Romantic Suspense – Chill Factor

“Creepy.” That is how I would describe Sandra Brown’s romantic suspense novel, Chill Factor. Creepy characters, creepy situations, creepy morals, creepy tone… just creepy.

The novel opens with character Ben Tierney, a ruggedly handsome writer of articles for outdoor adventure magazines, standing beside a freshly dug, shallow grave and picking up a shovel to carry to his car. He muses on the disappearance of five women in the small community of Cleary, NC, on his way to the car. Tierney notes that with weathermen predicting the worst winter storm in recent memory only a fool, or someone with pressing business to take care of like him, would have ventured onto the mountain that day. Ice is beginning to coat the trees and his windshield when Tierney discovers his car won’t start.

Meanwhile, heroine Lilly Martin is also on the mountain, clearing out her recently sold vacation home with her ex-husband, Cleary police chief, Dutch Burton. Lilly, anxious to return to her job as a magazine editor in Atlanta and be rid of her former life, rebuffs Dutch’s attempts to reconcile and picks a fight to get him to leave the cabin. Exhausted by the exchange she lies down and falls asleep. When she awakens the storm outside is raging. She hurriedly leaves and with almost zero visibility begins her harrowing drive down the mountain. Suddenly a figure jumps into the roadway and Lilly skids into him, off the road and into a tree.

Of course the figure is Tierney. The car is too damaged to drive. There is no cell phone service. Lilly has no choice. If they are to survive, they must return to the cabin. Tierney has a head and possible internal injuries. Lilly is suspicious. Why is he on the mountain in such bad weather and why did he jump in front of her vehicle? Trapped in the cabin with no hope of escape or possible rescue due to the storm, Lilly wonders if Tierney is the serial killer.

Brown kept me guessing. The suspense kept me reading quickly. The first chapter focuses on Tierney. The next one focuses on Lilly. Then there is a switch in the action to the side characters Brown introduces such as Dutch’s best friend Wes Hamner, the school football coach and Mr. City Council who, with the help of the local druggist, William Ritt, is forcing Wes’s son, Scott a promising football star, to take steroids. Then the story is back to the couple trapped in the cabin. There are a few flashbacks but most of the story is told as it happens. The weather worsens. The tension builds. Dutch fears for his ex-wife’s life. He pushes himself and others to reach her. And there is sex, explicit sex, between main characters and side characters. The sex made me feel uncomfortable. I would look around with my heart pounding to see if anyone else in the room noticed what I was reading.

But Brown knows her business. She has written 58 New York Times Bestsellers. She started with romances and still includes the romantic elements in her romantic suspense novels. Sex, romance and suspense sell. Readers who like fast paced suspense with plot twists and aren’t embarrassed by explicit sex will enjoy Chill Factor and Brown’s 24 other romantic suspense novels.

Chill Factor by Sandra Brown

Published in 2005 by Simon Shuster, New York

389 pages

Set in the mountains of Cleary, North Carolina during a winter ice storm/blizzard. Storms -- fiction, Mountain life -- fiction, serial murders – fiction, Vacation homes – fiction, North Carolina – fiction, Romantic Suspense novels

The Help

Stockett, Kathyrn
THE HELP
Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
(464 pp.)
$24.95
Feb. 10, 2009
ISBN: 978-0399155345
Penguin Audio
$39.95
Feb. 10, 2009
ISBN: 978-0143144182

Stockett draws on her personal experiences as a writer and a southerner in her first novel, a work of historical fiction set in her hometown, Jackson, Mississippi, during the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement.

It’s 1962 and, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, returns to Jackson after graduating from Ole Miss with an English degree, not the “Mrs.” degree her mother would have preferred. No longer content with just playing bridge with her married high school friends, editing the league newsletter and obeying her mamma’s wishes, Skeeter decides to follow the career advice of a New York editor and lands the only open job at the local paper, dispensing household advice. Since Skeeter, like all white women in Jackson, has no experience doing housework she seeks the answers for the “Miss Myrna” column from her friend’s “colored” maid Aibileen, who has raised 17 white children. Aibileen reveals to Skeeter that her son, an aspiring writer who was killed in a work accident, wanted to write about his experiences working for whites. Skeeter, missing her own black maid and ashamed of her friends’ attitudes toward their “negra” help, decides to write such a book offering an inside look at the relationship between the black maids and white women for whom they work. Reluctantly Aibileen agrees to share her story. She gets her friend Minny, a maid whose sass makes it hard for her to keep a job, to help. The Help, told in the three women’s voices, is a page turner. Readers will care about each of the women and the risks they are taking to share their stories. Stockett writes with an authentic feel that made this white reader feel guilty about the rampant racism exhibited by the white, middle class and the Jim Crow Laws of Mississippi. Though Aibileen is not allowed to use the household toilet she is trusted to care and nurture the children. Stockett has crafted a wonderful first novel that will make readers at times laugh, cry and hope for more. Recommended.

Suspense Novel – Tell No One

Mystery writer, Harlan Coben’s first suspense novel, Tell No One, failed to sweep me into the action initially. While reading the prologue that details Dr. David Beck’s wife’s disappearance on Lake Charmaine, New Jersey, I felt no connection to Beck and was not engaged in the story. In fact I was literally falling asleep. But several chapters in, after two characters are tortured and murdered and Beck begins to question whether his wife (Elizabeth) who disappeared eight years ago is really dead, I began to become involved. By the time Beck is eluding police, assaulting an officer and fleeing for his life I was fully engaged. Coben had me flipping pages, reading as quickly as possible to discover what would happen to this likable pediatrician who police suspect may have killed his wife and villains plan to torture and kill to discover where his wife really is. I was reading so fast that the plot twists and turns would throw me and I would have to back up to make sure I knew what was really going on. I began to suspect that Elizabeth’s death was a plan that she and her father, a police officer, had concocted to protect her from something but I wasn’t sure what or why. Was she in a witness protection program? I guessed right on some things and was way off on others.

Although Coben lets the reader in on what the villains are up to -- some chapters focus on the bad guys and others focus on Beck and his efforts to discover the truth -- he keeps things shifting so that the reader is still learning the truth in the final chapter.

Tell No One seems to be a classic example of suspense with short chapters, fast pacing, menacing mood and a protagonist that elicits readers’ empathy. In short with so much effort spent on pacing and action there is little time for character development or for a reader to wonder if the action is plausible. Coben adds some interesting characters -- Beck’s former college roommate, Shauna, who happens to be his sister’s lesbian lover and partner, and a patient’s father, a drug dealer who wants nothing more than to build a better life for his blind son -- which the reader may like to learn more about. But Coben states in the last chapter that he “can’t tell any of that because I don’t know.”  Maybe he revisits these characters in his numerous subsequent suspense novels?

Tell No One will satisfy readers looking for a suspenseful read with plot twists.

 

Tell No One by Harlan Coben

Published in 2001 by Delacorte Press, New York

339 pages

Set in New York City, NY,  Green River, NJ,  and Lake  Charmaine

Physicians – Fiction, Suspense – Fiction, Detective and Mystery stories, Mystery – Fiction, Murder – Fiction,  Secrecy – Fiction,  Murder victim’s families – Fiction

Goodreads

my read shelf:

Introductions...

"Hello, my name is ... (does that remind you of a line from the Princess Bride?).

Anyway, my name is Alisa Burch, not Inigo Montoya, and this is my last class! My adviser suggested I take either another technology class or adult readers' advisory. And so was there ever really a choice?

When I am not doing homework, I am the Youth Services Manager for the Harrison County Public Library in Corydon, IN. I get to plan, schedule and do programming for a preschoolers through teens. I also get to select the materials for the juvenile and young adult sections. I love my job. Books, crafts, young people... what's not to love?

I have just taken one class each semester. With a full time job, three children and community obligations that has been enough. I find myself doing homework in all my free time. That has really limited my pleasure reading. I am so looking forward to no homework...

During the three years I have been taking SLIS classes, I have become an audio book addict. I listen in the car, when I clean house (very infrequently), and when I work out at the Y. So most of the books I have "read" recently have been in the audio format. I am a member of a monthly book club that meets at the library. We take turns selecting books and meet to discuss, eat and drink. And once again, most of my most recent reads have been audio books. I just found the SLIS Young Adult book club on GoodReads and have read two of their titles during the semester break.

I have always loved to escape in a book. My first memories of reading are of my mother reading to my brother, sister and me. And then later our trips to the local library for reading materials. I loved reading almost anything I could get my hands on. (except textbooks) When I was growing up our library was small and I had to read everything - from sports fiction to biographies. And I still feel that way today. If I can suspend my disbelief and live the book I am happy.

My favorite genres have been sci-fi, fantasy, mysteries and historical fiction. I now find myself thoroughly enjoying chick lit, young adult titles, christian fiction, humor, romance... The one category I am not really crazy about is true accounts of murder or titles that make me feel sick like A Child Called "It". But I recently listened to The Lovely Bones and thought it was a good read.

I am very excited about taking this class and being able to read some good fiction books as part of my homework. Though I am not too thrilled with blogging. Happy reading.