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Shame (1998)

by Alan Russell(Favorite Author)

3.53 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0684815273 (ISBN13: 9780684815275)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Simon & Schuster

review 1: This is the story of Caleb, the son of a serial killer, and how this fact has affected his life, relationships and ultimately his family, who know nothing about who his father is. Gray Parker murdered a number of women before he was caught and executed many years ago. He always left his ‘signature’ carved into each of the bodies.After all the years of trying to get away from, and forget, the legacy left by his father, Caleb is the first suspect when bodies begin to appear with the same signature as Gray Parker’s.Caleb finds an ally in Elizabeth, his father’s biographer and the only woman to live after a visit from Parker. And also in Lola, a cross dressing night club singer, a great character who adds poignance and banter.PerformanceLuke Daniels’ considerable ta... morelent gives each of the characters a distinct voice and personality and so makes it easy to visualise the story and be drawn in to the emotion. Especially Lola, who’s character is quite tragic. It’s a gripping and powerful listen with easily one of the best narrators around.ThoughtsThe characters are complex and real with issues and secrets of their own and are brought to life brilliantly by the writing and narration. The dialogue is exceptional, I thought so in Multiple Wounds and it continues in this book.I like the flashbacks which fill in the background of Gray Parker’s story. The Native American beliefs, as told by Lola, are very interesting and well researched. I found the story compelling and the characters easy to care about. There are twists, action and suspense and kept me guessing. Fasten your seat belts and settle in for an exciting ride!
review 2: Started yesterday, March 20th 2013.Obvious parallels to Ted Bundy - Ann Rule's Book "The stranger beside me".Frequent flashbacks from the present to a serial killer case 25 years earlier, where the killer, like Bundy, was killed on the electric-chair.No page-turner, felt too long - with 280 pages that should not be the case!Good idea, too many discussions about personal feelings, which did nothing for me nor to further the story.The most interesting character was the Senior Serial Killer.Also the only sympathetic one, Elizabeth was ok, but I did not care wether she lives or dies.There where a few twists, and although I did not guess who the real killer was I was not too far off.But the twists came late, most near the end and in a way that they only concluded the story, more like an afterthought explanation.Rather lame writing.Want to give 2.5 stars, but that is not possible, it is not so bad as to warrant only 2 stars, so 3 it is.Looking back I thought that this would be better, more terrorising or at least the hunt would be good.Got this as a 99 ct. book from Amazon, got one other from him a few months later (Burning Man), will read this soon as to decide wether I drop this writer from my to-buy/to-read list.Recommendation: read this if you are interested how someone might handle being the son of a convicted serial-killer.Do not read this if you suspect a lot of mystery or a page-turner.I would rather recommend A J Holt: Broken, but that is out of print and not even here on Goodreads to be found. And it has been a long time since I read this, so I may be wrong. less

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