August 2010

OK. Just plain awesome.  I took this book home for one of my "Weekend Tastings", as I call them....that's where I take home about 8 or 10 books from the stacks of samples we get and read a bit of each, just to get an idea of what they're about, writing style, etc. From the cover and title, I expected a garden variety medical thriller, possibly murder mystery, blah-de-blah. Nothing wrong with that...it was precisely what I was in the mood for...nothing too taxing.

Well, this is as good as any suspense novel I've read in a very, very long time. The main character is a Dr. McDreamy-type surgeon/playboy. As the book opens, we find him saving the life of a 16-year-old girl on the sugical table. Two months later, she commits suicide and leaves behind a journal that says his rejection of her after they had consensual sex was what made her do it. The investigation into the girl's death is led by a detective who was sexually assaulted by a doctor when he was a child who is determined to see the doctor brought to justice for the statutory rape and the resulting suicide. Had me right up to the last two pages and then knocked me flat.  Fantastic.

From Wikipedia - A tinker was originally an itinerant tinsmith, who mended household utensils. The term "tinker" was also used in British society to refer to marginalized persons. In this sense, "tinker" may mean: Irish Traveller, a nomadic or itinerant people of Irish origin.

When plastic buckets came along in the 50s, this culture was shortly decimated and very few of them remain living the nomadic lifestyles they once did. This novel follows characters at the tail end of this way of life as things just begin to change. The author's intent was to show them as the people they are, not romanticized or as violent thieves. I think she has been largely successful here. This would make a good choice for book clubs with an interest in Irish history and culture. Quick read.

Audio Review...

Just so you know, if we don't have your audio in stock, we can order them.  Lately we've been carrying some bargain-price audio like this one.

Question for you: Would you like Fountain to do audio rental? Just reply to the newsletter and I'll look into it.  

I'm not quite done listening to Ron Perlman (star of Hellboy) read The Strain to me...but I'm growing a phobia of my car because the book is so scary and he reads it so well.  Definitely waiting to be a kick butt vampire movie, this Del Toro/Hogan collaboration was read by Heather, Steve and Doc with mixed reviews here at Fountain. Audio is definitely the format of choice for this book, at least until we see the movie...