The Broken Shore by Peter Temple - a slow paced crime novel

My rate: ☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠ (3/10 Skulls)

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Original Title: The Broken Shore

Norwegian Title: Mørk Kyst

Written by: Peter Temple

Genre: A crime novel

Written for: Adult

Pages: 395
Publisher: Picador

Published: 2005

Published in Norway: 2010

My copy: 2011 (Paperback)
Norwegian Publisher: Forlaget Press
I read it: September 29 - October 28, 2011
Source: Bought

Challenge(s): 100 Books in a Year Challenge

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(Goodreads)

Winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction (Australia)

Joe Cashin was different once. He moved easily then. He was surer and less thoughtful. But there are consequences when you’ve come so close to dying. For Cashin, they included a posting away from the world of Homicide to the quiet place on the coast where he grew up. Now all he has to do is play the country cop and walk the dogs. And sometimes think about how he was before.

Then prominent local Charles Bourgoyne is beaten and left for dead. Everything seems to point to three boys from the nearby Aboriginal community; everyone seems to want it to. But Cashin is unconvinced. And as tragedy unfolds relentlessly into tragedy, he finds himself holding onto something that might be better let go.

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Every place got dark secrets ...

Joe Cashin is an ordinary cop from a small place in Australia. After a hard life he returns to his home place where he lived as a young boy. He lives with two dogs and likes to listen to classical music. But his life gets really busy when a man named Charles Bourgoyne is found killed. He has been beaten to death and three boys from another culture gets the blame. But are they really guilty? Something makes Cashin think they don't have the guilty ones ... yet. But who killed Bourgoyne and why? Soon Cashin finds out about a dark, secretly  past about his home place...

I had high hopes and I really mean HIGH hopes for The broken shore 'cause this book has gotten a lot of good reviews. Finally a crime novel that will capture me I thought but I was wrong. I have never read anything by Peter Temple before and I like to try books by authors I haven't read anything by or heard of. I like to explore different type of books. But this book was truly not for me even though I'm a big fan of crime novels. The book was very slow pace and it felt like "nothing ever happened". Some parts were exciting though but easily forgotten. I just never got into the book no matter how much I tried. I felt like forcing through the book instead of reading it (if you know what I mean...).

The broken shore was a boring and dry read. I'm not picky when it comes to crime novels but it felt like this book was not for me even though it has gotten a lot of good words. It was somehow worth a read but I just didn't get impressed. It was just an okay read. No more than that. Sorry!

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - a gripping story

My Rate: ☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠ (9/10 Skulls)

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Original Title: The Lovely Bones

Norwegian Title: Alle mine kjære

Written by: Alice Sebold

Genre: crime/novel

Written for: YA/Adult

Pages: 328
Publisher: Picador
Published: 2002

Published in Norway: 2003

My copy: 2003 (Paperback)
Norwegian Publisher: Samlaget

I read it: June 10 - June 17, 2011
Source: From my own personal "library"

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The Back Of The Book

My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. My mother liked his border flowers, and my father talked to him once about fertilizer.

This is Susie, speaking from heaven – which looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind f swing sets, counselors to help newcomers adjust, and friends to room with. Everything Susie wants appears as soon as she thinks of it – except the one thing she wants most: to be back with the people she loved on earth.

Watching from her place in heaven, Susie sees her happy, suburban family devastated by her death, isolated even from one another as they each try to cope with their terrible loss alone. Over the years, her friends and siblings grow up, fall in love, do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. But life is not quite finished with Susie yet …

‘Moving and compelling … It will put an imperceptible but stealthily insistent hold on you. I saw down in the morning to read the first couple of pages; five hours later, I was still there, book in hand, transfixed’

Maggie O’Farrell, Sunday Telegraph

‘Our dead do not leave us – and The Lovely Bones has found a graceful new way of presenting that truth of the imagionation’

Evening Standard

“That rare thing, a debut novel that takes the stuff of terrible tragedy and manages to transform it into something hopeful and redemptive …Alice Sebold’s words are strung together like the most delicate of charm bracelets. This book will stay with you long after you finish the last page’

Daily Mail

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Dark destinies can hit anyone and anywhere. The Lovely Bones is a very good example of that!

Fourteen year old Susie gets brutally killed and raped by a man from her own neighborhood when she, as usual, takes a shortcut on the way home trough the cornfield. She’s leaving behind a very devastated and upset family who, of course, gets lost in an endless grief. That Susie is killed is not only the worst thing but her body is gone. The police find eventually evidences that make them sure of that she’s dead. For the rest of the life, her family must live in unconsciousness. Together, the whole family tries to stay together in the hard times they will go through, but are they strong enough to make it? Without being aware of it, Susie watches every one of them and the rest of the people she loved, from heaven.

I hadn’t heard about this before it was made into a movie. That’s typical me. I rarely hear about great books before they are already in production of a movie or already made into a movie. But I also think the reason why I haven’t heard of this book before is that I don’t read much from that genre. Gripping books, I mean, but I had heard so much good things about this book and movie, so, I just had to read it before I see the movie later. And I’m surprised that I really enjoyed this book even though it was a sad read. The book is very special and after reading it I really want to see the movie and I will do so when I get the chance to get it.

I’ve seen movies before where the main character tells through their own perspective after their death, but never read books from this perspective and I found it very interesting and I want to read more books like this one. I liked that perspective!

I’m not 100 % sure if this book is base on the author’s own experience. When she was a student, she got brutally raped when was on her way home through the park off campus. She has even written about that episode in another book, a memoir called Lucky So I don’t know for sure if this book is also based on that cruel experience? It’s so gruesome to read and to know it can happen to anyone and nobody deserves to be a victim of anything!

The Lovely Bones is a graphic, disturbing and a beautiful read in every way that’s hard to explain. It’s a book that sets perspective on a lot of things that’s easy to take for granted. And if you’ve lost someone close, than this book will also become a lot of help to move on and make it easier with life in one way or another.

The only thing that this book doesn’t get top score is the book has a bit of a typical American ending (no offense!).Read it and you’ll probably know what I mean. And sorry that this is a very short review but I don’t want to spoil too much ‘cause it’s a book that just has to be read to understand how meaningful and sad the book is.

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