyed this book more than any of her previous works.

Blindsighted (print)

Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter (2001). Karin Slaughter’s writing style is fast paced and absolutely compelling; she tackles confronting subject matter while still managing to take the time to develop her characters; all qualities I enjoy in an author. Be warned in advance though, the book graphically depicts some extraordinarily violent events.

No sooner do you meet the town paediatrician and coroner, Dr. Sarah Linton, than she’s discovering a blind woman who’s been brutally raped and mutilated in a local diner. When the victim dies, her autopsy reveals even more horror, and the small town is rocked by the violence. Personal tensions mount as Sarah is forced to work with her charming ex, Police Chief Jeffrey Toliver and the twin sister of the deceased, detective Lena Adams. When a second victim lands literally on Sarah’s car, it becomes increasingly likely Sarah is key in finding the killer.

The pace of the book never falters, yet the characters are well drawn. If you’re at all interested in psychological thrillers, and not afraid of gory detail, you’ll enjoy this first offering of a talented author.

Jitterbug Perfume (print)

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins (1984). I absolutely adore this book and I think everyone in the world should read it. It is far and away the best book I’ve ever read, and I enjoyed it from start to finish, all the while dreading the finish because it meant I had to leave the characters behind. There is no real way to sum up the plot of this story, other than to say that it’s about a couple who’ve learned the secrets of delaying mortality; who are on a mission to save an immortal.

The characters include an 8th century king, an Indian widdow, one eyed Irish-American who wears a white eye-patch emblazoned with a green shamrock, a professional “nose”, a genius waitress, New Orleans Voodoo Queen and a Jamaican who wears a helmet of swarming bees, each of whom has a keen interest in a very special perfume. The story takes you through Europe, Asia, the US and briefly off to the Astral plane. It’s filled with humour and humourous circumstance and its ultimate message, “lighten up”, is pretty timeless.

Vantage Point (dvd)

Vantage Point (2007) starring Dennis Quaid, Forest Whittaker, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver and Matthew Fox. The premise of the movie is an attempted Presidential assassination shown from the perspective of the different characters involved in the plot to kill the President and the characters charged with protecting him. Dennis Quaid plays a secret service agent, recently returned to duty after having stopped a bullet for the President in a previous assassination attempt. Seemingly his colleagues believe he’s been returned to service too early and is too jumpy. I’ll say that while the movie in general is fairly fast paced, initially either it seemed a bit slow, or I was a bit slow to warm to it. That being said, I really liked the movie and would recommend it. Initially, seeing the assassination attempt unveil itself a little more with each telling seemed like it was going to be a bit tiresome, but the differences in perception and the revelation of new threads of information from the different characters really elevated the story. In all it made for a nice Friday night thriller.

Next (dvd)

Next (2007) stars Nicholas Cage, Julianne Moore, and Jessica Biel. The premise of the movie is that Nicholas Cage’s character, a Vegas Illusionist, can see two minutes into the future; somehow the FBI becomes aware of this and wants to use him and his gift to stop terrorists from successfully executing a nuclear attack on California. While I liked the general premise, and I liked some of the devices used by the director to illustrate how Nicholas Cage’s character uses his abilities in his day to day interactions (I’ll call them flash-forwards), the movie still left me a little flat. It’s not that it was bad, it was more alright. My chief complaints would be that some of the action scenes lost impact because of their duration; a person can only take so much crashing and exploding before it just becomes cumbersome to sit through.  Plus the flash-forwards, while initially entertaining became a bit tedious from overuse.

Still the actors are do a great job of making the film interesting.  Though I still don’t know that I bought into the Jessica Biel – Nicholas Cage hook-up; Nicholas is typically fun to watch and Jessica is really pretty and always believable in her girl-next-door-but-way-hotter roles. Julianne Moore, while a little overly butch as a Senior FBI agent looking to recruit Cage, was still extremely watchable and sympathetic, because of her believability as a character with the best interests of the nation at heart, in spite of what that may mean for Cage’s character. In all, the movie is a great fall back if your local rental is all out of the movie you really wanted to see.