[ARC] The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins

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The novel begins with Olivia Sweetman’s bestsellers launch. Olivia is a history professor with TV collaboration. Her book, Annabell, is about Annabel Burley’s life, one of the first woman surgery in the Victorian era, and it derives from Annabel’s diary.

Vivian Tester is Ileford Manor’s housekeeper, the home of the Burley family and the place where the diary is kept.

The novel is about the relation between Olivia, a successful woman who has some family difficulties, and Vivian, sixty years old and socially awkward. Olivia wrote the book with Vivian help; as we go on with the reading we understand the great value of Vivian’s research in the historical reconstruction.

The novel’s atmosphere gets psychologically creepy page after page, and mostly due to Vivian behaviour.

The novel is nice, but I think it takes too much to get to the final unraveling (that can be foreseen from the provided information). Some chapters go from the present to the past through feedbacks, and not every time this jump in time is evident.

The title choice left me puzzled, since The night visitor is quite a marginal element in the whole story.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me the copy necessary to write this review.

* The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins ★★★☆☆

*I read this book in english

[ARC] Roses of May by Dot Hutchison

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The novel is set a few months after the conclusion of The Butterfly Garden, but in common the two novels have the FBI agents that deal with the investigations.

Here the focus is on a serial killer that each spring kills a girl in a church and covers her body with flowers, different each time. Priya’s sister was one of the victims, and Priya has not recovered from this loss, moreover some hints brings her and the FBI in thinking that the killer is interested in her.

The novel interchanges feedback from the killer with the present time: on one side Priya and on the other the three agents dealing also with the girls who survived the Garden.

I liked the previous novel of the series, and for this reason I had expectations from this one, but I think The Roses of May is not thrilling enough for the kind of book this is.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me the copy necessary to write this review.

* Roses of May by Dot Hutchison ★★☆☆☆½

*I read this book in english

[ARC] Roses of May by Dot Hutchison

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Il romanzo è ambientato alcuni mesi dopo la conclusione di The Butterfly Garden, ma in comune i due hanno solo i tre agenti dell’FBI incaricati delle indagini.

Qui l’indagine è focalizzata su un serial killer che ogni primavera uccide una ragazza in una chiesa e ne decora il corpo con fiori, ogni volta diversi. La sorella di Priya è stata una delle vittime, e Priya non ha ancora superato la grande perdita, inoltre diversi segnali portano a pensare che il killer sia in qualche modo interessato a lei.

Il romanzo alcuni ricordi del killer con il presente: da una parte Priya e dall’altra i tre agenti e le ragazze scampate al Giardino.

Il romanzo precedente mi era piaciuto, e questo mi ha dato speranze per questo, però trovo che la storia in The Roses of May tenda a trascinarsi a scapito della tensione che un thriller dovrebbe avere.

Ringrazio l’editore per avermi fornito la copia necessaria per scrivere questa recensione.

* Roses of May by Dot Hutchison ★★☆☆☆½

*Ho letto questo libro in inglese

In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad #1) by Tana French

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1984, Summer in Knocknaree, Ireland. Three children go in the woods near home to play and they do not come back. The searches begin the next day, and only one child is found near a tree with blood on his clothes, Adam Robert Ryan, who does not remember anything happened in the woods.

Now, Knocknaree. In an archaeological site near the remaining area of the woods a girl is found dead. The murder investigation begin: the leader of the investigation for the Dublin Murder Squad are Cassie and Rob, who is the same child survived during 1984.

The story is told directly by Rob, who tells the story as he remembers it; this investigation is quite hard for him also because he is forced to walk in once familiar places. The 1984 case is taken into account again to check possible common points (maybe it’s a killer who wasn’t active for years).

The strength of the novel is the choice of such a subjective narrator: as readers we have access to a single point of view concerning the case and the people involved in Rob’s life. And in the end the most important question is: how much faith we give the narrator? How reliable is Rob in telling the story?

Once reached the ending I was not sure whether I liked it or not, but thinking about it I ended up agreeing with the author, since her choice makes the book more realistic. I suggest it for the thrillers lovers.

* In the Woods by Tana French ★★★★☆

*I read this book in english

[ARC] The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

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The story begins in an interrogation room: on one side two agents from FBI, on the other a girl about twenty and in the background reference to hospital, survivors, other girls.

The girl is asked to give some explanation, and so she begins her story and the story of the butterfly garden. Butterflies that are girls, kidnapped and tattooed to have their back resemble butterflies wings, forced to live in a beautiful prison.

The girl – Maya, this is the name given by her captor – talks about the life in the garden, but also about her past life, and the two agents slowly enter in the daily horror of these collected butterflies.

With Maya’s tale the novel is enriched by other new characters – like the other butterflies – every one with a peculiar trait.

The butterfly garden is a book able to catch the reader attention, despite the horror it contains, and it’s hard to leave Maya’s story, because, like the FBI we want to understand what’s happened and how we got to the interrogation room.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me the copy necessary to write this review.

* The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison ★★☆☆☆

*I read this book in english

[ARC] Il giardino delle farfalle by Dot Hutchison

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La storia inizia in una stanza degli interrogatori: da una parte due agenti dell’FBI, dall’altra una ragazza di circa vent’anni e sullo sfondo l’accenno lontano a ospedali, sopravvissute, altre ragazze.

La ragazza deve fare chiarezza su quanto accaduto, e così inizia a raccontare ai due agenti la sua storia e la storia del giardino delle farfalle. Farfalle che sono in realtà ragazze, rapite e forzatamente tatuate con un paio di ali di farfalla sulla schiena, costrette a vivere in prigionia in una tenuta sigillata.

La ragazza – Maya, questo il nome datole dal rapitore – racconta della vita nel giardino, ma anche della sua vita precedente, e i due agenti si immergono lentamente nell’orrore quotidiano di queste farfalle collezionate.

Nel racconto di Maya prendono vita le altre farfalle e il romanzo si arricchisce man mano con nuovi personaggi, ognuno con una propria peculiarità.

Il giardino delle farfalle è un libro che cattura, nonostante il profondo orrore che descrive, e ci si allontana con fatica dai racconti di Maya, perchè, come l’FBI, si è desiderosi di ricostruire il passato e capire come si è arrivati a quell’interrogatorio.

Ringrazio l’editore per avermi fornito la copia necessaria per scrivere questa recensione.

* Il giardino delle farfalle by Dot Hutchison ★★☆☆☆

*Ho letto questo libro in inglese

Romanzi per l’estate #2

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Secondo post dedicato ai romanzi per l’estate (il primo, quello dedicato ai romanzi senza impegno lo trovate qui). Premesso che di estate ad oggi ne ho vista ben poca, il genere migliore per il periodo per me è il giallo, dotato anche di un potere rinfrescante nei confronti della calura estiva.

Sempre validi i grandi classici, Agatha Christie per prima con alcuni piccoli capolavori (sotto trovate le brevi recensioni di Dieci piccoli indiani e Omicidio sull’Orient Express), ottimi anche i moderni commissari di Camilleri (qui la recensione dell’ultimo Montalbano, La piramide di fango) e di De Giovanni, autore di due serie distinte, la prima con il commissario Ricciardi ed una fantastica Napoli d’epoca (qui, qui e qui le recensioni) e la seconda con I bastardi di Pizzofalcone, un gruppo di poliziotti che si muovono invece nella Napoli moderna (recensioni qui).

Molto belli per il protagonista assolutamente particolare (il commissario Adamsberg) i romanzi di Fred Vargas che commenterò prossimamente, consiglio anche i romanzi di Don Winslow (tutti, qui le recensioni di Le belve e I re del mondo), non sono gialli di stampo classico ma sono decisamente appassionanti ed abbracciano temi molto moderni.

Il panorama italiano è poi popolato da commissari più o meno tradizionali di cui parlerò prossimamente.

Per i ragazzi invece consiglio il bellissimo Il testamento Westing, un grande gioco intorno al decesso di un ricco uomo d’affari (recensione sotto).

Novels for the summer #2

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Second post about novel for summer (the first one was about easy to read novel and it’s here). By now I saw very few summer this year, anyway the best genre for this period I thinks it’s the mystery – thriller, able to refresh the hot summer time.

The great classics are always good, for example Agatha Christie and some of her little masterpieces (below the review of And then there were none and Murder on the Orient Express), very good also the modern authors, in Italy Camilleri and De Giovanni, who respectively set their novels in Sicily and Naples.

Other nice novels – for the absolutely peculiar main character, Adamsberg – the novels by Fred Vargas, and the ones by Don Winslow (I like every one of them, here the review of Savages and King of cool), more thriller like but very engaging and about actual thematic.

For young adults I suggest the wonderful The Westing Game (review below), a game around and about a rich men death.

[ARC] Thumbprint by Joe Hill

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The memories of the Iraq war obsesses the main character, guilty of atrocities in Abu Ghraib.
The fact she receive thumbprint images on paper – no explanations, no address – will increase her sense of being followed and stalked by her past.

The story is fast paced, however the ending is easy to prefigure (also because of the few number of characters). this is a lack in the plot since the story is thriller-like.
Some violent images, not so meaningful for the plot, could bother the reader.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me the copy necessary to write this review.

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* Thumbprint by Joe Hill ★★☆☆☆

*I read this book in English

[ARC] Thumbprint by Joe Hill

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Il ricordo della guerra in Iraq tormenta la protagonista, colpevole di atrocità a Abu Ghraib.
Il ricevere fogli con un’impronta – senza spiegazioni, senza indirizzo – aumenterà la sensazione di essere perseguitata dal passato.

La storia scorre velocemente, purtroppo il finale risulta prevedibile (vista anche l’esiguità dei personaggi), vedo questa come una carenza trattandosi di una sorta di thriller.
La presenza di scene violente, in molti casi fini a se stesse, potrebbe infastidire il lettore.

Ringrazio l’editore per avermi fornito la copia necessaria per stendere questa recensione.

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* Thumbprint by Joe Hill ★★☆☆☆

*Ho letto questo libro in Inglese