Do I really like books about crime fighters?

I’m a big fan of Lisa Gardner. Yes, she’s a crime author (not my favourite genre). Yes, she’s trashy (I’m an English Lit Graduate, why am I reading trash?). Yes, she holds competitions for people to get their names in her books (…). But her books are so readable.

By readable, I don’t mean easy reading. It’s not Sophie Kinsella or Chris Manby style trash. It’s closer, I suppose, to Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons. Personally, I find that I need to know what happens and if I don’t find out I can’t really rest. I couldn’t read half a Lisa Gardner book and then move on to something else. To use my own favourite word, it’s unputdownable.

Anyway, the book is Alone and carries the tagline, Don’t turn out the lights…

Synopsis

Woman finds out her husband was divorcing her. He gets drunk, and violent. She calls police. Police sniper sees husband with gun, blows him apart in front of wife and four year old son.

Question is this: did the sniper (Bobby) commit a crime? Did the wife (Catherine) engineer the situation so that her husband would die and she would get his money and keep custody of their son (stated reason for divorce being that she is abusing the son in a Munchausen’s type way. If she engineered it and Bobby shot an innocent man, it’s murder. If she didn’t and Bobby stopped a violent man from shooting his wife, then Bobby simply did his job.

Tough call.

The book is quite similar to About a Boy in that it oscillates between the perspectives of the two main characters, Bobby and Catherine. There’s a third, slightly more secondary character, the mysterious Mr Bosu, who gets a little less time than the others: but I think the point of giving him less chapters is to make him seem less human, which is fitting with his character.

And humanity, for me, is what the book is about. Catherine seems inhuman to the people around her in the story, with the possible exception of her son. But because the reader gets to see inside her head, watch how her past has shaped her future, she elicits a great deal of empathy, if not sympathy, from the reader.

Bobby is a more human character all round, yet his job isn’t really a “human” pursuit- as I’ve said, he finds himself with no choice but to kill a man. He is the hero of the book because he did his job, he saved a woman and child, and he goes through hell as a result.

Interestingly enough, I think the central themes here are compassion and understanding, although as with all crime novels, truth is another huge theme. Explaining why is more tricky- Bobby’s job leads him to kill in order to save an abused wife and child. Learning about Catherine’s traumatic past leads him to dig deeper and deeper into a case that for his own protection he should stay away from and find the truth. Seeing a poorly child struggle for survival, he attempts to discover the cause of Nathan’s illness. There’s no doubt that Bobby is a compassionate man but he goes above and beyond “normal” levels of compassion in order to understand a broken woman and help her defend herself and her son- he knows that shooting will put his whole career in jeopardy, but he does it anyway. He knows that continuing to help Catherine will essentially destroy him, but he does it anyway. Looking at it from the opposite point of view, Catherine’s, you see a vulnerable, frightened woman with a past which has all but destroyed her and those around her. And you see that she needs compassion, and more than compassion, because she needs someone to do something about it. And here we reach the inevitable (with me) Christian link. In this book, the character the reader would most like to identify with is Bobby- he’s good, he does what he has to do, he’s risen above the traumas of his childhood… but the thing is, he’s a bit too good. The character it’s more truthful to identify with is Catherine. She’s the sinner to Bobby’s Christlike character. And she’s the more human of the two, though not the more likeable. It seems I've changed my opinion while writing this- earlier in the review I said she was the least human. I guess it's all to do with perspective...

The point is, as far as books go, I liked this one. It may be crime trash, and it may be a tried and tested and tested again formula, but it’s pacey and interesting and keeps you guessing. It’s a great read, and isn’t that what reading’s about?

Anyway, my book review is rubbish! But here’s my stars…

Plot:***
Fun:***
Novelty:****
Overall:***