10. Heroes Are My Weakness - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

2014, William Morrow

364 pgs.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Finished 1/28/2015

Goodreads rating: 3.68

My rating:   5-Really, really liked it

TPPL

Setting:  Isolated Maine island, Contemporary winter

1st sentence/s: "She didn't usually talk to her suitcase, but she wasn't exactly herself these days."

My comments:   I really enjoyed this book.  I remember eating up all sorts of English manor/stern male/savvy governess stories when I was a young adult and for some reason this reminded me of them - even though it took place in contemporary Maine!  The setting....an island way off the coast of Maine, only visited by a ferry once every six weeks, AND in the middle of winter, are all things that are either very familiar or somewhat familiar. I loved the characters, and I loved the puppets.  Puppets?  In our heroine's head the voices of her five "dummies" occasionally pop up.  At first I thought it would be irritating, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying the way that Annie's thoughts were shown through those puppet's voices.  And the relationship between Annie and Theo?  DELIGHTFUL!  Funny, thoughtful....real.  The two of them had me giggling over and over again.  Yup, I had a blast with this story. (But I really don't like the cover.  It looks like a nonfiction.  It could have been SO much better.)

Goodreads book summary:  The dead of winter.

An isolated island off the coast of Maine.

A man.

A woman.

A sinister house looming over the sea ...

He's a reclusive writer whose macabre imagination creates chilling horror novels. She's a down-on-her-luck actress reduced to staging kids' puppet shows. He knows a dozen ways to kill with his bare hands. She knows a dozen ways to kill with laughs.

But she's not laughing now. When she was a teenager, he terrified her. Now they're trapped together on a snowy island off the coast of Maine. Is he the villain she remembers or has he changed? Her head says no. Her heart says yes.

It's going to be a long, hot winter. 

32. The Lock Artist - Steve Hamilton

Minotaur Books, 2009
paper $14.99
305 pgs. ( and then Ch. 1 of upcoming Misery Bay)
Genre:  Mystery
Rating:  4

Setting:  Back and forth between 1991 and 2000, Michigan, then short stints in NYC and LA.

One-sentence summary:  Mike, a mute young man ending a ten-year prison sentence, tells the story of how he became a safecracker and ended up in prison.

When I began this book I had my doubts about whether I'd enjoy the format - each chapter going backward or forward, telling two continuous parts of the story simultaneously.  But it really worked - I didn't get lost or confused and I couldn't put the book down.

Some unknown incident in Mike's life so traumatized him that he lost his ability to speak at age 8.  Part of the mystery is to discover more about this incident.  And the rest is to watch his journey from inquisitive, sad youth to safecracker and thief.  He is an "innocent"...and I cheered for him all along the way.

This is a story of how life can overwhelmingly control you until you become strong enough - or care enough - to take control yourself.

Super story, formatted cleverly.