Land of the Blind

Nadel, Barbara. Land of the Blind. London : Headline 2015. Print.

First Sentences:

He could only stand. A slight bend of the knees was all he could do and if he leaned forward his head touched the wall. Just out of reach, on the dirt floor, was a candle...His chest felt as if it was enclosed in the coils of a snake. The air, stale , and thick with dust, irritated his lungs, forcing him to breathe consciously against the pollutants as well as the embrace of the imaginary serpent.


Description:

It is funny how I came across Barbara Nadel's Land of the Blind. I had recently been reading several books by a new favorite author, Jess Walter, (So Far Gone, Over Tumbled Graves, and Citizen Vince) and wanted to read another of his works, Land of the Blind. But when I did a local library search for that title, I hadn't noticed I had accidentally reserved Barbara Nadel's novel by the same name.

 

Ah, well. After reading those first sentences, I was hooked, even though I knew nothing about the setting, characters, or plot. That writing and first impression were enough for me to plunge in.

 

Nadel's Land of the Blind is set in modern day Istanbul and revolves around Police Inspector Cetin Ikmen and fellow officers in their search for the murderer of an archeologist. She was a Byzantine art specialist and her body was found in Istanbul's ancient Hippodrome building. What was strange was that she also had also recently given birth, but no baby or blood was found at the site. 

 

Ikmen finds her personal diary that alludes to her recent discovery of a skeleton along with an ancient sword. She conjectured that this might actually be the remains of the last emperor of Byzantine, hundreds of years old. And her notes implied that she knew of a living relative of his family, despite the fact that this royal lineage had been completely wiped out centuries ago.

 

Meanwhile, there is a rich land developer who wants to purchase a historic house in order to tear down and build a luxury hotel. The house is the home to generations of the Negroponte family. The matron, a 90-year-old brain-damaged victim of the anti-Greek riots of 1955, still resides there under the care of her servant and her long-lost son (whom some question is actually her true son).

 

And I've saved the best part about this book for last. This is one of those special books that doesn't reveal the truth to an underlying mystery until the very last sentence. Any book that does this has a special place in my heart.

 

So read it, get absorbed into the modern and ancient life of the Turkish and Greek people living and working in modern day Istanbul, and try to discover the truth behind the mysteries that drive this story. A wonderful read on so many aspects. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Mukherjee, Abir. A Rising Man.

A British Scotland Yard policeman, newly-arrived in Calcutta, India in 1919, is faced with a complicated murder as well as his own shortcomings in this hot, humid, unsettling environment. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 480 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

 

Strange Pictures

Uketsu. Strange Pictures. New York : HarperCollins 2022. Print.

 

First Sentences:

All right, everyone, now I'm going to show you a picture.


Description:

What a compelling opening sentence. Who could not read at least a few more lines to have a peek into that picture and why this person wants to talk about it? The simple, perfect hook for readers. 

 

I absolutely cherish any book that when, after reading the very last line, all I can think about is going back to the beginning and re-reading the whole story again. 

This time, I think, I will catch the subtle hints about the characters, what's about to come, and the significance of overlooked actions and words as the story slowly unravels anew before me. 

It's like watching a great movie that you re-watch again and again for the plot, the characters, the foreshadowing, and the still-surprising actions (like in Jaws when you can never really expect nor avoid jumping when the dead man's skull drops down in the hole in the sunken boat hull).

 

In Strange Pictures by Uketsu (Note: please click here to read about this mysterious Japanese YouTuber/Author sensation whose identity is unknown as he always wears a masks and black body suit when pictured), we are presented with four seemingly unrelated stories as well as nine drawings. All seem distinctly separate from each other, including the art work. 

 

But after coming across an obscure blog called Oh, No, Not Raku, two college students in Japan are captivated by the drawings in this blog and the diary entries from its author. Raku's daily postings center around his family but contain drawings by his wife. These are quick sketches which seem somehow related, but pose many puzzling questions to the college students, especially after Raku posts that his artistic wife died during childbirth of their daughter

When faced with true sorrow, people lose even the strength to shed tears.

Next we jump to a story centering on an unusual picture drawn by a pre-schooler for his mother. It depicts the boy and mother standing in front of a six-story building. The strange part of the picture is that the apartment room where they live is smudged out. Why would that be? If someone could explain this "intentional" blurring in the drawing, they might therefore understand the boy and his mama, and possibly the history of each.

 

The two other stories also involve drawings, but their plots focus on character studies, broken relationships, crimes and mysteries where the drawings might contain a valuable key. 

 

But best of all, somehow all these stories, people, and situations have a connection to each other. Slowly, ever so slowly, readers begin to unravel confusing clues, clarify relationships, and uncover overlapping timelines in this seemingly simple, yet wildly entertaining book.

 

It's one of the most unusual, gripping, and puzzling books I have ever read. Cannot wait to start it all over again in the very near future, maybe next week. Uketsu has another book out now as well, Strange Houses, so I'm definitely checking that one out as well. Highly recommended.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Hallett, Janice. The Twyford Code.

Probably the most complex, yet completely engrossing mystery I've ever read involving the search for a children's book which might contain in its text the secret to a lost stash of money. Highest recommendation. (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

Fred

Click here to browse over 470 more book recommendations by subject or title (and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

Memory

Westlake, Donald. Memory. New York: Dorchester 2010. Print.

First Sentences:

 

After the show, they went back to the hotel room, and to bed, for the seventeenth time in three weeks. He had chosen her because, being on the road with him, she was handy; and additionally because she was married, had already clipped the winds of one male, and could therefore demand nothing more from hm than he was willing to give. Why she had chosen him he neither knew nor cared. 

Description:

It's always sad to realize that you have read the last new publication from a beloved author due to that person's death. Fortunately, in the case of one of my all-time favorite writers, Donald Westlake was a hugely prolific writer, producing detective novels, thrillers, humorous crime tales, and short stories in abundance under multiple pseudonyms. 

One of his final novels, Memory, originally written in 1963 and published posthumously in 2010, was recently reissued in coordination with the newly-released film The Actor. I had never heard of this book and eagerly swooped in to read it. And boy, what a ride. No crime, not much humor, just a character study of a man lost in the world of the 1950s, trying to regain his memory and former life.

Of course, it starts off with a bang. In the first two paragraphs, Paul Cole is discovered in bed with a woman by the woman's husband who raises a chair as if to hit Paul. Paragraph three has Paul awakening in a hospital, not knowing who he is or how he wound up in a hospital with only his clothes and wallet to give him any hints of his former life. He is diagnosed with temporary amnesia which he is assured will soon go away, and released into the world. Armed with a New York driver's license showing his presumed home address, Paul decides to try to travel there to see whether that city and possible people he once knew can jog his memory and help him resume his life.

But he only has enough money to get part way to New York. He decides to take a bus as far as he can, landing in Jeffords, Ohio, with no job, no money, no acquaintances, and no place to live. He frustratingly finds it difficult to explain to people his amnesia, remember appointments and people's names. Reminder notes soon plaster his rented room to help him manage his daily life.

All the while, he is trying, with mixed success and setbacks, to gather enough money to head to New York where he hopes to find answers.

While this description may sound mundane, it is the very ordinariness of Paul Cole and his fragmented memory coping with minor and major everyday challenges that gently, firmly pull readers into Paul's life and mind. You cannot help but turn pages to see whether he will succeed or fail in each situation, with each person, and whether his hopes of regaining his memory in Jeffords or New York will be realized.

Westlake is an incredibly gifted story-teller, and Memory is no exception. It is highly recommended by me for its unique plot, character development, challenging situations faced, and the repercussions Cole faces based on his decisions made. Westlake is at his best in this novel.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

  

Elizabeth Moon. The Speed of Dark

Autistic tech workers with high skills in determining computer patters in programming are offered the chance to correct their autism symptoms and lead the lives without the challenges they face daily. But in this process, they might lose their pattern-recognition skills, and more importantly their former memories, personality, and possibly even friends. Thought-provoking and totally involving, this fascinating story follows one central character as he struggles with this decision. (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 450 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

 

Shy Creatures

Chambers, Clare. Shy Creatures. New York: Mariner. 2024. Print.

First Sentences:

 

In all failed relationships, there is a point that passes unnoticed at the time, which can later be identified as the beginning of the decline. For Helen it was the weekend that the Hidden Man came to Westbury Park. 

Description:

The premise of Clare Chambers' Shy Creatures

was enough to hook me for good. A mute, shy man with uncut hair and a beard to his waist is discovered in a run-down Victorian house living with a dotty, aged aunt. Nearby neighbors did not even know a man was living in that house, never having seen him outside in 20 years. 

William Tapping is admitted to a nearby phychiatric hospital where Helen Hansfor, a thirty-something art therapist, takes a special interest in his case. William talks with no one, but displays a brilliant talent for drawing.

The book gradually unfolds his story, in reverse chronological order, starting with the disturbance that led police to his home and his subsequent admittance to the hospital, all the way back to the original factors that led him to that point. His is a truly fascinating tale, one that is unpredictable, emotional, and powerful from end to start as the pieces of his life story slowly fall into place.

Meanwhile, on a parallel track, the life of William's therapist Helen also unfolds. She is having a three-year affair with one of the hospital doctors, Gil Rudden, a married man with a family, a giant in the field of psychiatry, and her immediate superior. While they meet secretly, waiting for the day when his children leave their home in a few years, there is conflict on the treatment of the mute recluse, William Tapping, under their care. 

I think that is all you will get out of me. A very gripping story with highly sympathetic and often stubborn characters interplaying throughout the novel right up to its final conclusion. A great, engrossing read.

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

  

Michaelides, Alex. The Silent Patient.    

A woman is found standing with a shotgun over her dead husband. There is no doubt she has killed him. But during the trial and for the six years she is in a psychiatric hospital, she has not said a word. Why? And can the new doctor get through to her somehow and learn her story? (previously reviewed here) 

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 435 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

 

Anna O

Blake, Matthew. Anna O. New York: Harper 2024. Print.

First Sentences:

"The average human spends thirty-three years of their life asleep." She leans closer, enough for me to catch a gust of expensive perfume This is usually the moment when I know. "And that's what you do?"

"Yes.

"A sleep doctor?"

"I study people who commit crimes when they sleep."


Description:

Sometimes the premise and first lines of a book are just too intriguing not to give it a read. Such is the case with Matthew Blake's novel, Anna O. The irrestible plot here? Can a person who, while sleep-walking, commit and be charged for a crime (murder) that she, when awakened, cannot remember doing? And what if the woman in question, referred to as "Anna O," never wakes up after being found with a bloddy knife in her hand and two friends stabbed to death nearby.

And she still has not awakened after four years.

Time is running out for the London Ministry of Justice to bring her case to trial. She cannot be indefinitely held in Her Majesty's Prison Service, but cannot be released possibly to kill again. The Ministry seeks her murder conviction, something they cannot do unless Anna O: 1) awakens; 2) is ruled competent; and 3) is found guilty due  to overwhelming evidence (including her last text sent that said "I'm sorry. I think I've killed them").

Enter Dr. Benedict Prince, a forensic psychologist at the Abbey Sleep Clinic who specializes in "people who commit crimes when they sleep." The Ministry hires him to work with Anna O to re-awaken her. 

But Prince believes Anna O to have "resignation syndrome," a functional neurological disorder, having suffered a trauma so great that she has given up hope of living and therefore has retreated into the safer world of sleep. 

People think the animal side is the body and the rational side is the brain. But it's often the other way round.

Further complicating the situation is the fact that Prince's ex-wife, Clara, was the first police officer on the scene for the Anna O stabbings and is now is the major police figure on the case. Needless to say, Ben and Clara are at odds, with him wanting to undersatnd and study the sleeper, and Clara only wanting a conviction...that is, if Anna O ever awakens.

There are twists and turns aplenty as Prince tries various methods to reach into Anna O's consciousness, all the while dealing with the pressure of the Ministry, Clara, and social media advocates for Anna O's release or conviction. And just maybe not all these messenging figures are simply non-involved onlookers.

It's a fascinating study of sleep disorders, treatment, and consequences for sleep-walkers and the people they affect by their actions. This was a completely new concept to me, one clearly written in a well-told scenario by intelligent, concerned characters. 

Author Blake has a winning style and imagination, so I thoroughly enjoyed Anna O and look forward  with eager anticipation to his next book. For now, Anna O is a winner.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Feeney, Alice. Sometimes I Lie.   

A paralyzed woman is just awakening from a long-term coma with only a vague memory of how she got in her condition. She can hear and understand what goes on in her hospital room but cannot respond as she tries to piece together bits of conversations to comprehend her history and the veracity of the people who now surround her, including her husband and best friend. (previously reviewed here)

The Appeal

Hallett, Janice. The Appeal. New York: Simon & Schuster 2021. Print.

First Sentences:

As discussed, it is best you know nothing before you read the enclosed.


Description:

I am always intrigued by epistolary novels. You know, the ones told completely through written documents (e.g. letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, texts, emails, etc.). Here, in Janice Hallett's first novel, The Appeal, she frames the story through the eyes of two junior lawyers assigned by their boss to read through a file of correspondence and related notes, then come to a conclusion about what really happened. Apparently, Tanner, their boss, needs information for an upcoming case he is defending and wants fresh eyes to study the details and present him with their thoughts.

 

Slowly, slowly, we read with the copious emails and notes exchanged between a small group of people who are preparing their roles for a community theater presentation. While they find nothing exciting at first, soon an email surfaces that the director's two-year-old granddaughter, Poppy, has been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer that is probably incurable. But fortunately, her grandfather notes, Poppy's doctor has heard of promising results from a new drug in its test stages that might help, possibly even cure the child. It has not yet been approved for the general public, the Poppy's doctor has a means of obtaining the medicine at a stiff price: $175,000 for the first of four treatments.

An appeal goes out to the theater players and their friends and family to help raise the funds to acquire this test drug privately which can then be administered by the girl's doctor. Everyone contributes, creates fund-raising opportunities, and even dedicates the proceedings from the upcoming play to Poppy's medication.

But there are hints that maybe something might not be quite right in this appeal. And when a cast member is found dead after apparently falling off the balcony, no one knows quite what to think or whether anyone from their group might be responsible.

Epistolary novels usually reveal themselves slowly as we need time to, piece by piece, understand the characters and actions. Lots of writing is placed in front of the researching lawyers (and us readers) full of thoughts, ramblings, misdirection, rumors, accusations, dreams, and relationships flicker across the pages, writings presented to the lawyers (and us readers), for analysis and then discarded or held onto as key information.

Hallett is the master of spreading subtle clues buried in a complex plot and benign yet somehow suspicious characters. As I read these missives, I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye, unable to clarify whether it was really there or even what, if anything, it was, yet thinking that it might be important to remember and understand. Such is the skill that drew me to Hallett and novel, The Appeal. And I was not in any way sorry to be immersed in its story and characters. A challenging, satisfying read.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Hallett, Janice. The Twyford Code

The best, most baffling, intriguing mystery, full of twists, turns, questionable narration, undiscovered treasure, and a possible code/treasure map found in a child's book. Fantastic. (previously reviewed here)

 

 

The Fix

 Baldacci, David. The Fix. New York: Grand Central Publishing. 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

It was normally one of the safest places on earth. But not today.

Description:

OK, I admit it. I am a huge fan of David Baldacci's Amos Decker character, the ex-policeman/football player with the perfect memory. Having nothing to read that could quite match the intensity of the brilliant 787-page The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes that I had just finished, I returned to my old reliable crime-solver, Amos Decker in Baldacci's The Fix. This is the third book in the 7-book Amos Decker detective series, the crime-solver introduced in Memory Man, the first (and in my mind the best in the series), and then the second book, The Last Mile. The Fix, I found, was a fine chaser to my Amos Decker thriller binge reading.

In the first four pages of The Fix, Decker is walking in front of the J Edgar Hoover building, home to the FBI, heading to a meeting. Several yards ahead, he notices a well-dressed man, Walter Dabney, walk up to a woman, Anne Berkshire, pull out a gun and shoot her in the head. Then, before Decker could intervene, Dabney put his gun under his chin and shoot himself.

Wow, what a start. Two deaths, sudden, intentional, in front of the FBI Headquarters, and  with memory-perfect Decker as an eye-witness.  Seems an easy case. But the only question is who were these two people? Why did Dabney kill Berkshire? And why did he choose the very public FBI building for this action?

Not much to go on, but Decker is roped into the investigation of these questions mainly due to one other minor point. The FBI has intercepted messages that very soon there will be a terrorist act on the magnitude of 9/11. And it is scheduled to take place sometime very soon. Where, when, how, and by whom are a new set of questions. Could these recent shootings and terrorist threat somehow be linked?

Slowly, slowly, Decker and his partners on the FBI investigation team, uncover tiny nuggets of interesting information that may or may not contribute to these investigations. As they peel back layers based on new discoveries, the two cases become more and more unclear. Rather

than getting closer to a solution, Decker and his team feel increasingly confused with the disjointed information.

And the day of the terrorist event is rapidly approaching.

Highly recommended for readers who love to watch detailed crime procedure, grapple with tiny clues, and then try to puzzle out for themselves who is telling the truth and who is involved in these events up to their necks. The Fix, through Baldacci's terse writing and dialogue, encourages readers to immerse themselves and binge read until their eyes droop. But what a pleasant way to stimulate your mind and wear out your eyes.

 

P.S. If you are new to the Decker series, start with the first and second books, Memory Man and The Last Mile to get some background on Decker and his partners, The Fix can clear up their backstories on its own, but it is more satisfying to start at the series' beginning and read the first two equally complex and brilliant Amos Decker books, then dive into The Fix as a dessert.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

 

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Baldacci, David. Memory Man.   

The first book in the Amos Decker mystery/thriller series. Decker, due to a football accident, cannot forget anything: words, pictures, faces, events. After his wife and child are brutally murdered, and even though someone has confessed to the crime, Decker takes on his own personal investigation and uses his perfect memory to identify key clues to unravel the event and find the true killer(s). Highest recommendation. (previously reviewed here)

 

The Lost Tomb

Preston, Douglas. The Lost Tomb and Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder. New York: Grand Central 2023. Print.

First Sentences:

Some writers drank when the words didn't come. Now we have the Internet. Whenever I get stuck writing, instead of sliding open the bottom drawer with the whiskey bottle, I load up the New York Times or Politico, check my email, or, when all else fails, start Googling old acquaintances.


Description:

Who doesn't love a good mystery? Some sort of puzzle filled with suspicious characters up against thoughtful people who try to unravel the tangle of facts to eventually arrive at the truth and a satisfying conclusion by the last page?

But true life mysteries, while equally compelling as fictitious ones, are often not so neatly explained. Conclusions can be muddled, even after scores of scientists, treasure hunters, and researchers have delved into the physical and historic data for years. 

If you are like me, a true life mystery-lover, you should pick up Douglas Preston's The Lost Tomb and Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder. The author is a man curious about the odd, unsolved oddities he has read about over the years, leading him to publish heavily-researched articles which detail these mysteries for magazines including Wired, Harper's, and The New Yorker. Thirteen of these articles are collected in The Lost Tomb, conveniently organized into sections of "Uncommon Murders," "Unexplained Deaths," "Unsolved Mysteries," Curious Crimes," and "Old Bones." 

And what unsolved mysteries are detailed? Here's a sample:

• The author's own boyhood treasure chest buried with a friend, but in later life he was unable to find. His search led him to unexpected information about this boyhood friend whom he had lost touch with;

• Hundreds of skeletal bones found in a remote lake high up in the Himalayas whose age, how they got there, and what caused their deaths remain unknown;

• The Oak Island Money Pit, over 190' deep (so far) which has been explored for over 100 years by fortune-hunters and scientists looking for a rumored buried treasure;

• The New Mexico skeleton and accompanying artifacts that might be 20,000 years old, (making this the oldest evidence of man in America), discovered by a quirky Indiana Jones-type anthropologist;

• A 3,500-year-old Egyptian tomb that has 150 rooms (only 10% of which have been uncovered) that might be the final resting place for Rameses II and his 50 sons;
  

• Rare points from arrows and spears created by the ancient Clovis people in America, that suddenly turned up together in a suspiciously rich cache;

• A site with fossils of feathers, glass raindrops, delicate fish, and plant materials so carefully and instantaneously preserved that they might document the exact date when the asteroid hit Earth and destroyed 90% of all life.

Preston gathers the origins of these mysteries, researches the often-conflicting data from various people and scientists who are experts in the mystery, then allows each reader to draw his own conclusions. The people involved in the mystery are as fascinating as the mysteries themselves, presenting diverse opinions and drawing solid, if unproven conclusions that continue to be debated today.

I find real-life mysteries like these to be fascinating, even if they often do not have a tidy conclusion. Buried treasure, ancient bones, lost cities, and unexplained anthropological artifacts stretch my brain to wonder at the complexities of human life and our attempts to understand nature and our own past history. Highly recommended.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Preston, Douglas. The Lost City of the Monkey God  

The author relates his electrifying, dangerous, scientific adventures in 2012 seeking the (rumored) fabulously wealthy, but cursed lost city of gold in Honduras as documented by Cortez and other explorers. A real page-turner for history and treasure buffs alike. (previously reviewed here)