This is a psychological thriller/mystery and the author is new to me.
It was ......different.....good.....but slow......with some weird twists and cumbersome character development.
Yet I read the entire novel and glad I did. It opened up my eyes to the mind of serial killers and what criminologists go through. It also has a strange ending that I didn't expect at all. It's won several international literary prizes. I honestly don't see why...and yet at the same time, I can see why. Sound confusing?? Read the story summary and my thoughts and let me know what you think!
STORY SUMMARY
Mila Vasquez, a criminal profiler and excellent at finding missing people, and Goran Gavila, a prescient criminologist, are the lead investigators in a creepy missing children's case.
Six severed arms...all left arms, are discovered in a bizarre a rrangment...a circle....buried in a wooded clearing. Five of the arms appear to belong to the missing children...all girls...between the ages of 8-13. The sixth arm has not yet been identified. And none of the girls bodies have been found.....are they dead? or still alive? No one knows!
As Mila and Goran begin to uncover clues and dive into the case, they believe they know who the suspect is....until they learn that there's absolutely no link between him and any of the kidnappings except the first little girl! The evidence that they gather in the case of the 2nd missing girl is vastly different from the first......and it's creating more questions for the investigators, than answers.
They begin to wonder if they've been brought into this case to be the scapegoats in the nearly hopeless case. Are all these missing little girls a coincidence or is there a copycat perpetrator??
They both become obsessed with the missing girls as the case becomes more tangled and intense. They begin to unravel layers of pure evil and find out that their very lives are in each other's hands.
How is the orphanage involved that is now closed down? What role does the Catholic priest play in this case?? And exactly who is Frankie??
And what secrets does Mila, Goran, and the other female officer carry?? How do their secrets affect the case they are working on??
Will they solve the case of the missing girls?? More importantly...will they catch the killer??
MY THOUGHTS
This book is odd....and yet I was drawn in!
I was drawn to it because of the title and the cover art, believe it or not!
The first thing I didn't like was the fact that the reader does not know the setting. This bugs me. I like to know where a story takes place. I have a feeling the author does this on purpose yet I can't figure out why. Most of the vocabulary makes me think it is set in Europe, specifically the English countryside, yet some of the verbiage reminds me of New York City. Yet most of the phrases that involve the police investigation is more like what you read in British novels. (the author lives in Rome, Italy).
I wanted to love these characters. I really wanted to love Mila and in some ways she's my favorite. Yet.....the character development is sloppy, non-existent much of the time and there are many characters to keep track of. The characters form through out the entire plot yet it would move much more quickly and efficiently if the characters were developed from the beginning.
The book is back and forth between the present and the past and it's difficult to figure out unless you are paying close attention to it.
There are several sub-plots running throughout this book and yet they all seem to point or be connected to the main plot. It's odd. It's cumbersome in my opinion.
A nun becomes part of the story and it was NOT a fave part of mine. In fact, it's just too weirdly unbelievable (a psychic nun??? really??). the whole supernatural aspect coming from a Catholic nun is just too unrealistic.
I honestly don't see how this is called a smash in Europe......it has some great literary points to it but at the same time, it's just so convoluted and odd.
There are SO many editing mistakes including one where he describes the sun rising in the west. Um....the sun rises in the east!!!!
And then the ending....the ending, in my opinion, was the best part. It's actually quite brilliant. I'm glad I finished the book but not sure I'd continue this story if he has a sequel which I think he does.
This book touches on several different themes: kidnapping, torture/murder, dysfunctional relationships/families; emotional/mental abuse; cutting; lies.
It's actually quite "dark". I won't be reading any more by this author.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to mature content and subject matter).
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 6.
1 comment:
This would not be my type of story. I like psychological thrillers but not when harm to children is involved. Maybe there's editing mistakes because of translation (if the author wrote it in Italian?)
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