In the Tall Grass; Stephen King and Joe Hill

Title:  In the Tall Grass

Author:  Stephen King and Joe Hill

Publication Year: 2012

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Edition: audio

Reader: Stephen Lang

Source: publisher

Date Completed: October/2012

Rating: 3.5/5 

Recommend: yes

I began the collaboration by Stephen King and son, Joe Hill without knowing very much about it and was immediately drawn into the story by the audio book reader, Stephen Lang, and by the end....it is really short, just (2) discs, I was pretty grossed out but I'm still recommending it to horror fans.

Obviously, "the tall grass" is significant, but the main characters in this story are a brother and a sister, Becky and Cal DeMuth; the two are very close.  Becky is expecting a baby (unplanned), and she and her brother decide to take a cross county trip.  As the two are traveling down a Kansas road and decide to pull over at a rest stop. Their windows down, they hear a voice, what sounds like a child's voice calling from the "tall grass" along the roadside. The child sounds like it is lost or in trouble so they decide to try and help, but then they hear what sounds like a woman scolding the child for calling out for help. His mother?

It is at this point that I started to get an unsettling feeling, and he it got progressively dark, twisted and evil from that point on, oh and I have to mention the word "gross" yet again. This story was certainly resonate of the earlier horror-fests of the 80's that King had written.  Try it if you dare.

Gone Girl; Gillian Flynn

Title: Gone Girl

Author:  Gillian Flynn

Publication Year: 2012

Publisher: Random House

Edition: eGalley

Setting:  NY and MO

Source: Edelweiss

Date Completed: September/2012

Rating: 3/5 

Recommend: possibly

As a fan of this author's first two novels,  Sharp Objects and Dark Places, I was anxious to see for myself what all the hype surrounding her latest novel was all about.Gone Girl, released in June, 2012, and at times I felt like I was the only one who hadn't read this one.  You know how sometimes when there is so much hype, you can get that disappointed feeling when your done?  Yup, that is what happened to me... I felt let down.

In this novel, 30-something Nick and Amy Dunne were once a fairly happy young couple living in Brooklyn, NY. Well, on second thought maybe they weren't so happy after all, but I digress. In the 90's both were writers until a downturn in the economy left them both unemployed.  

When Nick learns that his twin sister Margo has also lost her job and has moved back to their hometown in Missouri to care for their dying parents.  Nick tells his sister that he and Amy will be moving to Missouri as well, doing this without even checking with Amy.  Nick and Margo, borrow the last of Amy's trust fund money to buy a bar in town. Then on the eve of their 5th wedding anniversary Amy goes missing.  She she just leave? Was she kidnapped, or did  Nick have something to do with her disappearance?

Told through alternating points of view past and present by Nick (of Amy) and through diary entries by Amy (about Nick) prior to her disappearance, it quickly becomes impossible to determine the truth from the lies. Who's the psychopath?  Both Amy and Nick were equally disturbed, in my opinion, and one thing was certain for me -- they deserved each other.  Honestly, I don't think I've read anything in a long time with (2) such detestable individuals.

Although the author did a good job creating an engaging psychological thriller, and the twists and turns were unexpected, the ending aggravated me. In the end I was disappointed at myself for caving to the hype.

Dark Side; Belinda Bauer

Title: Dark Side

Author:  Belinda Bauer

Publication Year: 2011

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Edition: trade

Setting:  England

Source: personal collection

Date Completed: September/2012

Rating: 3/5 

Recommend: unsure

A few years back I read Blacklands, by Belinda Bauer and really thought the author did a great job with her first novel.  Her more recent novel (2011), Dark Side actually takes place in the same little Exmoor village of Shipcott.  This time the story begins with the murder of an elderly woman, a who was confined to her bed and unable to fend off her attacker.  But who would want Mrs. Priddy dead and why?  Jonas Holly the local law enforcement official is initially active at the scene to investigate the murder. Oddly he was camped out on the front steps at the crime scene as times, as if the murderer would come back for some reason. Before long several other people end up dead as well, and Jonas' superior, Inspector Marvel, an interesting odd-duck of a character, brings in a team from another district to take over the investigation and Jonas is left to the sidelines, but not before the killer seems to be getting pleasure by taunting Jonas about his ineptness as an investigator. (I kept thinking what is up with this?). Although Jonas isn't happy about this change in responsibility, he is able to spend more time with his wife Lucy who has MS. I might add that Lucy seems to be quite the character herself,  her husband Jonas armed  his disabled wife with a knife for protection.

The setting seemed chilling and atmospheric at times, and the author did a great job with the pacing of the mystery.  There were several characters who could have been possible suspects --  always a good sign of a well plotted mystery.  I wanted to love this mystery and thought I might early on, but I had some real issues with the way the story ended. It just seemed strange to me. I think the author was either in a rush to wrap up the story, or just didn't think it through thoroughly.  Overall, I would just rate this mystery as okay, IMO, not as good as her debut novel Blacklands.

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros

For today's First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intro, I'm featuring a book I plan to begin today for the RIP VII Challenge. I know several of my readers have read this one and enjoyed it so I ready to experience it for myself.
 

Feel free to join in by posting the opening paragraph (sometimes maybe a few ) of a book you decided to read based on the opening paragraph (s). Grab the banner and play along.
 

 The Human Bobby; Gabe Rotter

THE GRIPPING STORY OF THE UNRAVELING OF ONE MAN'S SEEMINGLY PERFECT LIFE, AND HIS STRUGGLE TO GET EVERYTHING BACK.

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"There's a staccato clicking sound in my head. Like a troupe of tiny, uncoordinated tap dancers performing on my brain.

The choppy, aggravating CLICK-clack_CLICK is interrupted when Eddie says: 'Fist I'ma find that fucker Manny and I'ma grab him by his greasy hair and BASH BASH BASH his fuckin' head against the sidewalk till I can feel his squishy brains oozing through my fingers...then I'm thinking Burger King."

Eddie's crazy.

I look at him bewildered and cautious. "Huh?"

"You assed me what I'm up to today, Doc."

What do you think? Would you keep reading?

RIP VII now through October 31, 2012

Once again, it's time for Carl's annual RIP event. Thanks Carl. I know many of you look forward to this challenge every fall (this is my 5th year).  Although there are several different levels of participation, I'm sticking with Peril the First (read 4 books that fit the challenge between, September 1st and October 31st).

Here's my list -- I plan to read at least (4) of these (10) chill-thrill books:   

1.  The Beautiful  Mystery; Louise Penny 4/5 stars
   
2. Gone Girl; Gillian Flynn - 3/5 stars (completed) 
3. In the Woods;Tana French - (Book # 1 of 4 series) - As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.
   
   Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox — his partner and closest friend — find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.
4. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest; Stieg Larrsen- (Book #3 of series) - Lisbeth Salander—the heart of Larsson’s two previous novels—lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She’s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she’ll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. With the help of her friend, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, she will not only have to prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she will plot revenge—against the man who tried to kill her, and the corrupt government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life.
5. Darkside; Belinda Bauer - 3/5 stars (completed) 
6. The Human Bobby; Gabe Rotter - 4.5/5 stars (completed)
7. Broken Harbor; Tana French - 4.5/5 stars (completed)
8. In the Tall Grass; Stephen King and Joe Hill 3.5/5 stars (completed)
9. Faithful Place; Tana French - Tana French's In the Woods and The Likeness captivated readers by introducing them to her unique, character-driven style. Her singular skill at creating richly drawn, complex worlds makes her novels not mere whodunits but brilliant and satisfying novels about memory, identity, loss, and what defines us as humans. With Faithful Place, the highly praised third novel about the Dublin Murder squad, French takes readers into the mind of Frank Mackey, the hotheaded mastermind of The Likeness, as he wrestles with his own past and the family, the lover, and the neighborhood he thought he'd left behind for good.
10. The Distant Hours - Kate Morton -  It starts with a letter, lost for half a century and unexpectedly delivered to Edie’s mother on a Sunday afternoon. The letter leads Edie to Milderhurst Castle, where the eccentric Blythe spinsters live and where, she discovers, her mother was billeted during World War II. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives caring for their younger sister, Juniper, who hasn’t been the same since her fiancé jilted her in 1941. Inside the decaying castle, Edie searches for her mother’s past but soon learns there are other secrets hidden in its walls. The truth of what happened in “the distant hours” has been waiting a long time for someone to find it. In this enthralling romantic thriller, Morton pays homage to the classics of gothic fiction, spinning a rich and intricate web of mystery, suspense, and lost love.

Have you read any of these? Where shall I begin?