Tuesday, April 25, 2017

'The Daughter of Time' by Josephine Tey

The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey (4.0)

This book started slowly, but caught my attention with its unique approach to an interesting mystery in English history. For those who mainly know Richard III from the Shakespeare play, the detective work done in this quiet novel to uncover his true nature will surprise you. Basically an injured detective (known from Ms. Tey’s earlier novels) is bored during his recuperation and his friend gives him a group of photos of various menacing characters of history. His task is to use his touted skills of reading people’s faces to decide if the evil person was really all that bad. He settles on Richard III and his initial reaction to the portrait draws him in to learning more about this much-maligned king. With the help of a student of history, he uses detective work and objective data, rather than the words of the victorious Henry VII’s chroniclers of history. His findings are quite remarkable concerning the motivations and timing of the key events – particularly the alleged murders of the two Princes he is purported to have killed in order to take the thrown. My biggest complaint with all historical novels is that while I thoroughly enjoyed the narrative, in the end of the day, this is a novel and the author does not have to stick to the facts. The story made me pine for my own student of history to verify the information!

Saturday, April 15, 2017

'The Girl on the Train' by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins (3.0)
I’ll admit this book is a page-turner, though I wasn’t as enamored with it as its bestselling status implies others were. As with the other famous ‘Girl’ fiction, the mystery is based on surprises and literary manipulation. The coincidences become a bit hard to take. In this case, the girl is a sad case who has lost her husband, job, etc. and continues to ride the train each day in an attempt to add normality to her life – and hide from others the fact that she has no job. During her daily commute, she watches people in their homes and gardens near the train tracks. She even creates a fake narrative for one such couple, complete with names, occupations, etc. When something happens to the couple, the main character inserts herself into the investigation. Now the coincidences and oddities emerge. She used to live a few houses down from them, her husband still does with his new wife… you get the picture. To top things off, she is a poor witness as her alcoholic bouts often lead to blackouts. Generally, as the reader, you are curious to see how it all unfolds, but you don’t care too much how it does. Unfortunately throughout the book, I also had the picture of the beautiful Emily Blunt playing this supposed overweight, out of shape, alcoholic in the movie adaptation.