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ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
3.0
Cornelia Read's first book, The Field of Darkness, told the story of Madeline Dare, failed debutante, now living with her husband in Syracuse, New York, who stumbles onto an old, unsolved murder in which a relative is mentioned and decides to solve it herself. It reads like a grown-up Nancy Drew mystery, with the heroine grasping for clues, stumbling into dangerous situations she doesn't understand and discovering too late that not everything has a happy ending.
In the sequel, The Crazy School, she and Dean have moved out to a small town where she takes a teaching job at a facility for delinquent youths. She wants to be the cool teacher; she's younger than the other faculty members and she shares cigarettes and trades profanities with her students. But it's unclear whether she's getting through to the kids or is being manipulated by one of them.
What makes Madeline Dare such a good protagonist is that she makes mistakes and misses stuff, but has a good heart. She also seems like she'd be fun to hang out with. She loses some of that approachability in Read's newest novel, Invisible Boy. Madeline's traded her out-spoken nature for brashness and one-up-manship. And since she has the author on her side, she gets all the zingers while her opposition stutters impotently. The story follows Madeline, now living in NYC, as she finds the skeleton of a child in an abandoned cemetery she's helping to clean up. The murdered child is quickly identified, as are the perpetrators. We then follow Madeline as she interacts with her family and old friends, as well as following the case of the little boy as it grinds its way slowly through the criminal justice system.
Invisible Boy is a reasonably good read, I just long for the return of the real Madeline Dare.
In the sequel, The Crazy School, she and Dean have moved out to a small town where she takes a teaching job at a facility for delinquent youths. She wants to be the cool teacher; she's younger than the other faculty members and she shares cigarettes and trades profanities with her students. But it's unclear whether she's getting through to the kids or is being manipulated by one of them.
What makes Madeline Dare such a good protagonist is that she makes mistakes and misses stuff, but has a good heart. She also seems like she'd be fun to hang out with. She loses some of that approachability in Read's newest novel, Invisible Boy. Madeline's traded her out-spoken nature for brashness and one-up-manship. And since she has the author on her side, she gets all the zingers while her opposition stutters impotently. The story follows Madeline, now living in NYC, as she finds the skeleton of a child in an abandoned cemetery she's helping to clean up. The murdered child is quickly identified, as are the perpetrators. We then follow Madeline as she interacts with her family and old friends, as well as following the case of the little boy as it grinds its way slowly through the criminal justice system.
Invisible Boy is a reasonably good read, I just long for the return of the real Madeline Dare.
bunnieslikediamonds's review against another edition
2.0
The mystery portion of this mystery is tiny. Mostly it is about the sassy, smart-assy Madeleine Read and her misadventures in Manhattan in the nineties. This time, she stumbles upon the bones of a murdered child. Lucky for her, the detective in charge is a kindred spirit who for that reason (I can't think of any other) keeps Maddie up-to-date on the investigation, thus enabling further misadventures.
I don't necessarily require a lot of sleuthing and skulking in a mystery novel, but if the story is mostly character driven, the characters should be well drawn and interesting. Madeleine Dare is supposed to be badass, but her cursing and bitching do not make it so. Mind you, I have nothing per se against cursing and bitching (I do both on occasion), but here it just comes off as uncouth and childish: "hey, look at me so sassily swearing and quipping!" We are constantly reminded of Maddie's impeccable pedigree and her family's old money, presumably in order to highlight her rebellious life choices. Although she is dismissive of her background and eats pizza just like regular folks, she is still a terrible snob and repeatedly expresses her contempt for the nouveau-riche, beacause really, how vulgar. She is occasionally very funny, but tries way too hard to be cool. There's nothing wrong with a flawed heroine (I quite liked Maddie in Read's previous books), but this one is so full of herself it's mind-boggling. For instance, her guilt over her old, old, family's slave-owning ways makes her want to stop random black people in the street and apologize. Ugh.
Those of you who get along better with Madeleine will surely enjoy this breezy mystery more.
I don't necessarily require a lot of sleuthing and skulking in a mystery novel, but if the story is mostly character driven, the characters should be well drawn and interesting. Madeleine Dare is supposed to be badass, but her cursing and bitching do not make it so. Mind you, I have nothing per se against cursing and bitching (I do both on occasion), but here it just comes off as uncouth and childish: "hey, look at me so sassily swearing and quipping!" We are constantly reminded of Maddie's impeccable pedigree and her family's old money, presumably in order to highlight her rebellious life choices. Although she is dismissive of her background and eats pizza just like regular folks, she is still a terrible snob and repeatedly expresses her contempt for the nouveau-riche, beacause really, how vulgar. She is occasionally very funny, but tries way too hard to be cool. There's nothing wrong with a flawed heroine (I quite liked Maddie in Read's previous books), but this one is so full of herself it's mind-boggling. For instance, her guilt over her old, old, family's slave-owning ways makes her want to stop random black people in the street and apologize. Ugh.
Those of you who get along better with Madeleine will surely enjoy this breezy mystery more.
tbsims's review against another edition
3.0
if sitting alone on sunday afternoon were a crayon, it would be burnt sienna.
listening to chaka khan, bronski beat...and aural jay mcinerney.
The book left me confused. What was up with astrid? did the last chapter explain why mom turned a blind eye?
listening to chaka khan, bronski beat...and aural jay mcinerney.
The book left me confused. What was up with astrid? did the last chapter explain why mom turned a blind eye?
myrdyr's review against another edition
1.0
I really enjoyed Read's first two books in this series, so I was disappointed that this one didn't measure up. Bad writing got in the way of a potentially good story. I made it to page 167 before giving up; that's when I accepted the sad fact that the writing wasn't going to improve by reading more pages.
lian_tanner's review against another edition
3.0
Cornelia Read's heroine is as snarky and appealing as ever, as are her friends. And I did enjoy this book. But ... It's an odd one, and a bit unexpected after the previous two, which were more or less straight-out thrillers with a very clear structure. This one is more of a rumination on child abuse in all its various forms, plus a bit of courtroom drama AND a bit of thriller thrown in. Put it all together and it doesn't quite work - the thriller climax happens quite a while before the end, there's an odd flashback as a final chapter, and the structure generally is unsatisfying. On top of which, it bothered me a lot that Maddy's friend Astrid was clearly having a breakdown of some sort, but Maddy did nothing to help her.
Maybe this book was something Read needed to get off her chest. Whatever the reason, I'll pick up her next book and hope that she manages to bring her various interests into a more coherent line.
Maybe this book was something Read needed to get off her chest. Whatever the reason, I'll pick up her next book and hope that she manages to bring her various interests into a more coherent line.
caitlinxmartin's review against another edition
4.0
How did I miss this author before now?
I picked this up because I liked the cover and the plot sounded like it had potential. It wasn't quite what I expected, but that's okay because it was really enjoyable. Our intrepid heroine, Madeline Dare (what a great name) is a kind of Nora Charles sort of character - very classy and sassy. I enjoyed her and her friends enormously.
The mystery at the center, the death of a small boy, isn't really a whodunit or a whydunit - it's more of a youknowwhodunitnowdealwithit. Everyone here is pretty well fleshed out and the bad guys aren't quite the bad guys that they might be seem even though they're definitely bad guys.
It's fun to watch Madeline trying to sort out her life now that she's in a phase where she's married and away from school and working and figuring out who she is as an adult. Her dilemmas are believable and her tragedies are very real.
Crisp snappy writing, good plotting, interesting characters. I'm going to find the rest of Ms. Read's books!
I picked this up because I liked the cover and the plot sounded like it had potential. It wasn't quite what I expected, but that's okay because it was really enjoyable. Our intrepid heroine, Madeline Dare (what a great name) is a kind of Nora Charles sort of character - very classy and sassy. I enjoyed her and her friends enormously.
The mystery at the center, the death of a small boy, isn't really a whodunit or a whydunit - it's more of a youknowwhodunitnowdealwithit. Everyone here is pretty well fleshed out and the bad guys aren't quite the bad guys that they might be seem even though they're definitely bad guys.
It's fun to watch Madeline trying to sort out her life now that she's in a phase where she's married and away from school and working and figuring out who she is as an adult. Her dilemmas are believable and her tragedies are very real.
Crisp snappy writing, good plotting, interesting characters. I'm going to find the rest of Ms. Read's books!
vkemp's review
4.0
Madeline Dare is back in her beloved New York after all her adventures in upstate. She and Dean are living with her sister, Pagan and another friend, Sue. Madeline is working at as a telephone operator and Dean is doing what he can to bring in a paycheck. Madeline connects with a shirt-tail relative and ends up helping her clean up an abandoned cemetery that has family connections. While she is chopping in the undergrowth, she discovers the skull and body of a small child, left there, exposed to the elements. Madeline keeps up on her white steed to fight for this mistreated and brutalized child, her indignation fired by her sister's confession of sexual abuse by one of their previous stepfathers. I adore Madeline, her humor tickles my funny bone. I have known some of the types of people she eviscerates with her rapier wit. I always recommend Cornelia Read to those who have not read her books.
audreylee's review
2.0
Suspense--yes. Writing--good. Could have done without all of the foul language. I don't mind some, but this was gratuitous.
katrinamiddelburg's review
4.0
Gritty and gripping. A book without easy answers...fascinating and hard to put down!
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