“Summer is here, and I look forward to weekends at the beach with a good book and a bottle of tanning lotion.
With so many things to do, I treasure the time I have to read a good book, time I sneak in between my other tasks. These books are both by New York Times best-selling authors. I enjoyed them immensely and hope you’ll find time to read them, too.”
A Thin Dark Line
By Tami Hoag
Bantam Books – Bantam Doubleday
Dell Publishing Group 1997
590 pages paperback
“There is a thin line between hatred and love.”
Anne Broussard is a deputy with the Partout Parish Sheriff’s office and the only woman on the force. Nick Fourcade is a detective with a shady past. They are thrown together, at first unwillingly, to solve the brutal murder of a local woman. The main suspect is free after his case is dismissed, but everyone thinks he's guilty and should pay the ultimate price for murdering Pam Bichon.
This novel explores the ideological differences between justice and revenge, a difference that is sometimes so vague that the two ideas merge and blend to become one. If this book is any indication of talent, then Tami Hoag is one talented author. She is a master at the art of suspense. This books deserves to be read twice; once for pleasure and again the uncover the clues so innocuously tucked into simple paragraphs that once the killer is revealed, everyone will hit their head and think, “I should have known!”
I Know This Much Is True
By Wally Lamb
Harper Collins 1998
897 pages hardcover
Wally Lamb’s second novel is the story of two brothers, Dominick and Thomas Birdseye. Dominick is the sane brother of Thomas, a paranoid schizophrenic who, in an attempt to stop a war, cuts his hand off in the local public library.
This act catapults the story in many directions. Dominick must struggle to come to terms with his childhood, where he was the “favored” stepson of Ray Birdseye, an ex-navy man who married the boys' mother when she was pregnant and alone. He must come to terms with his mother Concettina, a shy woman who spent her life in shadows, first her father's then her husband, then finally in the shadow of her imperfect son, Thomas.
In his journey, Dominick learns about his grandfather for whom he is named and the fierce control he maintained over Concettina. Throughout the book, Dominick seeks to learn who his father is. Although he comes close several times, this question is never answered, leaving the reader wondering and speculating. Excellent book-highly recommended.
