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Book Review: Disclaimer by Renee Knight

June 15, 2015 at 8:03 am by Claudia

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Today I am reviewing Disclaimer by Renée Knight for TLC Book Tours. As always, I am provided with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

About the book (from the publisher): What if you realized the terrifying book you were reading was all about you?

A brilliantly conceived, deeply disturbing psychological thriller about a woman haunted by secrets – and the price she will pay for concealing the truth.

When a mysterious novel appears at Catherine Ravenscroft’s bedside, she is curious. She has no idea who might have sent her The Perfect Stranger, or how it ended up on her nightstand. At first, she in intrigued by the suspenseful story that unfolds.

And then she realizes.

This isn’t fiction.

The Perfect Stranger re-creates in vivid, unmistakeable detail the day Catherine became hostage to a dark secret – a secret that only one other person knew – and that person is dead.

Now that the past so desperately wants to forget is catching up with her, her world is falling apart. Plunged into a living nightmare, she knows that her only hope is to confront what really happened on that terrible day…even if the shocking truth may destroy her.

My review: This thriller takes hold of the reader and doesn’t let go until the very last page. The concept, brilliantly conceived by the author, revolves around two narrative voices. One is Catherine Ravenscroft, married, the mother of a son, with a demanding and successful career. The other is an elderly retired teacher who is a widower. They tell their stories in alternating chapters, moving between past and present, revealing little details that are part of a much bigger puzzle.

We hit the ground running with Catherine’s realization that the book she has been reading is telling her story, long hidden, and as far as she knows, known by no one else who is currently living. The recognition that the story is her own, and the ensuing fear and panic it engenders, turns Catherine’s life upside down.

Just how the other narrator’s story is related to Catherine’s is slowly revealed, bit by bit. The back and forth narration creates a taut story line. Knight has written and crafted a superb thriller. As you know from other book reviews, I love it when I cannot figure out what is coming next and how a plot is going to play out. I love surprises. I got all of that and more in this psychological thriller.

Knight is gifted writer who has conceived a delicate balance of past and present from two points-of-view, all the while revealing just a bit here and there, enough to intrigue, but not enough to know. And that, dear readers, will keep you reading into the night.

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About the author: Renée Knight has worked for the BBC directing arts documentaries and has had TV and film scripts commissioned by the BBC, Channel Four, and Capital Films. In April 2013, she graduated from the Faber Academy “Writing a Novel” course, whose alumni include S.J. Watson. She lives in London with her husband and two children.

One of you will be the lucky winner of a copy of Disclaimer. Just leave a comment on this post and I’ll pick a winner on Thursday evening. Good luck!

(More about the tornado tomorrow – this review has long been scheduled for today.)

Happy Monday.

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Tornado

June 13, 2015 at 7:37 am by Claudia

I’m writing this from my phone. We had a tornado touch down here late yesterday afternoon. What had been an intense thunderstorm suddenly turned into the scariest 15 minutes I’ve ever been through in my life. We had no warning, so we hadn’t taken cover. I watched as the top part of our dead hickory came crashing to the ground. I saw things flying through the air.

We still don’t have power. The lines from our house to the street are down. So are our neighbors’. The area around us is full of downed trees, cars in ditches. I saw scores of people walking home, passing by our house, because they’d had to abandon their cars.

Truly terrible. I have laundry to do, have to get packed, and I have no way to print out my train ticket. I slept a few hours but that’s about it. Say a prayer for all of the members of my community who are suffering right now. I’ve heard about roofs gone, cars crashed – it goes on and on.

But we’re safe.

The Vocal Bob and Weave (& Henry)

June 4, 2015 at 8:18 am by Claudia

6-4 baby henry

Meet baby Henry.

Don and I happened to look out the window and both Henry and baby Henry were chomping on food rather close to the house, and running back and forth under the car. At one point, Henry was in Scout’s little corral. Then they both got scared by something or other and ran back to their home under the shed.

About five minutes later, who did I see but Henry in my garden, dining on something that wasn’t on the menu we have provided for him. I opened the front door, went out on the porch, and of course, he scrambled for the shed. He stopped on the ramp and stared at me.

We had to have a talk. I firmly told him that he was welcome to dine on the grass and on all the vegetation in the woods, but that the garden was a NO. He continued to stare at me. NO, I repeated.

That scamp. Do you think he understood? All I know is that later in the evening, he was seen in what we call his ‘pasture’ eating the grass.

I’m going to have to keep an eye on him.

Yesterday was a sunny, beautiful day, very welcome after all the rain we’ve had. I weeded. I weed wacked. (I’m alternating the spelling of wacked/whacked because I’ve given up trying to figure out which one is preferred. Last time I wrote about it I used ‘whacked.’ Hence, ‘wacked’ in this post.) Later on, when the grass was dry, we mowed. I watered the plants on the porch.

It was just so nice to be outside!

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I’m reading Disclaimer by Renée Knight (scheduled for a book review) and it’s very good! Rather chilling, in fact. More on that in about 10 days or so. And it’s not at all like Gone Girl, thank goodness. In fact, when I grabbed it from my shelf, I noticed the blurb on the front is from Lee Child. Okay. Now we’re talking!

Don may or may not have purchased donuts yesterday. I may or may not have eaten two, which was one too many.

And speaking of language and communication, I really dislike this sort of thing:

“Do I wish I had done things differently?”

“I do.”

“Did I experience regret when I made that choice?”

“I did.”

Commit, for heaven’s sake. Don’t circle around the subject.

I’m rewriting the dialogue.

“I wish I had done things differently.” Or, better yet, “I was wrong.”

“I regret that I made that choice.” Or…”I was wrong.”

Asking the question and then answering it for oneself keeps the speaker one step away from taking full responsibility – just over the border from clear and unvarnished truthfulness.

I’m tired of people not taking responsibility for their actions and using language to dance around the subject, all the while bobbing and weaving, when a direct hit would be much clearer.

“I was wrong.” “I’m sorry.”

Simple, right?

“Don bought donuts. I ate two of them.” Nothing unclear about that.

Sigh.

6-2 peonies in mccoy

McCoy reporting for duty and providing a nice little home for my rescued peonies.

Don’t forget to stop by Hanging Out With Bloggers: Enabling the Change – the post I wrote about a great discussion I had with four other bloggers. There’s even a video of us! If you leave a comment you will be eligible to win a $100 Visa Gift Card.

Happy Thursday.

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Book Review: Disclaimer by Renee Knight

Tornado

The Vocal Bob and Weave (& Henry)

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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