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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2016/01/12/day-833-the-shut-eye/
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2016/01/12/day-833-the-shut-eye/
I wasn't familiar with the description "shut eye" before I started reading this book, but as Wikipedia helpfully tells me, a shut eye is a performer who becomes so adept at the illusion of mind reading that the performer comes to believe that he or she actually possesses psychic powers.
In this book, the Shut Eye is Richard Latham, a psychic who failed to give the Police actionable visions in the case of a missing girl a year earlier and now gives readings at a local church on Friday evenings. Among his crowd of desperate attendees is Sandra, who has lost her dog, and Anna, whose four year old son has gone missing.
I didn't really like this book and there are a few reasons. I didn't warm to any of the characters and the setting and premise just felt kind of...grubby. Be aware too that it's a storyline that concerns two missing children and there are some parts of it that I found quite disturbing and hard to read. Also, the psychic elements - particularly a twist near the end concerning a photograph - just felt kind of ridiculous to me. I have read and liked other books by Belinda Bauer and I think she's a talented writer but in this instance I wish I hadn't picked this book up and I'm a little baffled by the many rave reviews that it's got.
In this book, the Shut Eye is Richard Latham, a psychic who failed to give the Police actionable visions in the case of a missing girl a year earlier and now gives readings at a local church on Friday evenings. Among his crowd of desperate attendees is Sandra, who has lost her dog, and Anna, whose four year old son has gone missing.
I didn't really like this book and there are a few reasons. I didn't warm to any of the characters and the setting and premise just felt kind of...grubby. Be aware too that it's a storyline that concerns two missing children and there are some parts of it that I found quite disturbing and hard to read. Also, the psychic elements - particularly a twist near the end concerning a photograph - just felt kind of ridiculous to me. I have read and liked other books by Belinda Bauer and I think she's a talented writer but in this instance I wish I hadn't picked this book up and I'm a little baffled by the many rave reviews that it's got.
The Shut Eye by Belinda Bauer tells the story of Anna Buck, a woman devastated after the disappearance of her son, four months earlier. She's falling apart and she'll do anything to find him. She visits a psychic, and discovers that she may have some psychic abilities of her own, leading not to her son, but to another missing child. DCI Marvel is an unpleasant man; he doesn't like other people and he's less than collegiate to his co-workers. His boss asks him to find a lost dog and this leads him into contact with Anna. Despite himself, he's sure she sees something.
This was a troublesome book. Bauer is a fantastic crime writer, and I've enjoyed her books enormously. Here, she has her usual nuanced eye for the humanity in every character. Even Marvel has his brief moments of grace. The scene where he searches the Battersea Dogs' Home for the missing poodle is just perfectly written. But there's a problem at the heart of the novel, a bit of stereotyping that seemed both out of character for the writer and unnecessary for the plot, that made me like this book a lot less. Bauer is a solid writer, and I trust her instincts. I'll read her next novel eagerly. But if you haven't read Bauer yet, I'd suggest beginning with any of her other books, and if you're already a fan, I'd say to read The Shut Eye, but be aware that parts of it are problematic.
This was a troublesome book. Bauer is a fantastic crime writer, and I've enjoyed her books enormously. Here, she has her usual nuanced eye for the humanity in every character. Even Marvel has his brief moments of grace. The scene where he searches the Battersea Dogs' Home for the missing poodle is just perfectly written. But there's a problem at the heart of the novel, a bit of stereotyping that seemed both out of character for the writer and unnecessary for the plot, that made me like this book a lot less. Bauer is a solid writer, and I trust her instincts. I'll read her next novel eagerly. But if you haven't read Bauer yet, I'd suggest beginning with any of her other books, and if you're already a fan, I'd say to read The Shut Eye, but be aware that parts of it are problematic.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
OK, so I am utterly at a loss to understand why I’ve waited so long to read Belinda Bauer. This is her latest novel and, I’m now ashamed to admit, the first I’ve read. I will be rectifying this almost immediately; I’ve just bought Rubbernecker and have added her complete backlist to my wishlist. Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with a copy of The Shut Eye in exchange for a review – I’ve found a new favourite author as a result.
I finished this novel some time ago now, but Anna’s story has stayed with me. I could feel her pain so acutely that I literally raced through the book, reading it in 24 hours flat. I just HAD to know what had happened to little Daniel. Was the story more powerful as I am a mother reading it? Maybe. But it is also without doubt one of the most intricately plotted novels I’ve read this year.
‘One hundred and twenty days ago, the door had been left open…’
How many parents pay to have their children’s footprints or handprints immortalised in plaster in one way or another? Most of us have done it. Perhaps that’s why the image of Daniel’s footprints in the cement is so poignant from the word go: ‘Five footprints in the cement. Five little footprints leading away from the sooty houses to who-knew-where…’ It’s a parent’s worst nightmare. You can’t help but walk in Anna’s shoes from the very start and of course, it’s an uncomfortable walk: ‘She knew she was going mad, but she didn’t know how to stop it any more than she knew how to stop crying or breathing’. As the reader, your heart breaks with her: ‘If [she] was crazy, she was crazy for all her own reasons. And they were reasons that were wholly understandable and unbearably sad’.
In contrast, I just loved the light relief (ironic in a policeman) provided by the character of DCI John Marvel. What a great name, and what a breath of fresh air as far as fictional detectives go: ‘The longer [he] worked in homicide, the more he disliked people. He’d never met one he didn’t hate – or despise… Along with fresh air and roughage, Marvel thought that children were overrated’. Having said which, nobody could possibly work harder to solve neither the Daniel Buck case nor that of Edie Evans – the other missing child case he’s working on when we meet him.
As well as the heartache surrounding the lost children, the reader watches as Anna and her husband James cling to the remains of their marriage: ‘With every beer he could do a better impression of a young man whose wife still loved him, and who hadn’t lost his son’. Because, unforgivably as far as either of them are concerned, it was James that left the front door open on that fateful day, four months previously.
Anna’s grief manifests itself in obsessive behaviour, which serves to worry her husband even more: ‘[She] could hear germs breeding on counter tops and under sofa cushions. They filled her mouth when she yawned and gritted her lids when she blinked…When Daniel came home, he would be so safe. Nothing would ever harm him again’. In light of later events (which I won’t go into here – this review is spoiler free), this obsessive behaviour only serves to discredit her further: ‘They all stood and watched her, stunned by the depth of her madness’.
No matter how tragic this story is in so many different ways, as the reader you are never left without hope and it is this hope that is addictive. It keeps you reading in my case, in an obsessive manner reminiscent of Anna Buck herself. Interspersed with the more tragic elements of the story we also meet a whole host of other colourful characters from the is-he/isn’t-he Psychic, Richard Latham to Mitzi the poodle, to James’ work mates from the garage near his home.
There are so many seemingly inconsequential threads to this story – you only realise how they all weave together at the very end. Belinda Bauer is so incredibly clever - this novel completely captured me from the start and wouldn’t let go. It’s undoubtedly one of my top reads of 2015 so far and I urge you to buy it, read it and see what all the fuss is about for yourself.
‘Thinking about him keeps him alive for me… gives me hope, and hope keeps me alive for him’.
I finished this novel some time ago now, but Anna’s story has stayed with me. I could feel her pain so acutely that I literally raced through the book, reading it in 24 hours flat. I just HAD to know what had happened to little Daniel. Was the story more powerful as I am a mother reading it? Maybe. But it is also without doubt one of the most intricately plotted novels I’ve read this year.
‘One hundred and twenty days ago, the door had been left open…’
How many parents pay to have their children’s footprints or handprints immortalised in plaster in one way or another? Most of us have done it. Perhaps that’s why the image of Daniel’s footprints in the cement is so poignant from the word go: ‘Five footprints in the cement. Five little footprints leading away from the sooty houses to who-knew-where…’ It’s a parent’s worst nightmare. You can’t help but walk in Anna’s shoes from the very start and of course, it’s an uncomfortable walk: ‘She knew she was going mad, but she didn’t know how to stop it any more than she knew how to stop crying or breathing’. As the reader, your heart breaks with her: ‘If [she] was crazy, she was crazy for all her own reasons. And they were reasons that were wholly understandable and unbearably sad’.
In contrast, I just loved the light relief (ironic in a policeman) provided by the character of DCI John Marvel. What a great name, and what a breath of fresh air as far as fictional detectives go: ‘The longer [he] worked in homicide, the more he disliked people. He’d never met one he didn’t hate – or despise… Along with fresh air and roughage, Marvel thought that children were overrated’. Having said which, nobody could possibly work harder to solve neither the Daniel Buck case nor that of Edie Evans – the other missing child case he’s working on when we meet him.
As well as the heartache surrounding the lost children, the reader watches as Anna and her husband James cling to the remains of their marriage: ‘With every beer he could do a better impression of a young man whose wife still loved him, and who hadn’t lost his son’. Because, unforgivably as far as either of them are concerned, it was James that left the front door open on that fateful day, four months previously.
Anna’s grief manifests itself in obsessive behaviour, which serves to worry her husband even more: ‘[She] could hear germs breeding on counter tops and under sofa cushions. They filled her mouth when she yawned and gritted her lids when she blinked…When Daniel came home, he would be so safe. Nothing would ever harm him again’. In light of later events (which I won’t go into here – this review is spoiler free), this obsessive behaviour only serves to discredit her further: ‘They all stood and watched her, stunned by the depth of her madness’.
No matter how tragic this story is in so many different ways, as the reader you are never left without hope and it is this hope that is addictive. It keeps you reading in my case, in an obsessive manner reminiscent of Anna Buck herself. Interspersed with the more tragic elements of the story we also meet a whole host of other colourful characters from the is-he/isn’t-he Psychic, Richard Latham to Mitzi the poodle, to James’ work mates from the garage near his home.
There are so many seemingly inconsequential threads to this story – you only realise how they all weave together at the very end. Belinda Bauer is so incredibly clever - this novel completely captured me from the start and wouldn’t let go. It’s undoubtedly one of my top reads of 2015 so far and I urge you to buy it, read it and see what all the fuss is about for yourself.
‘Thinking about him keeps him alive for me… gives me hope, and hope keeps me alive for him’.
After serial killers, psychics are probably my least favorite plot device so I was prepared to be underwhelmed by this book. While it was not my favorite by this author, I found the plot compelling and the writing as stellar as usual.
Are the two missing children connected? Will the psychic help or his intentions are more selfish than it seems? You will have to search for the Shut Eye to know all the answers, good luck!
In the beginning you think that these are two different cases but while you read, the characters start colliding in one world where not everything is what it seems. Could cultural misunderstanding be so harmful, that a present could mean something more powerful than just a beautiful gift?
Belinda tries to show how in this time where diversity is normal, how can we be so blind to the cultural traits of our surroundings? When we travel around the world we try to soak up with new information or just pass the time? I really want to believe that we like to discover new experiences and understand how the people from different countries live their life, but maybe I am just a dreamer and no one is interested in other cultures.
Returning to the book, I was a little bit disappointed with the mystical parts of this book, I am not a physic believer, I prefer more touchable things, but it was quite interesting how Marvel, that don't believe in ghosts, tries to understand all the clues he had without going mad.
Belinda Bauer guides us to a journey following the footprints of a child and finish it in the stars.
The last question... Will Edie become an astronaut?
In the beginning you think that these are two different cases but while you read, the characters start colliding in one world where not everything is what it seems. Could cultural misunderstanding be so harmful, that a present could mean something more powerful than just a beautiful gift?
Belinda tries to show how in this time where diversity is normal, how can we be so blind to the cultural traits of our surroundings? When we travel around the world we try to soak up with new information or just pass the time? I really want to believe that we like to discover new experiences and understand how the people from different countries live their life, but maybe I am just a dreamer and no one is interested in other cultures.
Returning to the book, I was a little bit disappointed with the mystical parts of this book, I am not a physic believer, I prefer more touchable things, but it was quite interesting how Marvel, that don't believe in ghosts, tries to understand all the clues he had without going mad.
Belinda Bauer guides us to a journey following the footprints of a child and finish it in the stars.
The last question... Will Edie become an astronaut?
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This one was a bit hard for me, and I think the biggest reason why was I just did not like the characters.
DCI Marvel is unlikeable from the start — he’s a bitter man and I only ever felt an inkling of sympathy for him at the end.
Anna is stricken by grief, but she’s also hard to cope with. I know a situation like hers is unimaginable, but I couldn’t stand her constant blame blame blame. And everyone is right - she’s crazy.
I sort of liked the plot, but the whole dog thing was a little weird to me. I did like the author’s style for the most part, though!
Lastly, the ending felt a little off. It felt really quick and not well explained.
Overall, definitely wouldn’t read again but it was an okay read.
DCI Marvel is unlikeable from the start — he’s a bitter man and I only ever felt an inkling of sympathy for him at the end.
Anna is stricken by grief, but she’s also hard to cope with. I know a situation like hers is unimaginable, but I couldn’t stand her constant blame blame blame. And everyone is right - she’s crazy.
I sort of liked the plot, but the whole dog thing was a little weird to me. I did like the author’s style for the most part, though!
Lastly, the ending felt a little off. It felt really quick and not well explained.
Overall, definitely wouldn’t read again but it was an okay read.