Unique in its telling, the story unfolds as a series of legal documents, police interviews and statements, pathology reports and the e-mail correspondence between the two Year 9 private school students. From within these Police investigation reports and statements, clues are unlocked and our suspicions focus upon a particular suspect who is a member of the school community.
Author:
The Price of Isolation: George Eliot’s Silas Marner
It is a remarkable portrait of social misunderstanding, one that is so clear it illuminates current, similar but subtler suspicion of odd individuals in our own world. The money that Marner makes becomes important to him—obvious reward for his work. He is transformed by his isolation, his work, his money, his (often inhuman or at least unsocial) concerns: achieving independence but a spiritual withering.
We have a copy of The Family by David Laskin to giveaway this month.
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The winner will be drawn on the first of Dec 2013 from subscribers who enter via the newsletter. Good luck!
Interview with Carole McDonnell
The author of The Constant Tower talks about her new book, procrastination, political writing, where her ideas come from, her themes, on sales, and lots more.
Interview with Jaye Ford
The author of Blood Secret reads from and talks about her new book, about the incident that gave rise to it, her main characters, her local settings, her struggles with the writing, her work in progress, and lots more.
A Review of The Silent Wife By A.S.A. Harrison
The Silent Wife is not a long book—a little over 200 pages—but Harrison manages to fit a gripping tale into those few pages. The story is told almost entirely in present tense, so it gives the reader an almost unsettling feeling of voyeurism—we’re absolutely watching these characters self-destruct in real time. There is some backstory offered as a way to explain how Todd and Jodi were shaped by their families (clearly dysfunctional in Todd’s case; less obvious in Jodi’s).
A review of Torn Apart: The Abduction of Gillian Curtis by Marta Sprout
The author doesn’t quite deliver the complex character development that could have been achieved with the scintillating story line, however, what she does deliver is a heartwarming, fun tale about the people who come into our lives when we least expect it and how they can embed themselves in our hearts.
A review of Blood Secret by Jaye Ford
From start to finish, the writing remains taut and powerful. Ford rarely slows the pace with overt description, but the scene setting is done brilliantly through the eyes of the characters, combined with action.
Interview with Scott Erickson
The author of The Diary of Amy, the 14-Year-Old Girl Who Saved the Earth talks about his book and why he wrote it, about his audience, the state of the world, why he writes satire, his models, why he loves Dr Strangelove, why he chose to use a diary format, and lots more.
A review of Bristol House by Beverly Swerling
Bristol House is as unique a literary mystery as one is ever likely to read. Swerling makes some interesting choices with her narrative. At first impression, Annie Kendall strikes the reader as a brilliant, competent researcher whose personal transgressions have cost her, deeply, on a professional level. There are moments in the story where her carefully reconstructed self—the self rebuilt from countless AA meetings and confronting her deepest fears and strongest weaknesses—nearly shatter and the former, scarred Annie threaten to reemerge.