Linwood Barclay's Too Close to Home

Linwood Barclay's Too Close to Home is definitely a thriller! It's a book that is hard to put down from the very beginning. It starts out with a triple murder that is witnessed by a teenage boy at his best friend's house. Because he wasn't supposed to be there he can't tell anyone about it. The mystery is who would kill a whole family like that? Several kinds of reasons develop along the way & the reader is totally unsure of who the killer might be until very near the end. The book is written sorta like a made for TV movie, but that okay because the story is compelling.  

The Book of Evidence by John Banville

What a find this book is! Wow! I'm looking forward to reading more of his books. This is the story of a man who gets so completely lost in himself & doesn't have the will to change the path he is going down. The story is told as a first person narrative of his explanation of why he did what he did, which was to steal a painting & subsequently commit a murder. He's telling this supposedly while he is in court to determine what charges should be leveled against him. He's telling this as a means to convince himself and others that he had no choice in his actions. John Banville's telling of this story is so eloquent it is hard to put the book down. I didn't expect such beautiful construction and expression in a crime novel, but there it was. 

It's funny that I can find some really good writers and their books in the library & other times I wonder how the book got published. This one was truly a gift.