Tagged with thrillers
Ink and Ashes
reviewdate:
May 27 2015
isn:
9781620142110
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Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the
I don't get it. Oftentimes when a book is a huge success there's an easily discernible reason. I'll admit The DaVinci Code was a real page turner, and Oprah nailed most of her book club selections back in the day. But The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo just isn't all that. It's compelling, sure, but standard thriller fare. Possibly a little more interesting for its Swedishness, but really it's just another guy written guy book where a smart middle aged guy ends up a hero with the money and the girl half his age. He throws in some statistics about violence against women and some strong female characters, yet one of the rape scenes was just a little too rapey for my feminist taste.
reviewdate:
Jul 23 2010
isn:
978-0-307-26975-1
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Princess Plot, the
I don't usually read books in translation, cuz I'm weird like that, but since Lisa Von Drasek recommended it highly and gave me a free copy I figured I could give it a shot. I couldn't stand the last German tween book I started (I can't remember what it was called, just that Siu Loong is a big fan), but luckily The Princess Plot didn't drag or insult my intelligence. There were times where I thought it took the characters forever to get what was obviously going on, but maybe that's a tween thing, rather than a generalization it's fair to make about German YA lit based on two samples, only one of which I read through! Anyway, the 14-year-old princess in question is in hiding from her uncle's regency government after the death of her father. A lookalike, our protagonist, is brought in to replace her. The nation of Scandia has some complex problems, and I appreciated the author's nuanced portrait of the rebel leader. Although I did at some points find the characters a little immature, the plot and themes are fairly sophisticated.
reviewdate:
Jul 11 2010
isn:
978-0-545-03220-9
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Dragon Bones
The third in See's mystery collection, featuring Chinese Ministry of Public Security Inspector Liu Hulan and her American spouse attorney David Spark, takes place at an archaeological dig. The Hulan is charged with solving some unexplained deaths (some of them pretty grisly, so be warned), and David with protecting China's artifacts from a greedy marketplace. There's a large cult-like religion for them to contend with as they set to their appointed tasks and also try to salvage their marriage, which took a major hit when their 3 1/2-year-old daughter died (between Dragon Bones and its predecessor The Interior.
reviewdate:
Jun 25 2010
isn:
0345440315