Helpful Score: 5
This is a compelling page turner, literary fiction at its best. I was hesitant to read this book since I could not get into her earlier work, "The Year of Fog", but I'm glad I did. It's a story about a crime but also a story about family, love and loss, betrayal, grief and finally, redemption. Incredibly moving, I read this book in one night. I plan to read the author's other books and give "The Year of Fog" another chance. Ms. Redmond is a very talented writer and storyteller.
Helpful Score: 2
From the author of "The Year of Fog" comes this intensely emotional and startlingly provocative family drama, in which a woman's search for her sister's killer spirals into a journey of secrets, revelations, and damaged lives.
Helpful Score: 2
Poignant and haunting..., February 19, 2010
A sister's quest to find out the truth behind the murder of her sister ends with self discovery and revelations about the nature of relationships between loved ones. How well do you really know your family? Are they keeping secrets from you? What truths are revealed simply by living together and being related?
Twenty years after the fact, Ellie Enderlin is haunted by the death of her reticent and secretive older sister, mathematical genius and Stanford prodigy, Lila. In the aftermath of the shocking murder, Ellie turns to a former English professor who fashions her memories and pain into a bestselling true crime novel -- and exposes Lila's married lover and colleague, Peter, as the suspected killer. Ellie is embarrassed and upset by the book and not satisfied with the fact that justice has not been served and Peter never convicted.
Ellie, unable to settle down, travels the world as a coffee buyer when she runs into Peter in a coffee shop where he gives her Lila's notebook. As she reads the notes, she starts to investigate her sister's past life to try to find out the truth about her sister's death. Who murdered Lila, and why? She follows a very thin line of clues, each interview leading her closer to the truth that has eluded her. The answer surprises Ellie and brings about a certain kind of closure.
Full of math terms, equations, proofs, and tidbits, the book sometimes reads like a text but there is a certain type of poetic beauty in the narrative even with all the scientific prose. The story is both a mystery and a literary work that will keep the reader turning the pages until the satisfying conclusion.
Recommend.
A sister's quest to find out the truth behind the murder of her sister ends with self discovery and revelations about the nature of relationships between loved ones. How well do you really know your family? Are they keeping secrets from you? What truths are revealed simply by living together and being related?
Twenty years after the fact, Ellie Enderlin is haunted by the death of her reticent and secretive older sister, mathematical genius and Stanford prodigy, Lila. In the aftermath of the shocking murder, Ellie turns to a former English professor who fashions her memories and pain into a bestselling true crime novel -- and exposes Lila's married lover and colleague, Peter, as the suspected killer. Ellie is embarrassed and upset by the book and not satisfied with the fact that justice has not been served and Peter never convicted.
Ellie, unable to settle down, travels the world as a coffee buyer when she runs into Peter in a coffee shop where he gives her Lila's notebook. As she reads the notes, she starts to investigate her sister's past life to try to find out the truth about her sister's death. Who murdered Lila, and why? She follows a very thin line of clues, each interview leading her closer to the truth that has eluded her. The answer surprises Ellie and brings about a certain kind of closure.
Full of math terms, equations, proofs, and tidbits, the book sometimes reads like a text but there is a certain type of poetic beauty in the narrative even with all the scientific prose. The story is both a mystery and a literary work that will keep the reader turning the pages until the satisfying conclusion.
Recommend.
Helpful Score: 2
I picked up this book because of the math content but don't let that discourage you from reading this wonderful book. I couldn't put it down! It was well written and the characters had depth. Enjoyed it very much.
Helpful Score: 1
What a great read! In recent years I've lost both of my sisters. In reading this book it brought back so much I wish I'd known about each of them and since their passing and having heard stories from their friends gave me insight to a side of them that I made me think of them both in a new light. Just good reading about two sisters, so very different, but so loved.
