Helpful Score: 4
This was a very good book...suspenseful and a bit creepy. The end clearly tells who the killer was. I was left feeling saddened at how someone could be so evil and what that did to all the people in that person's life.
Helpful Score: 3
This is the fist Nevada Barr book I've ever read and boy was it good! There are enough twists to keep you interested and guessing (all the way up to the end!) and the characters are well developed. I will be reading more of this author, that's for sure.
Helpful Score: 2
First Line: "By the Month or by the Night" read the sign over the entrance to the trailer park.
In a radical departure from her Anna Pigeon mystery series, Nevada Barr gives us a psychological thriller that begins in the 1970s in a trailer park in Mississippi. It then moves to Minnesota with the murder spree of a child dubbed "Butcher Boy." Finally in post-Katrina New Orleans, the adults from both these broken childhoods collide.
Polly escaped from her abusive "trailer trash" childhood at the age of fifteen, running away to New Orleans. Now she's a respected college professor with good friends, her own home, and two small children she adores.
"Butcher Boy" was released on his seventeenth birthday. His surviving brother has vowed to take care of him, and they both head south to that Mecca for runaways: New Orleans.
When Polly meets and falls in love with Marshall Marchand, a restoration architect who's helping to rebuild the city, their pasts are set on a collision course.
I love Barr's books, and although this book is very good, it didn't quite meet my expectations. It has everything to do with the characters. Perhaps it's because my mind is too devious, but there were few surprises with the Marchand brothers. I knew how that part of the plot was going to work itself out. That was a bit disappointing, but the character of Polly did much in making up for the deficiencies of the Marchands.
Even after the train wreck of her childhood, Polly was such a strong, centered, caring person that I wish the book could have focused even more on her. I wanted more Polly. Perhaps you'll understand after reading these two quotes:
"Two girls-- children in Polly's eyes but of the age she'd been the first time she'd come to Jackson Square-- rose from a table tucked between the benches opposite the cathedral doors. They were tricked out in the unfortunate fashion that decreed female children dress as prostitutes in a world full of predators.
"The dog, his head as high as his mistress's shoulder, walked beside her. The child's face was open and trusting. The dog's was not, and Polly was relieved. Children needed bodyguards."
On the face of it, Polly's just another mother who worries too much and reads too much into innocent scenes. But she's not. She's lived in a world of predators and survived. She knows exactly what's out there that she needs to be prepared for. Her children will not have to face what she did, that is, if Polly has the least say about it.
If you haven't read too many books about the twisted minds of killers (like I have), 13½ should make you jump at each creak of a floorboard or pop of an attic beam. And Polly is one character who should not be missed.
In a radical departure from her Anna Pigeon mystery series, Nevada Barr gives us a psychological thriller that begins in the 1970s in a trailer park in Mississippi. It then moves to Minnesota with the murder spree of a child dubbed "Butcher Boy." Finally in post-Katrina New Orleans, the adults from both these broken childhoods collide.
Polly escaped from her abusive "trailer trash" childhood at the age of fifteen, running away to New Orleans. Now she's a respected college professor with good friends, her own home, and two small children she adores.
"Butcher Boy" was released on his seventeenth birthday. His surviving brother has vowed to take care of him, and they both head south to that Mecca for runaways: New Orleans.
When Polly meets and falls in love with Marshall Marchand, a restoration architect who's helping to rebuild the city, their pasts are set on a collision course.
I love Barr's books, and although this book is very good, it didn't quite meet my expectations. It has everything to do with the characters. Perhaps it's because my mind is too devious, but there were few surprises with the Marchand brothers. I knew how that part of the plot was going to work itself out. That was a bit disappointing, but the character of Polly did much in making up for the deficiencies of the Marchands.
Even after the train wreck of her childhood, Polly was such a strong, centered, caring person that I wish the book could have focused even more on her. I wanted more Polly. Perhaps you'll understand after reading these two quotes:
"Two girls-- children in Polly's eyes but of the age she'd been the first time she'd come to Jackson Square-- rose from a table tucked between the benches opposite the cathedral doors. They were tricked out in the unfortunate fashion that decreed female children dress as prostitutes in a world full of predators.
"The dog, his head as high as his mistress's shoulder, walked beside her. The child's face was open and trusting. The dog's was not, and Polly was relieved. Children needed bodyguards."
On the face of it, Polly's just another mother who worries too much and reads too much into innocent scenes. But she's not. She's lived in a world of predators and survived. She knows exactly what's out there that she needs to be prepared for. Her children will not have to face what she did, that is, if Polly has the least say about it.
If you haven't read too many books about the twisted minds of killers (like I have), 13½ should make you jump at each creak of a floorboard or pop of an attic beam. And Polly is one character who should not be missed.
Helpful Score: 2
Nevada Barr has written a winning psychological thriller in 13 1/2. The switching from the past to the present between two main character families is a little hard to follow, but you can still see the big picture and understand what is going on. Even up to the last page, I was left with a question of who really had "done it." If you are not a fan of Barr's Anna Pigeon series, don't hold this book against her. It is a break from her other writing and she has done a great job. Worth reading!
Helpful Score: 1
Although I thought it was a bit predictable, I really enjoyed it! It had me reading all day...
Helpful Score: 1
I thought this book was great. It was a great stand alone book for Nevada Barr to write. It will keep you guessing up until the end and then leave you wondering how could someone be so cruel and evil. I would definitely recommend this book to others to read, even those who couldn't get into Anna Pigeon.
Helpful Score: 1
Very different tone than the Anna Pigeon series. Some pretty graphic violence, but a good - if at times confusing - story. I am glad I stuck with it, as it all came together in the end.
Good book. Different from her other books.
If it was not from the library I would throw it in the goats pen and let them go to town. I'm sad to see trees were destroyed to publish this garbage. Although murder mystery/psychological thrillers are not my usual forte, I do from time to time get a hankering to read one. There are so many out there that trying to find something that has not "been there and done that before" is quite difficult. I chose this because the first 10-15 pages I read sounded really good. Around page 75 it started to go downhill. By 125 I was wondering what I was doing still reading this. I hoped it would get better, but by 150 I was cursing myself, but decided to try and give the rest of it a chance hoping a suprise would come out of left field and knock me for a loop.
Not only has this book "been there and done that" it was done in a way where it was horribly written. Beyond boring is what I would classify this as. The plot was incredibly predictable even though it seemed to be missing huge chunks of information to the story. The end seemed to be written hastily as if the author was bored to tears herself and decided to go ahead and hurry things up. Such a dissapointment, I'm not sure I will try this author again.
Not only has this book "been there and done that" it was done in a way where it was horribly written. Beyond boring is what I would classify this as. The plot was incredibly predictable even though it seemed to be missing huge chunks of information to the story. The end seemed to be written hastily as if the author was bored to tears herself and decided to go ahead and hurry things up. Such a dissapointment, I'm not sure I will try this author again.
This book was not part of the Anna Pigeon series, and was quite dark. I found it disturbing and didn't finish it.
Very good read.
I have been a big fan of the author for years and found this book to be so different yet a fascinating read. I couldn't put it down.
Any book that Nevada Barr writes rates a minimum 4 stars. This book was no exception.
