The Bookworm Project

We don't judge the book by its cover but a cover gives impression and at least a bit of idea what the story is about. So when I saw this book on a shelf of a thrifty bookshop I had second thought about buying it although it cost only ten pesos.

Ten pesos. As if I was about to purchase a candy or a lollipop in a tiny candy store so I gave it a try but I couldn't expect a lot for a book that cost only ten coins plus its gloomy, ghastly, horrible photo in the cover added ugly notion towards the book.

But wait until you have read the few chapters. This was my first attempt to read Peter Robinson's writings and he didn't disconcert me, though I still relish to suggest a better cover.

Every chapter is narrated by one of a pair of characters. A young university student, Kirsten, who is attacked by unknown killer but when she wakes up in the hospital she has no recollection about everything happened to her during the attack; and a beautiful lady Martha Browne who poses as an author doing research for a book but is hunting a certain quarry. Kirsten and Martha Browne's cryptic connection is something you can look forward to. Thumbs up for the narration and well structured story line. The characters are well-established and compelling. But for me, there is still a bit lacking on the plot, especially in the end part. The murderer should have done something more than just relinquished himself to death without even uttering more sensible words to defend his lunatic self. Well yeah, the author didn't give him a chance since the protagonist has already deciphered everything about the culprit herself. She, the protagonist, is impressively smart, capable of figuring out a person's locality by listening to his accent. You should read the book to understand what I'm blatting.

The novel is not that horrid but the mystery is enough to urge you to read it until the last page, which is the most important.

At Booksale Metrotown Mall Tarlac, I bought the book for thirty pesos. I've read somewhere I couldn't remember where that Puppet is the very first novel written by Joy Fielding (if they aren't mistaken). Anyhow, I didn't do any research about the aforementioned author since she doesn't defeat my favorite Sidney Sheldon in terms of writing mystery or suspense thriller. What I happened to like about her is her style of writing, which for me, isn't sufficient to consider her fiction a masterpiece. Well, you can savor her book yourself.

The main protagonist is Amanda Travis, 28 years of age and a criminal lawyer. The story begins when her ex-husband Ben Myers (who represents her mother as her attorney) phoned her after eight years of no communication, only to ask her to come home for her mother, Gwen Price has shot and killed a total stranger in the lobby of a hotel. She's forced to return home in her hometown of Toronto although very much reluctant for some reasons: she hates memories of her past. She hates her mother who was very cruel and uncaring to her as a child and her father whom she was always craving attention from him but has died abruptly. The first few chapters are intriguing and would make you want to pursue it until you figure out what's going on, but it's just frustrating when I was almost more than half of it but couldn't really shed some light on what's really happening.

Amanda Travis isn't a likable character because at her certain age of 28 she somehow stuck in her rebellious teenage past. Understandable for teenagers that might act preposterous, angsty and undergo rebellious tendencies but in her case, all I really wanted to tell her is 'Please grow up!' Aside from she likes having mindless sex with total strangers she has shut her door on her two former husbands, first, Ben Myers whom she married at the age of eighteen, and second, Sean Travis who is almost as old as her father. She's suffering from some kind of behavioral disorder in my very opinion because no emotionally stable person would just sleep with unknown people especially married men.

I would not want to add any spoiler so I'd just recommend the book for those who are into hard-to-figure-out novels. Perhaps I should have read Lost, another Joy Fielding's which I heard is better and a page-turner one.