You cannot open a book without learning something.

~Confucius

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Last Child

By John Hart

I'm a total sucker for police mystery/drama novels. So naturally, this book caught my attention while I was browsing the book department at Target for something to read. Apparently, this author has written several other novels, but I had never heard of him before. I decided to give this book a try and ended up finishing this book by bedtime the following day. All I have to say is...WOW!! Talk about drama and suspense! While I did guess the final outcome of the novel, I had no idea how point A got to point B so reading the entire novel was still exciting. I might just have to go find more books by this author.
The story starts out a year after a young girls goes missing from a small town. The focus is on the twin brother and how he deals with the fallout from this tragic event. A side story is how far one cop in the town will go to solve the mystery and why he's so involved. I know stories like this have been told before, but the raw emotion in this book seemed so real I could almost imagine myself in their shoes. How does a family deal with missing child whose fate is unknown? How does an unsolved crime effect a cop whose job centers around such tragedies? You'll have to read this novel to find out and I highly recommend that you do!!

Similar Novel: Look Again by Lisa Scottoline
Length: 432 Pages
Copyright: March 2010

Friday, June 18, 2010

The Forgotten Garden

By Kate Morton

Just so you know...I finished this novel in 2 1/2 days. I haven't had a lot of time for reading lately, but for this novel I made time. It's just the mix of mystery and drama that I love in a novel. While the storyline has been done before (see similar novels below) this was done with such flare that it's worth the read. I do have to admit that I guessed the ending before it was told in the novel, but that didn't diminish the shock of the ending.
The novel begins with an abandoned little girl arriving in Australia on a boat from London. She is subsequently adopted and raised by a loving family, but the mystery of her origins fuel the story throughout the novel. The story includes family secrets, lost loves, and untold tradgedies. When the girl's graddaughter inherits a tiny cottage near a long forgotten garden, the secrets of the past begin to unfold.

Similar Novels: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
Length: 549 Pages
Copyright: 2008