L Reads Alex Cross #8: Four Blind Mice

When last we saw Alex Cross he was vowing to leave his job as a cop, and it left me wondering what direction these books would take from here on out.  I should have known it’s never that cut and dried in a Cross book; the character is far too wimpy and wishy washy to stick to a decision.  So, here we are with Four Blind Mice, where Alex agrees to take on one last case, at the request of best bud John Sampson whose old army buddy has been convicted of murder and sentenced to death.  Unfortunately for our hero, although he manages to stop the bad guys in the end, he doesn’t do it in time to save Sampson’s friend.  Cue the violins.  Just one more death on Cross’ conscience.

 

Here’s the premise:

 

Three army Rangers are on a killing spree in the U.S. and framing a number of active and retired army personnel.  Soldiers who’ve fought for the freedoms the USA stands for.  It’s timely reading, considering I’m writing this review on Remembrance Day.  As Cross digs into the murders and tracks down the killers, he connects them back to An Lao Valley in Vietnam, where killers and those they’re framing for murder not only fought together but committed some pretty nasty war crimes too.  Hence the modern day killing spree – just one big cover up.  Here, though, is where I disconnect from the story.  Vietnam?  Really?  Four Blind Mice was published in 2002, thirty-plus years after ‘Nam.  So much has gone on, military-wise since, that Patterson has his pick of wars to write about.  I mean, there was the Gulf War in the ‘90s, the current Afghanistan/Iraq clusterfuck, the terrorist attacks on US soil (which he does give a nod too – Alex Cross looks up at a jet flying overhead and wonders if he’ll ever feel easy again seeing those planes flying by).  Instead, Patterson chooses to write about men who fought in ‘Nam, describing them like they’re in their thirties or forties, when really, they’d be quite a bit older than that by now.  It just doesn’t jive for me.

 

I remember reading a ton of Harlequins back in the ‘80s when the wounded ‘Nam veteran was a hugely popular hero.  I guess I’m a little surprised to find ‘Nam playing out so prevalently in a 21^st Century novel; it seriously dates Patterson as an author in my opinion.

Anyway, I’ll quit gripping now and just say this wasn’t the best Alex Cross book I’ve read.  But hope springs eternal, so maybe the ninth book is the charm.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

 

 

 

TBR = 25

WPL = 30

Windsor Book Club Reads: Left Neglected

Sarah Nickerson is a busy wife, mother of three and high-powered business woman on the fast track to financial success.  A graduate of Harvard Business School, she and husband Bob live in affluent Welmont, a suburb just outside Boston, and both are barreling down the rat-race track, when Sarah’s life is irrevocably changed by a car accident that’s leaves her with a brain injury.

 

Suffering from Left Neglect, a brain injury whereby Sarah cannot recognize her left side, she must relearn to walk, read, and force her brain to remember the existence of the left side of her body.

 

The injury irrevocably changes Sarah, her family and her life.  She must re-evaluate what is important in this life, like family and health, and make some major changes in her work and home life.

 

This is the second book by Lisa Genova and is a heartwarming read about the human capacity to overcome tragedy and triumph; written with great insight, compassion and laced with a fair dose of humour to keep it all in perspective.  Simply a lovely read.

 

What my fellow book clubbers had to say:  This book sparked some really good discussion.  We had fun talking about gender roles and how women are still expected to be supermoms.  We acknowledged the book serves as a good reminder to stop and smell the roses, to live in the slower lane, and appreciate what you have, rather than working all the time to acquire more stuff.  And we debated on the merits of rural or small town living verses the big city for raising kids and spending quality time as family.  The overall consensus was that the book was quite good, though very light reading, and the only real criticism was that there could have been more character development throughout the book, and that it was difficult at times to identify with Sarah and her lifestyle, but other than that, it was quite a good read, really.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

 

TBR = 25

WPL = 29

 

L Finally Finishes August’s CanLit

Jane Urguhart’s dense little novel The Stone Carvers really took a beating from me these past months.  As the title of this blog post suggests, I had intended it to be my August CanLit selection, but then my book club picked The Historian for its September read (a tome of 700+ pages) and I started back to school with an upper year English Lit course to read for.  Poor Urquhart just kept getting shunted aside.

 

I think had I the time to sit and read just this novel, I would have enjoyed it more.  As said above, it’s quite dense, with a lot going on and a lot of switches between place, time and character.  Picking it up and putting it down repeatedly did not help my following the story any, and so often after weeks of reading something else, I would return to this book, utterly lost as the next chapter dealt with an entirely different character, setting or situation then when last I had read it.

 

Not that there aren’t threads that weave between and tie things all together in a nice little package.  There are, but the novel’s continuity is in very broad strokes, while Urquhart’s writing is often far more minute.

 

This is a multi-generational story, much of which is set in Shoneval, a community in Southern Ontario.  The novel opens with Father Gstir emigrating from Bavaria to form a church in the middle of a forest, which later becomes the community of Shoneval.  His zealotry is inspiring, and local carver Joseph Becker is enlisted to help build the church.  More than half a century later, his descendants still reside in Shoneval and carve figures for the church. 

 

The story continues from there to chronicle the life of Klara, Joseph’s granddaughter who has his skill, but is unfortunately female.  Her brother Tilman rejects the family legacy, becomes a hobo and is absent for much of Klara’s life. 

 

When first introduced to Klara, we learn she is a spinster, working as a tailor and carver, living alone on the family farm.  Her story is a tragic tale of love lost – her fiancé, Eamon, fought and died in the Great War.  From the loss of Eamon, Tilman and her father and grandfather, Klara turns inward, becoming as frozen in time and existence as the statues she carves.  It isn’t until Tilman returns and she learns of a great war memorial being constructed at Vimy Ridge, does Klara experience a resurgence of desire and purpose in life.  She and Tilman travel to France to work on the structure and both finally find purpose and fulfillment.

 

An interesting read, that again, I wish I’d had the proper time and attention for.  I quite look forward to reading more by Urquhart as I suspect her novels are gems waiting to be discovered.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

 

TBR = 25

WPL = 28