Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

Buddy Nestor, Jana Brike, 2010

(September 30) So, so good. Inhaled this. First book I’ve read in a long time that made me want to call in sick to work in order to stay home and read it.

Very twisty and turny, not unlike Fingersmith -- but here the pleasure was in knowing that a surprise was coming ...or many surprises were coming... or maybe they weren’t! It was that kind of clever book. The hints that cast suspicions are so broad that you know there will be some kind of undercutting of that.... but there could also very well not be!

Psychological thriller, though, rather than just con-man gaming, as with Fingersmith.

Such acute observations of the difficulties that can arise in marriage.

I loved it but then read reviews at the Jezebel book club and had to agree that the last part is not as satisfying as the first... possibly because Flynn could not devote a proportionate amount to time to the denouement as she did to the set-up. Most everyone can come up with an ending clever enough to match the beginning, so Flynn could have, too... but she probably didn’t want to waste two brilliant ideas on only one novel.

But I really loved it and (maybe until I read the negative reviews) I was willing to forgive Flynn for copping out a bit on the ending.

I want to read more Flynn... apparently, there are two others: Sharp Objects and Dark Places.

The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection, Alexander McCall Smith

Chidi Okoye, Images of Face Series 27, 2005

(September 6) I really liked it. Ultimately, McCall Smith doesn’t disappoint, though I have complained about a little grinding in the past. 

A lot more happens in these later books than in the first few -- now people’s lives are really in jeopardy -- there are serious crises to avert. Still, it all remains so cozy and likable. There were several sweet scenes between Phuti and Mma Makutsi, e.g.

It was interesting, or an interesting premise, to have the Clovis Andersen twist... but I don’t think the talking shoes are as funny as McCall Smith thinks they are, and so on.