One of the interesting consequences of writing this blog is my reading style has changed in that I am less likely to read something which belongs to a series (to spare you reviews of the same thing), and I’m branching out with my genres, trying to give you a little more variety. When it comes down to it, this is probably a good thing for me, because it expands my horizons as well, and keeps me out of a book rut.

It used to be that to find the next book I wanted to read, I just had to find the next in the series, or (always difficult) find a new series altogether. I’ve never been a best sellers list kinda person, because of this. So, in another break from past habits, I found this book by looking through the best sellers list on the Kobo website. Even more out of character, I chose this one over the newest Phillipa Gregory novel, which I was aching to read since I’d just finished The Wise Woman.

I’m glad I chose this novel, because it plunked me back into reality. The Last Child is the story of Johnny, a 13 year old boy who’s twin sister went missing a year ago, and of Hunt, the lead detective who, over the year, has become obsessed with the unsolved case.

Since his sister went missing, Johnny’s family has been torn apart, his father gone, his mother sunken in drugs, alchohol and depression, her boyfriend abusive. He spends his time skipping school and searching for his missing sister, one house at a time, finding strength and power wherever he can. Similarily, Hunt, unable to let the case go, has lost his wife and driven away his teenage son and is close to losing his job. Johnny’s search for his sister unravels mysteries that delve deep into the underbelly of the community, exposing predators and secrets and finding goodness, salvation and answered prayers in unexpected places.

This story brought me out of the fictional universe usually expected in novels, because it seemed so close to real life. It was very easy to imagine a family destroyed by loss, and a cop eaten away with guilt, allowing a case to become too personal. This book is the story of small town life, and child disappearance that could happen anywhere. At no point in the story is it sensationalist or unbelievable; the characters and their relationships are dynamic and heartbreaking and the reader can emphasize with their motivations.

Best of all, at no point in the story did I know what was going to happen next. I kept guessing all the way through, and the ending was completely unexpected, leaving me feeling both sad and satisfied. This is not a feel good, happy novel, yet even in the sad resolution the reader is left with a ray of sunshine of hope that life will be better despite everything that was lost.

This was an excellent novel, and I highly recommend it. You can find it here: The Last Child

I picked up this novel in a  Fields store in a little town on Little Shuswap lake, called Chase.  I was about to finish reading The Wise Woman and knew that I  couldn’t go through another two days vacation without reading something, plus it was only $3.00 for the hardcover, so it was a steal.  I have to admit that because of the price I didn’t expect it to be very good and was bracing myself for a fair amount of cheese.

The First Cut is a crime novel that begins with the murder of a female vice cop who’s been drawn to the dark side and become engaged in some funky and dangerous sex play for pay.   The rest of the novel is centered around Vining, a female cop who survived a brutal attack while on duty, the year previous.  Vining is just coming back  to work where she is asked to help on the case of the murdered cop – despite being placed in a different department.  She spends the entire novel comparing the murder to her own attack and working up the nerve to look into her own unsolved case.  She pegs the murderer on a hunch, despite a complete lack of evidence and lack of support from the rest of the department, and in the end catches and kills the murderer, freeing his newest victim.  In the end she vows to find her own attacker.  Eh.

So, to begin with, if you’re going to have a crime novel investigating a murderer, by a cop who was almost murdered, wouldn’t you expect the two murderers to be one and the same?   I certainly figured that she’d find out that the cop killer is the person who attacked her and in the end get some resolution.    On one hand, maybe it’s a good thing that the author did something that I didn’t expect; I really dislike predictability in a novel.  On the other hand, it was completely unsatisfactory for this intensely scarred by her ordeal cop to get no relief or justice for herself in the end.   To be fair, the novel does set up the ending for a sequel that allows her to hunt down her own would be killer,  but I really have no interest in reading a sequel, so what’s the point?

Why do I have no interest in a sequel?   Well, for one, I just didn’t care enough about the main character.   The action and suspense of the novel are well handled and I can sympathize with the main character’s trauma but that’s as far as it goes.   There was no real connection established between reader and character; I felt like she was held at arms length.  Part of that may have been because she’s referred to by her last name, Vining, through the entire novel, her first name (Nan) being only mentioned a couple of times.  Also, while there were a few personal moments, one with her daughter and a few with her exboyfriend, there was no real emotion beyond panic and negativity.   I had the feeling that she just didn’t like anybody.  Whenever the author introduced a new character, Vining’s reaction to them was always negative and that got really tiring and made it difficult to like her, in return.

The writing was reasonably well done, there were no problems with pacing or tense and dialogue worked okay.  There were a lot of flash backs, however, that were annoying and the plot was pretty flat.   Maybe that’s the reason I don’t want to read a sequel – it just wasn’t exciting enough to make me want more.

Readers on Amazon give the novel much higher praise than I have, and by the looks of it, there are two sequels out, as well.  So, if you’re interested, you can find it here:  The First Cut