Into the Woods, but Don't Take this Book to Grandma's House

In the Woods by Tana French

     This is an award-winning book and I've heard many people enjoyed this book and the author's following books; however, I didn't enjoy this book.
     Rob Ryan is a detective in the Dublin Murder Squad.  Only four people know his true name or past.  When he was twelve, he and his two best friends went into the woods.  He was the only to come out of the woods.  He was covered in someone else's blood.  No one ever figured out what happened.  Now Rob and his partner are assigned the murder case of a young girl whose body was found in those same woods.  Sounds interesting...but the rest left me dissappointed
     Rob eventually screws up royally, hurting who he cares about most.  He doesn't redeem himself; he can't really, it's too late, what's been done 'sbeen done.  After missing some obvious clues, they do solve the girl's murder but with an unsatisfactory conclusion.  No headway is made on the case from Rob's past.  Maybe he turns it around in future books, and maybe we get some clues about his friend's disappearances in the next books.  I didn't care enough about him to find out.

Fell Short

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress

     As the name implies, this apocalyptic story jumps back and forth between times after, before, and during the end time.  The book is perhaps more a  novella; it is a very quick read though well-written.  I enjoyed the way the story was told and the end was intriguing.  That said, I didn't really care for the details or plot of the story much because I felt most of it revolved around sex to restart the human population.

Turn of the 19th Century True Crime

Skull in the Ashes  by Peter Kaufman

     I really enjoyed this book.  I feel it has four different parts.  The book captured my interest right away.  We read of the aftermath of the crime and the skull found in the ashes.  Here, we meet the people of the small Iowa town where the crime took place.   This was especially interesting to me since I am familiar with the area, but anyone interested in life at the turn of the 20th century would enjoy this book.

     The second part of the book covers the manhunt for the suspect.  This takes the reader all the way from small town Iowa to a mining town in the Yukon.  It was incredible the lengths taken to arrest the suspect.  In this part of the book, you also learn about private detectives and what their work was like in the 1890s.  

      Third comes the trial.  All the evidence against the suspect was circumstantial, which would make a conviction from this trial groundbreaking.  The interactions of  large personalities and adept arguing were enjoyable.  We also get a detailed look at the newspapers and journalism of this era.  

     Lastly, we learn what prisons were like at the turn of the century.  Again, local knowledge peaked my interest, but I was also fascinating to learn about the penal system at that time.  I learned so much throughout this book while getting to enjoy "the chase".

      There were so many new or relatively new advances that help lead to the conclusion of this mystery, including photography and telephones.  Which the author discusses, but I most appreciated the way the author ended his book.  He came back to remembering the victims in this crime, helping us to remember this was not just a thrilling manhunt and trial, but a tragedy, too.

     I would recommend this book to anyone interested in history, true crime, or mystery, and those who want to get a slice of life from 1890s while being entertained.

Irish Archaeology

I love this topic.  I've recently read two fiction books involving archaeology in Ireland.

The Crossing Places by Elly Giffith

I really like the main character is this book, Ruth Galloway.  She's a bit overweight with unruly hair and a realistic sense of herself.  I'm tired of reading books about pretty people and especially pretty people who don't think they're pretty.  So I was pleased she wasn't a beauty.  She is taken from her job at the university to determine whether a body found in the marshes near her home is ancient or possibly the remains of a girl who disappeared years ago.

Ruth is drawn into the mystery of the missing girl with Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson.  They make a good team.  The mystery allows us to learn about Ruth's past as a college student and professor.  I enjoyed the book.  The characters make some decision I wasn't happy with and the ending has a surprise that will take the series in a very different direction than I pictured.  Despite this, I would recommended it and those interested in Ireland or archaeology should enjoy the Ruth Galloway Series.


Haunted Ground by Erin Hart
American Nora Gavin is taking a break from her professorship.  She is lecturing in Ireland on ways to preserve ancient evidence especially that found in the bogs.  When a head is found in a local bog, she joins the team led by Irish archaeologist Cormac Macguire to study the head.  A nearby resident, Hugh Osborne, comes to the scene wondering if the body found belongs to his wife who disappeared with their child two years ago.

As the head is studied, Osborne hires Macguire to perform an archaeological survey on his property so he can build on the land.  Macquire asked Gavin to help him.  Gavin wants to discover what happened to Osborne's wife.  She is haunted by the head who looked very similar to her sister who was murdered; and Gavin believes her sister's husband was the one who killed her.  She goes back in forth in her suspicions of Osborne in the disappearance of his wife and child.

I found it a bit hard to like the Osborne family and care about what happened to Hugh Osborne's wife, but the story was interesting.  It served as a good plot to get Macguire and Gavin together so that we can enjoy more archaeological forensic mysteries investigated by this duo.

Back At It

I'm coming back to my  blog.  I has stopped because I was using GoodReads and posting my comments and ratings on my GoodReads page.  However, now that Amazon has purchased GoodReads, I'm not going to participate.  So, I'm going to start posting reviews on my blog again.