1. The Shining Girls

By Lauren Beukes       

A man with violent psychopathic tendencies is drawn to a House of Dimensions in Depression-era Chicago.  He becomes a serial killer who can jump back and forth in time to hunt gifted girls while eluding the authorities. 

Sounds like a cool concept, which makes it such a tragedy that Beukes stinks as a writer.  I’m writing more than I should in expressing how disappointed I was in wasting my time with such mediocrity.  

First, the heroine, Kirby.  Unlikable and annoying. But she's young and cute, thus an object of attraction to the much older, jaded former crime reporter Dan (a composite of half-drawn cliches).  The attempt at chemistry between the two was cringe-inducing, mostly due to their clunky, hokey dialogue. Even the killer was not very well-drawn nor charismatic, and many chapters were devoted to his POV.  

So the plot.  The only thing the mysterious House demanded from the killer was an occasional tribute:  seek out and murder a young woman who had “the shine” – not the telepathic ability from the Stephen King novel, but a shining talent.  The House demanded that these bright stars  be snuffed out.  

Of course, Beukes never delved into the reason, which would be fine if this was a better written story.  In this case, it seemed more like a convenient omission.  In return, the House provided sanctuary for the killer and through its door, the ability to step into any year in the 20^th century (with certain limitations that I now forgot).

Despite the amount of research devoted to Depression-era Chicago, Beukes was not able to weave it seamlessly into her narrative.  I think the fact she’s from South Africa showed how she was an outsider looking in.  She was also incapabe of inhabiting her characters completely nor could she write invisibly.  As a result, I wasn't able to lose myself in the narrative like I could with Lisa Lutz’s The Passenger, for instance.  

Structurally, the novel jumped around in time and switched between the POVs of all the characters, including the victims.  It took SO long for the plot to move along, I ended up skimming over a lot of unnecessary exposition, which was supposed to contribute to mood, but failed in its attempt.  

Another frustrating factor was Dan being such a middle-aged fart.  He spent most of the bloody time not believing any of the clues Kirby had discovered until they broke into the House and saw all the supernatural shit - at the very end of the novel!  

Beukes had hit upon a cool sub-genre of supernatural crime thrillers, and because of her intriguing premises, I gave this a second go.  My first book of hers was Broken Monsters (2015) - it was also disappointing, but not as much as this one.   I found Broken Monsters to be the better book than The Shining Girls, her previous effort.  

At least I can now absolutely confirm that I do not like Beukes’ writing, and thus, this will be my last book of hers. Amen.

12. Conviction

By Denise Mina                      

A mystery/crime novel based in Scotland, borrowed from Caroline.  Read in a rush while visiting in Berkeley, but I managed to finish it! 

Here's a summary that's been cobbled together from multiple sources:

The story begins one November morning with Anna getting the kids ready for school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true crime podcast.  Then her best friend Estelle arrives at the door.  Then Anna's husband, a successful lawyer, announces that he and Estelle are lovers and he's leaving her with their two daughters!

Anna considers killing herself, but the podcast she was listening to before her comfortable life got rudely shattered, Death and the Dana, distracts her from suicidal thoughts.  It's involves a wealthy businessman named Leon Parker, whose luxury yacht was blown up in the Mediterranean while he and his children were on board. The ship's cook was convicted of the crime, but many believe the woman was innocent.

But Anna knew Leon Parker... in her previous life as Sophie Bukaran.  We soon learn she had been hiding in Glasgow as Anna McDonald, married to the very husband who had just left her for her best friend, Estelle.  Anna feels that something is not quite right and she thinks she might know what really happened to Leon Parker.  When Estelle's feckless husband, Fin, also appears at Anna's door, he gets roped into the mystery and the unlikely duo eventually create a companion podcast detailing their explorations. 

But in the process Anna and Fin are photographed and the pictures posted online, so Anna's identity becomes entwined with the life she left behind as Sophie Bukaran. Years earlier Sophie was raped by members of a beloved football team, and her accusations threatened the team's reputation and value. When the only corroborator of her testimony was silenced, Sophie was discredited and subjected to public vilification, and Sophie disappeared. But a new witness has come forward and could confirm Sophie's accusations, and her reappearance again threatens a financial empire. As Fin's podcast becomes wildly popular and he and Anna begin to unravel the mystery of Leon Parker's death, the assassins seeking Sophie close in.

Even though the plot was highly unrealistic (that soap opera beginning!) and felt somewhat cobbled together (like this review), it was an easy and entertaining read.  At times, I felt like I could be spending my time with a better book (my MIL practically pushed Conviction on me as she had just finished it and wanted to know what I thought of it.  I think she even said I could have it, which was why I rush-read this as I didn't want to pack a hardcover to bring back home!), but there are much worse books to waste your time on.  I can't remember, but I think I told her I enjoyed it, which was mostly true.

 

 

 

 

 

11. Wake In Fright

By Kenneth Cook             

This 1966 debut novel exceeded my expectations.  I had an idea of what I’d be in for having seen the 1971 film by Ted Kotcheff just weeks ago.  Though I didn't know it yet, this would be the most faithful adaption of a book I’ve ever encountered. The only time  the film took a different approach was with the ending.

It took me two years to summon the courage to watch Wake In Fright on Shudder.  Why?  You might ask.  

Because the kangaroos.  

It's not a spoiler because everyone reading this would know about the kangaroos (and no one reads this blog anymore anyway).  I admit I shut my eyes when the scene kept going.  I, who could otherwise stomach rape revenge films and torture porn, drew the line at animal cruelty.

Olman has yet to watch the film, but he had this 1967 Penguin copy for a while (it was first published in 1961) and decided to finally read it.  And when I saw that he was reading it, I wanted to read it.    

The writing was exceptionally good.  Apparently Wake in Fright was billed as the first Outback horror story.  But it's also psychological and existential horror, as there were no traditional monsters, psycho killers nor the occult.  There were certainly horrific situations, and men with monstrous appetites, but no pure evil was portrayed.  There were awful, pathetic, mundane situations that only a weak, meek, hard-up man like John Grant would let himself be caught up in a living nightmare of his own making.

Some of the situations I personally found horrifying did not involve the slaughter of wild animals, or any violence for that matter.  Rather what really struck me were passages describing the visceral claustrophobia of being trapped inside a baking car in the middle of a wasteland inhaling the stench of sweaty people that you mildly despise:

     They were on their way, four men and a dog, stewing together.

     When you travel by road in the west you travel with a cohort of dust which streams up from your tyres and rolls away in a disintegrating funnel, defining the currents of air your vehicle sets in motion.  And somehow a lot of dust comes in the windows and settles in your hair and your clothes and most of all in your eyes and throat.

     And the heat is unthinkable, no matter how widely the windows are open, and the sweat streams off your body and into your socks, and if there are a number of people in the car their body stenches mingle disagreeably.

Now that to me is true horror!

There was also a lot of drinking and all the consequences of out of control boozing.  And boy, were there consequences, and it didn't just stop with the consumption of kangaroo testicles.  All this and more, laden with a fair amount of sardonic humour via the thoughts and observations of our hapless and arrogant anti-hero, John Grant.   Here was a passage which struck me as sharp and funny:    

     Hynes talked continuously through dinner.  Mrs. Hynes laughed politely sometimes, said ‘My! My!’ at appropriate points and displayed absolutely no interest in either Grant or Hynes. Janette said nothing. Grant gained the impression that Hynes was recognized as the head of the family and that his wishes were more or less law, but that nobody thought much of him. He had encountered similar situations in other western families.

Both book and film languished in obscurity for a while, especially Australia where locals did not take well to the unsympathetic portrayal of their own kind, but both had some acclaim overseas, and are now recognized as Australian classics.

10. Odd Thomas

By Dean Koontz