Nights of Rain and Stars - Maeve Binchy

Title: Nights of Rain and Stars Author: Maeve Binchy Genre: Fiction Rating: 8/10 # pages: 238 Date read: August, 2007

Summary: Four strangers cross paths in a tiny Greek seaside village. When tragedy strikes the smalltown of Aghia Anna in the form of a devastating fire on a tourist pleasure boat - 24 people are killed - elderly barkeeper Andreas and craft-shop owner Vonni find themselves host to a random assortment of travelers who watch the conflagration from Andreas's taverna. There is Elsa, the German beauty who is trying to flee from love; David, the quiet young Englishman whose demanding father wants him to go into the family business; Thomas, the American professor who struggles to share his son with his ex-wife's new husband; and Fiona, the Irish nurse who follows her abusive boyfriend despite the warnings of her friends and family. As these strangers become friends, the mysterious Vonni, an Irish woman whose Greek is fluent and whose respected position in town is unquestioned, explores her own memories of heartache, as does Andreas. Unwilling to see their new friends repeat their mistakes, Andreas and Vonni set out to influence the hearts of this motley bunch of foreigners before they leave the village.

Review: One of Maeve Binchy's strengths is characterizations, and this one is no exception. There's no plot to speak of, but you really get to know the main characters for better or worse. It's a good comfort read and in general a charming book.

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Don't Look Behind You - Lois Duncan

Title: Don't Look Behind You Author: Lois Duncan Genre: YA Rating: 7/10 # pages: 179 Date read: August, 2007

Summary: Seventeen-year-old April Corrigan's life ends abruptly when she learns that her airline executive father has been working secretly undercover for the FBI. Now his testimony against a notorious drug dealer has placed the whole family in danger, and April and her family are quickly relocated under the Federal Witness Security Program. What begins as a temporary measure soon must become a way of life. April, an ace tennis player, has to stop playing tennis; her mother must give up a lucrative career as a children's author; their names are changed; and April's naive attempt to communicate with her boyfriend causes the violent death of an agent. The entire book is fast-paced and enthralling, but the conclusion will have readers on the edge of their chairs.

Review: I felt like a quick read, and this one definitely falls into that category. It's one of the few YA's I read as a tween that has stood the test of time, and it still makes me wonder how I would cope with being under the witness protection program and have to give up everything I'd grown to know and love...

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Butcher of Dreams - Kay Williams & Eileen Wyman

Title: Butcher of Dreams Author: Kay Williams & Eileen Wyman Genre: Suspense Rating: 6/10 # pages: 404 Date read: August, 2007

Review: Lee Fairchild has realized ever actor’s dream – a theatre of her own. Unfortunately she quickly discovers that having a theatre of her own is not all it’s cracked up to be. Instead of being able to focus solely on her acting, she now has to be in charge of all the administrative work, worry about finances and sweet-talk actors and directors intent on getting on each others’ nerves.

Lee starts to get into troubles when a dead homeless person is found in the theatre. At first they think he just crawled in there to get out of the cold and accidentally OD’ed, but when they discover that somebody cut off one of his fingers, and that money is missing from the theatre office, foul work is suspected. Things go from bad to worse when more murders and attempted murders take place at the theatre and they become more and more ritualistic in nature. Is it a satanistic cult that’s at large? Or just one really deranged individual?

I often found myself yelling at the characters, because what they ought to do and what they actually did do were two very different things, and you never knew where you had them. Just as I thought I’d gotten them figured out, they’d turn and show a completely different side of themselves.

Butcher of Dreams is a believable whodunit with lots of interesting characters. Even though I'd guessed the culprit almost from the very beginning, the authors did a good job of making me second-guess myself as conflicting pieces of evidence rose to the surface, and you end up suspecting just about everybody. A daring attempt, as it often seems over-done, but here it works.

The writing could have been sharper, something that’s often the case in a co-authored book, as these usually need a firmer editor, but that didn’t stop me from being caught up in the plot and chilled by how it unfolded. A very disturbing read indeed. (Written for Armchair Interviews.)

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