A Book And A Festival

Summer has been going steadily. Work is boring at times, because I both don't have enough to do and am trying to communicate with a large company. That never goes quickly, and I end up frequently just waiting for their responses.

My internship is up in two weeks, and I hope to edit my novel after that, before the term starts. I've also been playing Oblivion, a PC RPG game that was made a few years ago. I've found it very immersive and the world to explore is huge. Next week I'm going to the Edinburgh Book Festival to see none other than Neil Gaiman! I hope to get my battered and torn copy of American Gods signed. And not to babble when I meet him.

~

Book 8: The End of the Pier, by Martha Grimes

I've written about Martha Grimes' murder mysteries before, in this post more than a year ago now. I'm reading all of her books in order, and enjoying them.

This one's a bit different from her previous books. There's no Detective Richard Jury, and the story is set in America rather than England. Most of her books also start with a murder scene, but this one slowly builds to it, as we learn that there were previous murders. Sam, the sherrif of the small town, believes they've had the wrong man in jail for years now. His boss doesn't want to believe it, and Sam seems to be the only one trying to figure out what really happened.

The characterization is very well done. She has a clear view of what each person is like, and describes them well. A lot of time is spent in Maud's head, and it's not clear why until the end. She's a slightly depressed, slightly loopy single mother dealing with a kind of empty nest syndrome. She likes sitting on the end of the pier (hence the book's name), watching the party across the lake that seems to always be happening. Sam likes her company, so he joins her occasionally for a drink there. We also spend time in the killer's head, which is also well done. Nothing about him in these snippets reveal who he is until later in the book, and they're terribly creepy.

At times this book seemed all over the place and it was hard to tell what was going on and how everything was connected, but I think that was part of the enjoyment for me. It certainly kept me reading.