Scribblings

Two Mystery Thrillers

I've decided to give mystery thrillers a try this summer although I'm not usually a fan of the genre. I finished two recently and really enjoyed one but not the other.

The one I didn't enjoy much is called White Male Infant by Barbara D'Amato. Truthfully, I thought the premise was an interesting one: the father of an adopted child (supposedly from Russia) learns that his baby could not have been born there--and so who is his son in actuality? It turns out the father is a pathologist and happened to get a sample of his son's bone marrow or spinal fragments from a test for leukemia. The doctor noticed the sample was fluorescent and began to wonder why. It turns out that only a specific antibiotic could cause such a thing to happen--an antibiotic not available in Russia. Meanwhile, it turns out the little boy did not have leukemia.

This dad kept wondering and worrying about that sample. I wondered if I would go to the lengths this doctor did--it almost seemed to me like maybe he really didn't want the child after all because after his first attempts to research the child's background instead of giving up and feeling relieved he had a healthy son, he kept going. He began looking for missing children reports and trying to match the boy's physical characteristics with parents who'd had their babies stolen--very noble, don't get me wrong. But believeable? Eh.

If the author stuck with this character, I think I would have enjoyed it more. Instead, she introduces a whole bunch of "cardboard" characters with little or no substance to them. The worst of these stereotypes was the doctor's father-in-law. There was little to no imagination in them and that's too bad.

I'd give the book a 5 out of 10. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as a great read.

On the other hand, I enjoyed Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child very much! I'd read one of their books last year, Still Life With Crows and while I enjoyed the FBI character very much--Agent Pendergast--I didn't care for the story. Later, I read some reviews about a series of books about this agent character and his evil brother. I have to say I was intrigued and interested in giving them a try. I knew there was a trilogy but wasn't sure which were the first two. Anyway, I went onto Book Swap and requested several books by the authors. This book was one of 3 I requested and received.

What a thrilling story! I couldn't put it down towards the end. The remains of 36 people murdered by a serial killer in 1880s New York were unearthed by a company about to put up a new building. Agent Pendergast took an early interest in the case, enlisting the help of a museum archealogist to help him identify the victims and to find out what had happened to them. As they began to unravel the case, a copycat killer turned up and suddenly Pendergast's life was in danger as well as anyone who helped him. But why?

I learned quite a bit about Agent Pendergast and why he was so interested in such an old case. I'm looking forward to reading the other books now. I would give this book an 8 of 10 and definitely would recommend it to others!