Nothing is What it Seems in this Dynamite Thriller
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The book opens with True crime writing attorney Miles Van Meter on a book tour. We see him as he slogs from town to town, promoting his book "Sleeping Beauty" which it the story of how serial killer Joshua Maxfield murdered Ashley Spencer's best friend and her parents, tried to kill his sister, leaving her in a coma and how he stalked Ashley, eventually getting caught as he tried to kill her.
Then we flash back to the crime as Miles reads from his book to a crowd in a bookstore. We see Ashley in bed as the killer breaks in, overpowers and binds her, then kills her friend who was sleeping over and her father. Fortunately he takes a break for a late night snack and Ashley's dad wasn't quite dead. He crawls into her room, frees her and she gets outta there. Also fortunately for Ashley's mother, she was away.
Ashley cannot go back to school, she is traumatized, but she is accepted into a private academy. Tess, Ashley's reporter mother is flattered when famous novelist, Joshua Maxfield, who is one of the teachers at the academy, asks her to join his writers group. At the first meeting of the group, Maxfield reads from a work in progress. It's a story about a serial killer who in the middle of his kills, takes a break for a snack. This is uncanningly like what happened when her husband had been killed and it is something only the police know. Tess investigates like the good reporter she is and she is killed.
The cops put extra protection on Ashley and they are killed and again she barely gets away with her life. She can't take it anymore and flees to Europe where she goes into hiding.
However, she comes back at the request of her attorney, who tells her that she'd been adopted and that she's an heiress, soon to be worth millions if that woman in a coma dies, because she's her biological mother. Ashley, it turns out, has been adopted.
And I'll leave it here, however I'd be remiss if I were to let you think that Ashley's troubles are over, they're just beginning in this book that has more twists and turns than there are stars in the sky. Well, not that many twists, but a lot, I was fooled, then fooled again. The red herrings were perfect, the characters believable and Mr. Margolin, as usual, has written just an outstanding mystery/thriller. I just loved it.
Review Submitted by Captain Katie Osborne
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Excellent
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This is only the third novel I've read by Phillip Margolin, and with each one I read his novels keep on getting even better. :-)
Phillip Margolin is a retired lawyer and he's been a full time writer since 1996.
From page one the author throws you into a fast moving story about Ashley Spencer, a seventeen year old who is a great football player. Ashley's best friend Tanya was staying over for the night. Whilst Ashley was sleeping she was woke by hear an odd noise and seeing movement in the bedroom they were both in. What comes next is horrific and poor Tanya's life becomes a living nightmare, she has to fit to stay to bring the person to justice for what they did to the people she loved and cared about.
I really don't want to say anything else about the story as it would spoil it for you.
Phillip Margolin definitely knows how to keep his readers glued to a book, I couldn't put this novel down, it's a fast moving and compulsive read, and with ever page you turn you yourself get that engaged in what's going on that you just don't want to stop reading.
The novel is well worth the money, if you like murder mysteries and thrillers then this book for you. I know you won't be disappointed with this novel; it's a book I'd enjoy reading again. :-)
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Why bother?
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I read a lot and was just checking up on books to read for the spring/summer when I happened to see this bad customer review, one star(!), and a reader who seemed so bored, irritated and almost upset by the whole thing that I wondered why she gave it any stars at all.
Of course, we all have different tastes and a right to different opinions. But I cannot help wondering why this reader managed to finish the book at all. I mean, half way through should have been more than enough. When it so happens that I do not enjoy a book, I just put it away, finito, and that's it.
Phillip Margolin is one of my favourite writers and I read "Sleeping Beauty" the year it was published. Since it is a while ago, I do not recall every detail, but I remember reading it on holiday in Greece, and that I enjoyed it very much. I found it both well written and entertaining. Maybe I am not the most super intellectual reader (Kafka and such!!) -I like to enjoy the books I read, to be entertained. Not exactly fairytales, but stories for grown ups, if I may put it that way.
Some favourite authors are P.D. James, Anita Burgh, John Lescroart, Maeve Binchy, Rosamunde Pilcher, Robin Pilcher, Nicola Thorne, Margareth Yorke, Cathy Kelly, Ruth Rendell.
Fortunately, most books I buy I enjoy. But when a book fails to catch my attention, I give it to the local library in our small town.
I want to have a good time reading. If not, why bother?
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Where do I start?
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A few years ago I read `Gone, But Not Forgotten' and enjoyed it, so I expected pretty much the same thing from Sleeping Beauty. My paperback copy of Sleeping Beauty has four pages of quotes from reviews of the book at the front and they all gush about how amazing it is (`startling' says Tess Gerritsen, `another sure winner' says the Library Journal, and so on). I couldn't disagree more. Sleeping Beauty is an awful novel, packed with contrived situations, stereotypical characters with absolutely no heart or common sense, and ridiculous plot twists that leave you yawning. Ashley Spencer is a seventeen-year-old athletic, blue-eyed blond whose dad and best friend are murdered while she is tied up. Instead of reacting like a normal mother and talking to her daughter, Terri Spencer suggests that Ashley go and live at a prestigious academy where all the kids look `happy and engaged'. Ashley goes there, where helping out younger kids brings her out of herself and she is as happy as can be expected. But wait - just when you thought it couldn't get anymore `apple pie and milk' perfect, Ashley's mum becomes suspicious of a teacher at the Academy when he reads out an almost perfect version of the murders in the Spencer house under the guise of it being `creative writing'. Instead of taking it to the police, Terri Spencer decides to do her own investigating...The result? More murders, more ridiculous dialogue, more of the most tedious description I have ever read. As the book progresses there are more and more bizarre `twists'. I simply cannot explain to you how bad this novel becomes as it draws to its conclusion. My favourite types of crime novels or thrillers are psychological, with deep characters and sinister undertones. I don't think that there was a single `undertone' in the whole of this book. Everything was spelled out in simple sentences and nothing was left to the imagination. The book was written in the style of a sensationalist magazine / newspaper, where every woman is described as an `athletic blond' or a `cute brunette' rather than with any real description that gets past their physical appearance and to the personality underneath. For example, here are a few quotes from the book that show the style of writing: `Ashley's mother was five-foot-three, with large brown eyes, a dark complexion, and straight black hair she wore in a short, practical cut. She had competed in cross-country in college and still had the slender, wiry build of a long-distance runner.' (This is our first introduction to Terri Spencer and her husband has just been murdered. But who cares about what she's thinking and feeling? Just so long as we know she's thin and pretty we can carry on reading quite happily.) `Ashley saw very little of the change of seasons. She had loved her father, and the fact that he had died to save her was devastating. The horrible way that Tanya Jones had died compounded Ashley's grief'. (And that's Ashley's grief nicely out of the way in a couple of sentences) `Maxfield was dressed in jeans, running shoes, and a tight black T-shirt that stretched across his chest and showed off his well-defined biceps. He looked amused.' (That's good to know). `Terri was shown into Casey Van Meter's office a little after four. The dean was wearing an elegantly tailored black silk suit, and her hair and makeup were perfect.' 'Sally was a stocky brunette who was always happy.' 'Ashley flushed and looked down, embarrassed. Casey laughed. "And modest, too. That's a trait I admire. We don't encourage prima donnas at the Academy"' `Ashley knocked on the kitchen door, and a woman dressed in a short-sleeved check shirt, khaki slacks, and an apron let her in. The woman was in her forties and her brown hair was starting to streak with gray.
"I'm Mandy O'Connor. I cook for Mr. Van Meter. You must be Ashley. Come in."' (The last two quotes are just to show that most of the dialogue sucks too) Overall the book lacks heart and originality. The characters are defined by their physical appearances and lack any personality or genuine feelings. I agree with the other reviewers who have called the book `superficial' and a `test of endurance' to read. Even Ashley's grief is handled in a cold and mechanical kind of way (the athletic blue-eyed blond doesn't brush her hair for a while) and so it makes it impossible to actually believe in any of it. I'd say that this book is an example of the worst kind of American crime novel - too caught up in appearances and sensationalism. There are some fantastic American crime writers out there, even ones writing about serial killers, but they all flesh their characters out with feelings and emotions (imagine that!) and their writing is creepy and scary without sounding like a tabloid journalist. The ending to Sleeping Beauty didn't come as a shock, but it was a blessed relief to turn the last page. JoAnne
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