Telling Lies to Alice by Laura Wilson

Telling Lies to Alice is another book I got from the library when I went last week. The back cover sounded so good and I was really hoping I found a new author to love. Unfortunely, I am not even sure why I finished this book. I give it a D.

From Amazon:
The entertainment world is stunned when famous comic Lenny Maxted commits suicide on an earl’s estate. Lenny’s fiancée, cocktail waitress Alice Conway, makes front-page headlines when she discovers his body. Traumatized by his inexplicable suicide and by her ill-considered marriage to a philandering photographer, Alice knows she must flee — to a place where the past can’t hurt her and where nobody dies.That is the first lie. Because there is no safe haven for Alice, who now lives on an isolated farm in Oxfordshire, haunted by vivid dreams of Lenny’s corpse. Seven years after his death, an anonymous envelope arrives containing a newspaper article detailing the grisly discovery of human remains found in a car recently fished out of the bottom of a lake. Alice thinks she knows who the dead woman is. And then, out of the blue, Jack Flowers, the other half of the legendary Maxted and Flowers comedy team, shows up on her doorstep. Alice has not seen Jack since Lenny’s funeral, but her surprise and pleasure turn to unease when she realizes that he is distressed, drinking heavily, and hiding her mail. Then she receives another anonymous clipping.… Someone is telling lies to Alice, playing with her mind until it is impossible to distinguish fact from falsehood. Someone who knows the truth about what really happened on a night six years ago...a monstrous secret that links a time, a place, and a group of friends and lovers. A secret that will put Alice in mortal danger.

This book just left so much to be desired. I didn't care about the characters and I could not get into the story. For starters, the book takes place during the 1960's London. I had no idea the book was a "historical" or that it was British. That in itself would not be a reason for me to dislike a book, but I think with everything else, it just irritated me. The writing style was very stream of consciousness and that doesn't work well with me. There was a serious lack of punctuation and a lot of telling and not showing. I don't even know why I finished the book. There was a serious amount of skimming going on and I think I just finished it because I didn't want to have a DNF on my list. I won't be doing that anymore... there simply isn't enough time to read bad books.

Up next is A Wicked Snow by Gregg Olsen. I read another one of Mr. Olsen's books, and while I didn't love it, I enjoyed it. I have read several reviews about A Wicked Snow that were outstanding and I believe that J. Kaye even rated it one of her top books of 2008. I saw it at the library and remembering all of those reviews, decided to pick it up. I hope it lives up to all of the great reviews! I hope everyone had a great weekend and Happy Reading!

In the Cut by Susanna Moore

I got In the Cut by Susanna Moore at the last library book sale I attended. It was the day were you purchased a grocery bag for $5.00 and could stuff it full with all the books you could. The cover of this book said it was now a major motion picture and I am always interested in reading books that are later turned into movies. Since it was a thin book, in it went. I was not that impressed and really can only give the book a D.

She lives in two rooms on the third floor of a brownstone on Washington Square. By day, she teaches her students about irony and language in all its nuance, eccentricity, and unspoken meaning. By night, she complies a secret dictionary of street slang, and takes chances.

One night, in the basement of a bar, she walks in on an intimate moment between a man and a woman. His face is shadowed in darkness, but she will remember the tattoo on the inside of his left wrist, the feeling of his eyes on her. She will remember long after the first brutal murder rocks her neighborhood... long after she is propelled into a sexual liason that tests the limits of her safety and desires, as she begins a terrifying descent into the dark places that reside deep within her...

This book had it's redeeming points as the suspense was done pretty well, but I just couldn't get into the author's voice. Coming in at 180 pages, I should have had this book done in a day but it took three days for me to get through it. It was very stream of consciousnes and some of the book was taken up with the dictionary that the character was writing. I didn't understand this as I felt it did not add anything to the story. I did not like the ending at all and really did not like any of the characters. Overall, while I may watch the movie if it comes on cable as it is an older one, I will not be seeking it out. This is a book to soon be forgoten.

Up next is a book I started today that I also got from the sale. It is an old Sandra Brown titled French Silk. This one is almost 500 pages and I started it today. It has gotten my attention and I look forward to reading more of it. Happy reading!