So…I have a treat for you today. A double feature!!!
That’s right, I’m going to talk about two books! And I’m not going to bore you with the everyday haps and such of my life. Mostly because I don’t really have anything to share this week.
But that will all change next week because….I’m going to Europe!!!
Ok, ok, back to the books.
Here’s the line-up for this past week:
I know, I know, they look really different, and they kind of are. But they do follow along similar threads, they both have incredible twists at the end. You know, those beautiful once-in-a-blue-moon twists that make you stop and stare at the wall and think, “Noooooo, that doesn’t make any sense.”
But then you really think about it, really sift through your memory banks and then you think, “No wait, it totally does.” And then you think, “How in the hell did the author keep me from seeing that this whole time?!?”
Both of those books do that.
The first one, a book club selection, written by the queen of twists herself, Agatha Christie, is one of the best I’ve read by her in a while. It’s about…well…a murder on a train named…you guessed it, the Orient Express. The story follows a man named Hercule Poirot, as he methodically goes through each passenger of the train to see if he can figure out who murdered the man, notice I didn’t say “poor man?” He really was kind of a cad, so I guess you could say he had it coming.
And the end, when he reveals the murderer or murderers (I’m not going to tell you which it was), I definitely didn’t see that coming, never would have guessed. And no, I’m not going to say anymore.
Well, other than, “Great job, Christie. Capital work.”
Now, onto the second one. This one came from my library recommendations and, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from it. It takes a while to get into, some things don’t seem to align, certain events seem really random and disconnected. But then you get to the ending, and I’m not kidding, my jaw literally dropped and I went like, “Oooooohhhhhh.”
The story is about two sisters; one the perfectionist, always does everything right, the other the daredevil troublemaker. But they were always so close, it was always them and their best friend, Parker. But something happened, something that I’m not going to tell you, and they got into a fight, and there was a horrific car accident, aaaaand…you’ll have to read the book.
But let me tell you this, this story is so beautifully constructed, so completely written from the character’s perspective, that I never would have even guessed what was really going on until it was right in front of me. That’s rare, it shows true talent to be able to blindside a reader like that.
And so I say, “Excellent work, Oliver. Capital job.”
