Scan barcode
daisyhamilton's review against another edition
This was literally the worst book. I've only disliked one book as much as this one. Why is this guy describing women like this? What? Big yikes. Doesn't add to the story, which is predictable and boring. A shame, because the scenery was beautiful. But then we had to go and talk about women who "thicken with middle age in all the least flattering places." And a creepy old landlord who won't stop making sex jokes at the main character, who isn't described to be creepy but just your run of the mill older man. And something about "nipple erections." Not erect nipples. Nipple ERECTIONS. I mean come on, what is THAT? No thanks.
cj_mo_2222's review against another edition
4.0
Twelve-year-old Jesse Rankin eats his breakfast one morning, but doesn’t show up at school. His backpack is still at home, but his hunting vest, boots, and shotgun are missing. It’s not the first time young Jesse has skipped school to shoot crows, but he’s never been gone this long. His mother Lizzie is frantic, afraid there has been an accident or something worse that has happened to her son. Artist Charlotte Dunleavy may have important information about the boy’s whereabouts, but her memory is clouded by the effects of a severe migraine, so Sheriff Marcus Gatesman is left with a lot of questions and a possible tragedy on his hands.
The Boy Who Shoot Crows is a beautifully written book with passages that often read like poetry. Most of the story is told form Charlotte’s point of view. Charlotte is very unusual for the lead character. She is beautiful and talented, but troubled. She can be caring and generous and then turn around and be reserved and selfish. She is having a hard time dealing with the aftermath of a failed marriage and finds it hard to fit in with the others in the small town in Pennsylvania. There is obvious chemistry between Charlotte and the county sheriff, Marcus Gatesman, whose wife and daughter died several years ago, but she becomes hysterical after agreeing to go for sushi with him and the date doesn’t happen. She is friends with a neighbor and later forms a tentative friendship with Lizzie, but her own fears get in the way.
While most stories of missing children are tragic, this book is especially haunting and sad. It is full of foreboding and all of the signs are there telling the reader what happened to Jesse, but all the while I hoped I was reading them wrong. Portions of the book are so fraught with tension, it’s hard to keep reading, but it’s also impossible to put down.
It’s difficult to fully comment on the book without giving away the ending. It is more a novel of psychological suspense than a mystery since it doesn’t seem there is much investigating being done by the sheriff or the state police even though foul play seems probably and there are more than a couple of solid suspects. Maybe the reader is supposed to assume there is more investigating going on than is mentioned, but it doesn’t seem like Marcus is looking for clues or trying to figure out the ones he has. He is supposed to be an intelligent, competent sheriff, so for me, this takes away from the story.
While this is a well-written book, it is not for everyone. The tone is similar to some of the stand alone novels by Ruth Rendall. While it’s not a book I will soon forget, it’s also not one I would want to re-read. The ending wasn’t shocking to me, but it was disturbing. Feelings of sadness linger after finishing the book, so while that’s a testament to the skill of the author, this book isn’t for everyone. At the beginning of the novel, Sheriff Gatesman thinks to himself,
“It was at times such as this that he felt unsuited for his job. He had not anticipated so much sadness.”
This line perfectly sums up the downside of Marcus’s job as sheriff, as well as my feelings toward "The Boy Who Shoots Crows.”
Thie review was originally written for The Season E-Zine. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.
The Boy Who Shoot Crows is a beautifully written book with passages that often read like poetry. Most of the story is told form Charlotte’s point of view. Charlotte is very unusual for the lead character. She is beautiful and talented, but troubled. She can be caring and generous and then turn around and be reserved and selfish. She is having a hard time dealing with the aftermath of a failed marriage and finds it hard to fit in with the others in the small town in Pennsylvania. There is obvious chemistry between Charlotte and the county sheriff, Marcus Gatesman, whose wife and daughter died several years ago, but she becomes hysterical after agreeing to go for sushi with him and the date doesn’t happen. She is friends with a neighbor and later forms a tentative friendship with Lizzie, but her own fears get in the way.
While most stories of missing children are tragic, this book is especially haunting and sad. It is full of foreboding and all of the signs are there telling the reader what happened to Jesse, but all the while I hoped I was reading them wrong. Portions of the book are so fraught with tension, it’s hard to keep reading, but it’s also impossible to put down.
It’s difficult to fully comment on the book without giving away the ending. It is more a novel of psychological suspense than a mystery since it doesn’t seem there is much investigating being done by the sheriff or the state police even though foul play seems probably and there are more than a couple of solid suspects. Maybe the reader is supposed to assume there is more investigating going on than is mentioned, but it doesn’t seem like Marcus is looking for clues or trying to figure out the ones he has. He is supposed to be an intelligent, competent sheriff, so for me, this takes away from the story.
While this is a well-written book, it is not for everyone. The tone is similar to some of the stand alone novels by Ruth Rendall. While it’s not a book I will soon forget, it’s also not one I would want to re-read. The ending wasn’t shocking to me, but it was disturbing. Feelings of sadness linger after finishing the book, so while that’s a testament to the skill of the author, this book isn’t for everyone. At the beginning of the novel, Sheriff Gatesman thinks to himself,
“It was at times such as this that he felt unsuited for his job. He had not anticipated so much sadness.”
This line perfectly sums up the downside of Marcus’s job as sheriff, as well as my feelings toward "The Boy Who Shoots Crows.”
Thie review was originally written for The Season E-Zine. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.
fictionophile's review against another edition
5.0
How often have you seen the hype written on book covers that proclaim the book in your hand to be “the best this year”, “a page turner”, etc. Do you believe it? Well this time you can! The book cover boasts a quote by The New York Times Book Review which states “A masterful storyteller”. What can I say?
I concur.
The protagonist in “The boy who shoots crows” is an artist who has moved from the city to rural Pennsylvania to recover from a failed marriage. She has the idea that the idyllic peaceful setting will cure her soul and prove as an inspiration to her art. The description in the novel is told as seen through the eye of an artist using a lot of imagery which enables the reader to vividly imagine the action and setting.
The renovated farmhouse where Charlotte Dunleavy has taken up residence adjoins a wooded area. The novel opens with a police officer knocking on Charlotte’s door early one early spring morning to ask her if she had seen a young boy from the area who has been reported missing. The boy has been seen many times by Charlotte as he goes to the wood to shoot crows on a regular basis. However, this time she tells the officer that she has not seen him. She does say that she saw an older boy, Dylan, spreading lime on the fields and that he left his tractor to enter the woods that day…
The police officer, Marcus Gatesman, is a widower who is immediately attracted to the lovely Charlotte. He sees her vulnerability and her fragility and feels the need to protect her from life’s dark side. And he has seen the dark side. Many years of police work coupled with the loss of his beloved wife and infant daughter in a car accident, ensure that he is well versed in the fact that bad things sometimes do happen to good people. He is a likeable chap who occasionally waxes philosophical on life, fate, and chance. The author, Randall Silvis describes Gatesman as being “softened by life’s hardness” which describes him perfectly. Charlotte on the other hand is so wounded by her ex-husband that she is unable to let herself feel anything for Marcus. Although this sounds like your stereotypical romance novel, nothing could be further from the truth.
Jesse, the missing boy, is the only child of a poor family who live in a small mobile home just down the road from Charlotte’s farmhouse. His long-suffering mother, Livvie Rankin works hard to give Jesse the basic necessities. His father drinks to excess, gambles and shows neither his wife nor his son any love or affection.
Dylan, the teenager who Charlotte inadvertently puts in a difficult position maintains his innocence. Suspicion has been established however, and the local community make Dylan’s life a misery. He is severely beaten and hospitalized. This even after Charlotte recants her earlier tale, pleading that she was suffering from a debilitating migraine that day and couldn’t really rely on her senses. In fact Charlotte is so emotionally fragile that she seems to doubt her own perceptions causing the reader to question what is true? What is not?
As the story progresses and the search for the missing Jesse remains unfruitful, Charlotte seems to deteriorate into melancholia. She doesn’t take care of herself, she has lost all interest in her art, and her despair is almost palpable. She blames herself for casting Dylan in a guilty light.
“The boy who shoots crows” is unlike previous thrillers I have read where you turn pages wondering if what you deduct might be true. It is an astounding literary psychological thriller where I found myself turning pages feverishly hoping that what I was afraid of wasn’t true… The ending of the novel is one that will remain with me for years to come. Highly recommended!
(This review was first published on my blog: Fictionophile)
I concur.
The protagonist in “The boy who shoots crows” is an artist who has moved from the city to rural Pennsylvania to recover from a failed marriage. She has the idea that the idyllic peaceful setting will cure her soul and prove as an inspiration to her art. The description in the novel is told as seen through the eye of an artist using a lot of imagery which enables the reader to vividly imagine the action and setting.
The renovated farmhouse where Charlotte Dunleavy has taken up residence adjoins a wooded area. The novel opens with a police officer knocking on Charlotte’s door early one early spring morning to ask her if she had seen a young boy from the area who has been reported missing. The boy has been seen many times by Charlotte as he goes to the wood to shoot crows on a regular basis. However, this time she tells the officer that she has not seen him. She does say that she saw an older boy, Dylan, spreading lime on the fields and that he left his tractor to enter the woods that day…
The police officer, Marcus Gatesman, is a widower who is immediately attracted to the lovely Charlotte. He sees her vulnerability and her fragility and feels the need to protect her from life’s dark side. And he has seen the dark side. Many years of police work coupled with the loss of his beloved wife and infant daughter in a car accident, ensure that he is well versed in the fact that bad things sometimes do happen to good people. He is a likeable chap who occasionally waxes philosophical on life, fate, and chance. The author, Randall Silvis describes Gatesman as being “softened by life’s hardness” which describes him perfectly. Charlotte on the other hand is so wounded by her ex-husband that she is unable to let herself feel anything for Marcus. Although this sounds like your stereotypical romance novel, nothing could be further from the truth.
Jesse, the missing boy, is the only child of a poor family who live in a small mobile home just down the road from Charlotte’s farmhouse. His long-suffering mother, Livvie Rankin works hard to give Jesse the basic necessities. His father drinks to excess, gambles and shows neither his wife nor his son any love or affection.
Dylan, the teenager who Charlotte inadvertently puts in a difficult position maintains his innocence. Suspicion has been established however, and the local community make Dylan’s life a misery. He is severely beaten and hospitalized. This even after Charlotte recants her earlier tale, pleading that she was suffering from a debilitating migraine that day and couldn’t really rely on her senses. In fact Charlotte is so emotionally fragile that she seems to doubt her own perceptions causing the reader to question what is true? What is not?
As the story progresses and the search for the missing Jesse remains unfruitful, Charlotte seems to deteriorate into melancholia. She doesn’t take care of herself, she has lost all interest in her art, and her despair is almost palpable. She blames herself for casting Dylan in a guilty light.
“The boy who shoots crows” is unlike previous thrillers I have read where you turn pages wondering if what you deduct might be true. It is an astounding literary psychological thriller where I found myself turning pages feverishly hoping that what I was afraid of wasn’t true… The ending of the novel is one that will remain with me for years to come. Highly recommended!
(This review was first published on my blog: Fictionophile)
More...