The Trial of Patty Hearst dramatized by Céline Fitzmaurice

I am a big fan of true crime stories, but a dramatized true crime account is nothing to compete with. Listening for 90-minute The Captive Mind - The Trial of Patty Hearst, dramatized by Céline Fitzmaurice and narrated by Sandra Parsons took my back to my time as a child while listening on repeat to various classical stories on vinyl. It was a very energizing experience although the type of story was dramatically different.

Based on archival records, the account is covering the case of the trial of the granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, Patricia Campbell Hearst, accused of armed robbery fifty years ago. Kidnapped by Symbionese Liberation Army, a far-left militant group in San Francisco, with a life span of two years between 1975 and 1977, she defended herself as acting under duress. 

However, the court proceedings found her guilty, as the ways in which she reacted showed more than a behavior of a ´captive mind´. Was it rebellion against her background? Was it just a weak episode during times of high political and social turmoil in the US and the whole world? It is hard to say and deciphering the mystery of Patty Hearst mind may help understanding similar patterns of behavior of middle and upper class young men and women attracted blindly by ´revolutionary´/anti-social causes.

The Captive Mind is the third installment in the series of Trials of the Century Audiobooks, full-cast audio courtroom dramas from Classic Crime. Count on me for even more such stories, as I love both the format and the topics. 

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Audiobook offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Orenda Books Book Tour: The Last Tenant by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir translated by Victoria Cribb Elma, Sævar

With the autumn insidiously taking over the city, I am glad for being able to spend more time indoors in the company of eerie books. This time I amm back to the world of Orenda Books, an edition house I am always honored to feature on my blog. 

The Last Tenant by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir translated by Victoria Cribb is part of the Forbidden Iceland series I had the chance to read and review before. Some of the characters, like the team of investigators, are part of the current story this well, which was a great idea giving their character and special way of tracing the crimes.

As usual, the story is following different directions - the terrifying discovery of a mother and an infant, a single woman with her son trying to start anew, the relationship troubles between Elma and Sævar (the investigators team). Through fine psychological observation and turn of events, there is a common denominator to all those directions, that we are invited to discover.

There is an interesting thread underlying the main thriller plot that has to do with family connections and their potential of hope and consuming power. 

The novel is well paced and with a complex structure. From one installment to the other, it only gets better and better, which makes me really curious about what can happen next in the series.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: Sleuth by Charlotte Langley

 

Two women, with a completely different background and professional interests - one a local detective, the other a YouTube influencer - are trying to find a killer. The disappearance of a teenager in a very small Scottish town puts into motion a strange chain of events that may reveal not only terrible secrets, but also a secret life of a place where looks like nothing ever happens.

Sleuth by journalist Charlotte Langley is a very engaging and shockingly unexpected with so many social and even sociological details that are intertwined with the purely procedural details. The small village setting is a challenge for the writer, but also allows a lot of creative freedom when it comes to building a very interesting, twists-rich story.

The characters are equally interesting, but clearly the two main protagonists are taking the main stage. Both do have a strong personality and interesting stories and secrets and their interactions are clearly setting the tone and direction of the story.

It was a very tensed and twisted read, and I am really glad for being able to add another talented thriller writer to the list of author of this genre to follow.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the blog tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Der Beamte sagte by Herta Müller

 

I am so sorry for not reading too much Herta Müller. Her creative force makes such a difference, both in term of style and language - as the German language was not creative enough. 

Born in the Banat part of Romania, as part of the German speaking minority, she received the Nobel Prize in 2009 on behalf of Germany. Literature may and does have no borders, but in some cases it plays with symbols belonging to the national register. Müller´s experience as growing up in an absurd communist dictatorship is constantly integrated into her literary experience. 

Der Beamte sagte - The officer (as in public official) said - may keep some of those encounter with the authorties that anyone fears in a dictatorship. They are part of the daily nonsense pushing the borders at the reality at its farest limit. Hence, the joy of reading - in the progression of the collage - a peace for each word - that the ´pheasant is walking barfoot´/Der Fasan geht barfuss. What a welcomed contrast to the dried patriotism of the Beamte...

I love the results of the intersection between visual and wordings and this book is permanently encouraging the mind to trust its borderless power, even if it deals with something so potentially harmful as a bureaucrat.

Rating: 5 stars

Horror Date by Sebastian Fitzek

Fitzek is one of Germany´s most successful thriller writers who also tried his literary hands to other genres, like children books or non-thrillers, a couple of them I had the chance to review on my blog in the last years. 

Some of his - horror - books were turned to the stage and had the chance a couple of years back to watch it, and was pleased with the results. The repertoire of German-speaking  thriller and crime writers is too long to mention right now, but not too many of them are translated into English or other international languages. Hence, few had the priviledge of getting known outside the German-speaking realm - unless you are reading my blog, that´s it!

Horror Date is part of a ´non-thriller´ trilogy, to which belongs also Elternabend, a title I´ve enjoyed three years back (although for me, and hopefully not only for me, Elternabend/´parent-teacher meeting´ belongs to the horror register, but well.... And if you ask me, dating may also belong to the same register, anyway.) 

The Walking Date is an online dating portal for people terminally ill. Raphael and Nala were chatting for few times, about literature and books and philosophy, but the day of their set date, Raphael doesn´t feel well and sends his best friend Julius, few weekends from marrying Jessica, instead. What was supposed to be a joke, ended up in a delirious chain of events, with protagonists belonging to the upper rich and famous Berlin society of Zehlendorf/Dahlem, to which the author himself belongs.

Although the story may lag behind in terms of expectations, I couldn´t stop laughing to the creative events happening, mostly hilarious, and some terminally sad too. Enjoyable, but the absurdity may have an end as well.

A recommended book if you are looking for some funny read with a very pronounced - delirious even - creative touch.  

Rating: 3 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The One Day You Were My Husband by Rosie Walsh

I am no stranger to Rosie Walsh and if I am not mistaken I probably read all her books so far. Her latest, The One Day You Were My Husband, published few month ago, is following the same pattern of suspense and mystery, with unexpected twists keeping the reader engaged and curious.

Carrie, the main character and storyteller used to be a raising surgeon star, intoxicatedly in love with a handsome Swede she married during a ceremony on a beach in Thailand. But as he is brutally arested by the police for alleged drug trafficking few minutes after the ceremony, her world crushed. Few years later, she started a new life with the kind Robin, with whom she has two very active twins. She put her medical career on the side for a while, but she is decided to reclaim her professional life. And as she is about to embark on a new personal and professional path, her past with Johan and Johan himself reappear and there is no way she will not try to understand what happened almost a decade ago. 

The tension is built from the first lines, and until the end of the story we are unable to reach a conclusion. The twists and flow of information is always changing hence any effort towards clarity is vain. Just accepting being taken by the story and accept that anything surprising may happen, but nothing you may predict about.

I´ve enjoy the pleasure of reading this book and it answered by love for psychological suspense focused on wome stories. There were some mishaps in the story though, I couldn´t resist not noticing: like the description of someone as ´smart young woman´  without the mentioned person doing anything smart to prove the description; or the reference to a painting of a ´five-breasted woman´ which I may leave to my honorable reader the option of sharing their thoughts.

Overall, expect a thrilling read, that kept me interested for a weekend and a bit, that I recommend to anyone looking for an escape from the daily hustle, while keeping thinking about honesty, relationships and secret stalkers.

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4 stars

Corylus Books Book Tour: The Butterfly House by Teresa Solana translated from Catalan by Peter Bush

Teresa Solana is one of those surprising literary discoveries that you want to keep close track of her works. Especially for someone so much interested in the intersection of politics, social struggle and individual destinies, following her work is always a pleasure for my brain keen to see patterns and track mysteries.

The Butterfly House, translated from Catalan by Peter Bush, is published by Corylus Books, and as usual, it is always a pleasure and a honor to be part of their literary events. I had the chance to read and review (almost) all of the books they published and I was never disappointed. 

The Butterfly House is a squat building in the district of Vallcarca in Barcelona, where the daughter of a middle class doctor and policewoman is about to fall in love with a nerdy boy in love with science, also escaping his similar - although more ´new money´ social background. But a murdered woman is found challenging the course of love. 

Norma Foster, the main woman character from Black Storms is in a delicate position professionally, as her daughter is entangled with a potential suspect. But for her, the challenges, so elegantly putting the life of almost each of the characters into a different perspective, are of personal nature as well, with her marital loyalty jeopardized by an affair. And she is not the only one facing such questions.

As in Black Storms, it is admirably how smartly Solana is inserting the characters into the social and political entanglement and how many of the current debates in the Catalunya part of Spain are seized through the dialogues and experiences of the characters.

Personally, I´ve felt that the ending was a bit hurried, as I expected more crime riddle delights, but I was clearly rewarded with the concise episodes of the plot and the character development, especially their moral (marital) dilemma. I am clearly in need of discovering more Catalan authors and topics.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own