The Mystery Starts Here

When I saw a new book by Joy Fielding on the shelf at the library, I didn’t even read the blurb. I snatched it fast before anyone else could get her grubby fingers on it. Joy Fielding has been for years one of my favorite writers! Granted, the last few books have been, disappointing, not good and down right God-awful, but I figured she HAD to come back a write a good book and maybe, just maybe this was it!

Nope. I read the first two chapters of “Still Life” and knew what the rest of the book would be like, and who the bad guy was. Sigh. I went to the last few pages, read them and almost wept – I was right! This book was so slow, boring and predictable, I really have to wonder if the editors at Atria Books even read it or just printed the damn thing because Fielding has such a huge following? Well, I’m afraid that’s changing – fast. If you don’t believe me, read some of the reviews on amazon.com

The main idea of the book is that Casey Marshall, the protagonist, is hit by a car, has every bone in her body broken, has a concussion and lapses into a coma. The ENTIRE book is told from Casey’s POV in the coma! She can hear everyone around her but of course they don’t know that. So basically Casey is TELLING us the story! What’s the first thing you learn in Writing 101? SHOW don’t TELL.

To begin with, Casey is not believable. She beautiful, talented, a great athlete, runs a successful business, is married to a hunky successful lawyer and … she has oodles of money! I’m sure she never sported a pimple or had gas. How boring is that – and how totally unbelievable and cardboard. The other characters that I read were almost as bad. As I said, I only read two chapters but I had to stop! Casey is in her coma and hears two doctors talking. One tells the other one that they will have to perform a tracheostomy to help her breathe. Then the other DOCTOR asks…”And what exactly is involved in this procedure, Dr. Zarb?”

AAAKKKKK – I screamed - AUTHOR INTRUSITON! I mean, if the doctors were that damn dumb, I wouldn’t want them near me. Fielding acknowledged a couple of doctors and thanked them for their incite and stated that she took lots of notes. Great, fine – but you didn’t have to put all if it in the book. Well, as I said, I couldn’t go on.

I have to wonder what happened to Joy Fielding? She used to be such a great storyteller but he last about four books have been….well, crap. Sorry, but it’s true and I’m not the only one who thinks that. If you want to read a good book by Fielding get, “See Jane Run,” “Grand Avenue,” “Whispers & Lies” or almost any of her early books.

Sad to say, next time I see a new Joy Fielding book on the shelf – it will stay there.

Okay, it’s the end of July, it’s hot and it’s muggy in Southern California, there’s nothing on television so….we bopped to the local video store and rented a few films we missed while they were in the theater. One I had especially wanted to see was, “Taken.”

The basic premise of the story is that Bryan Mills (Neeson) retired from being a CIA spook to get closer to his daughter, 17-year-old Kim. He’s having a hard time with it and is NOT please with Kim wants to go to Paris with a friend, ostensibly to museum hop but in reality they want to follow U-2 concerts around Europe. Bryan tells his daughter that Paris can be a scary place but can’t say no and decides to let her go and gives her an international cell phone with strict instructions to call him every night before she goes to bed.

Well, of course the two young ladies are barely off the plane when a gang of Yugoslavian white-slavers capture them. Kim has been talking to her dad on the cell phone and tries to give him info as they’re dragging her out the door. Bryan hops the first plane to Paris and proceeds to hunt down, beat the snot out of and kill a LOT of bad guys!

“Taken” is an action-packed thriller that will literally keep you on the edge of our seat. You don’t want to look at the plot TOO closely as I don’t think it would be plausable but, hey, it’s a movie, it’s make-believe and it’s great fun!

So if you’re looking for a great action film to while a way a couple of hours, I recommend you rent “Taken.” I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Watch for my next novel coming out 8/1/09. It DOES have a plot, it IS plausible and it’s great fun! “Call Sign: Love” available at www.writewordsinc.com