Drama Review: Black (黑)

A grim reaper and a woman who is able to foresee death; toss in with a few complicated murder cases and that is Black. Yes, these about sum up what this drama is about and I have to say I enjoyed this drama immensely.

Black (starring Song Seung-heon) is a grim reaper whose soul has taken over the dead body of a detective, Han Moo-gang. Also known as reaper 444, Black is known to be cold-hearted and ruthless in the underworld. Why his soul possessed Moo-gang's body remains a mystery but is also part of its core of the story as it slowly unfolds.

Go Ara played as the woman who could foresee death by the dark shadows surrounding the victims' bodies. Kang Ha-ram has had this ability since young and she sees this more as a curse than a blessing. After losing her father and with a mother who doesn't show her enough attention, Ha-ram lives alone and with a pair of sunglasses as her companion, her life is a simple one as long as she pretends she doesn't see all those dark shadows around her and that she minds her own business. Her peace of mind is shattered after knowing the death of her teenaged crush, Moo-gang.

What follows is Black having to get used to the mortal world and engaging Ha-ram as "his eyes" so he could locate other lost roaming souls. Ha-ram, on the other end, is happy enough to see Moo-gang is back on his feet again although he seems cold and distant towards her. As the duo work together, the crime squad has a few cases on their hands which Black later discovered are connected to Moo-gang's and Ha-ram's childhood.

What I loved about this drama is because it has all the elements I love - fantasy theme, intricate suspense plots and last but not least, romance. The story is well crafted and there are lots of twists and turns when the murder cases are concerned and what amazed me is while each of the case seems isolated (and mind-boggling at times), they are all linked nicely towards the end. And I especially enjoyed the tender moments between Black and Ha-ram; Black may be in denial over their so-called relationship but his concern and his actions speak volumes and I think it is romantic despite their exchanges stated otherwise. All in all it was a great fantasy and suspense drama alongside a great cast of characters. I was sorry to see it ended and would have given this a 5-star rating if the ending was better explained but nevertheless still a satisfying one. Recommended. 

© 2017 Melody's Reading Corner (https://mel-reading-corner.blogspot.sg/), All Rights Reserved. If you are reading this post from other site(s), please take note that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown

Random House Publishing Group | July 2017 | 368 pgs

Source: Library

At first glance, Watch Me Disappear may seem like a psychological suspense but at its core it is actually a story revolving family dynamic and how well you really know your loved ones.

Billie Flanagan had gone missing from a hiking expedition in the Desolation Wilderness a year ago and till present her body couldn't be found. Her husband, Jonathan and their sixteen-year-old daughter, Olive are still coping with the grief of losing her while awaiting for the court issuance of her death certificate, which has proved to be a long struggling wait considering that there is no solid proof and that her death remains a mystery. While Jonathan tries to cope with the loss and hoping for a closure that would allow them to move on with their life through the insurance settlement, Olive, on the other hand, starts having visions of her mother. Each of these visions seems to tell Olive that Billie might be alive and that Olive should try to find her. 

Meanwhile, Jonathan isn't so sure about Olive's visions and thinks his daughter is hallucinating with her grief and denial. Worrying over her emotional stability, he sent Olive to visit a therapist while he himself drinks as he works on a memoir about his marriage, which is part work as a writer to a publishing house and part in loving memory of Billie. And as he finds her laptop and stumbles upon an encrypted folder, his mind wanders in different directions the more he starts unearthing secrets from her past through his little diggings and investigations. Who was the woman he knew as Billie Flanagan? What happened to her on that fateful day when she went hiking alone in Desolation Wilderness? 

I've to admit it took me a little while to get engrossed in this story. It had a slow beginning and focus much on the mundane life and relationship within the Flanagan household. The reader also get to know a bit more of Olive, her relationship with her mother as well as bits of her school life. Olive is an angsty teenage girl who will go anywhere to find the truth about her mother's disappearance. Jonathan believes in his family but he hadn't been paying much attention towards Billie and Olive; he was too involved in his work and he didn't want to intrude upon their "girl bonding" moments until there was a time Olive slowly drifted away from that bond. 

As mentioned before, if you're expecting this to be a psychological suspense then you'll be disappointed because this is leaning more towards the issues of family dynamic, marriage and relationship and what you tell yourself about the people you love. That said, the story has a few twists and turns and like Jonathan and Olive, I was totally clueless and dying of curiosity over Billie's disappearance until the final page, which left me speechless as my mind finally settled on the last three paragraphs. This is a well written story which will prompt a discussion (because I sure want to discuss that ending with whoever had read the book!)

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End note: I googled Desolation Wilderness out of curiosity and was surprised to learn that it isn't fictional (OK, perhaps it's only me who didn't know this fact) and is located in El Dorado County, California. (More info here from Wikipedia)

© 2017 Melody's Reading Corner (https://mel-reading-corner.blogspot.sg/), All Rights Reserved. If you are reading this post from other site(s), please take note that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

The Dry by Jane Harper

Flatiron Books | January 2017 | 336 pgs

Source: Library

Luke lied. You lied. 

Four words. Yet they are powerful enough to send Federal agent Aaron Falk back to his hometown in Kiewarra where he grew up in twenty years. Luke Hadler, now dead and survived only by baby Charlotte, is believed to have murdered his wife and young son before ending his own life. Now stationed in Melbourne, Falk didn't want to return to Kiewarra despite what happened to his late childhood friend. Kiewarra has brought him too much bad memories; memories that remind him of Ellie Deacon's death and how he and his father were caught in the middle of it twenty years ago. With no concrete proof, the Falks were forced to leave Kiewarra with much contempt from its residents. Till this day, no one really knew what happened to Ellie on that fateful day she ended up drowned in the river. 

However, Aaron knew he owed it to Luke's parents; after all they treated him kindly like their own back then and he knew they all wouldn't rest until the truth surrounding Luke and his family's death came to light. Together with Sergeant Greg Raco who is looking into the case, they go through what's left of Luke's traces and found out that Kiewarra is filled with buried secrets and deceptions and that one could do anything to protect his back, even if it means murder. 

The Dry was one of the best books I read thus far. Part suspense and part police procedural, this story takes readers to the quiet suburb Kiewarra where its residents are threatened by the drought and how they are trying to make the best for their farming business. We have several suspects and at times they are linked with Ellie's death, considering her death remains a mystery and some residents aren't happy to see Aaron's return. 

This book is brilliant and well written in a sense that the story was well developed from the beginning with both the characterisation and the setting. Then suspense seeped in and the intensity rose like the searing heat; and by then the book was hard to put down because you just want to find out the truth. The Dry is Jane Harper's debut novel but it certainly didn't feel like one. I fell in love with Jane's writing and the way she plotted her story beautifully. I also liked it that how the two mysteries are woven together smoothly yet they are on its own and each has a story to tell. In the end, I was left with a hollow feeling not because the book was bad (I loved it, remember?) but how it affected me to see what the victims' had gone through with their wrongful death. The ending was beautifully done too; and I was satisfied to see not only one but both cases (Luke's and Ellie's) closed as well. Highly recommended.

© 2017 Melody's Reading Corner (https://mel-reading-corner.blogspot.sg/), All Rights Reserved. If you are reading this post from other site(s), please take note that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Ragdoll by Daniel Cole

Trapeze | February 2017 | 384 pgs

Source: Library

Daniel Cole started off his debut thriller with a bang featuring one of the most horrific/gruesome murder crimes I'd read to-date - a body with the dismembered parts of six victims stitched together, thus earning the nickname "Ragdoll" by the media. Assigned to this case are DS William "Wolf" Fawkes and DS Emily Baxter; both of them with the Metropolitan Police with Wolf leading the investigation.

Wolf had a history about abusing a defendant on trial after the sentence. Naguib Khalid, dubbed "The Cremation Killer" had set twenty seven young female prostitutes ablaze after they were heavily sedated in twenty-seven days and though Wolf made his arrest, contradicting surveillance reports and conflicting forensic evidence rendered Khalid a not-guilty sentence which made Wolf lost his cool. Wolf doesn't really care about protocols and as long as he knows he is right about the suspect, he would do anything to bring him down.

Four years later after losing his marriage and that he was vindicated from that infamous trial incident, he's back into his position with a bigger and sensational "Ragdoll" case waiting for him. But this is not all, Wolf's ex-wife, who is a TV journalist, received a list of six names (with Wolf being the last on the list) and the dates which the killer may strike next and this sent the whole media and nation into an uproar. With the clock ticking away and the pressure from all directions, the Metropolitan Police has to race against time with the killer to ensure that no more lives are being lost to the sadistic killer who seems to be a few steps ahead of them.

Ragdoll was a fast-paced thriller filled with intensity and actions with a dose of dark satire. Wolf made an intriguing, flawed character right from the start. His partnering with DS Emily Baxter filled the pages with their love/hate opinions of each other as well as their investigations. They are not romantically linked, yet Wolf's ex-wife assumed they are, which was one reason that shattered their marriage aside from their different life and perspectives. While I enjoyed the developed characters in Wolf and Emily, surprisingly it was Emily's trainee, Edmunds, whom I found the most interesting among all. He is smart and meticulous in his own way, and his devotion to the investigation definitely worth an appreciation from all but I felt his role was a bit underrated.

While this was more of a police procedural and I liked it that readers are offered more than a glimpse of how the media has much influence when controversial matters are concerned, I felt it'd have been better if it includes the killer's perspective and how his mind works. Then again, it may be the author's intention of portraying him as a dire and mysterious figure. Wolf and Emily are set to return in a sequel in 2018 and I've high expectations considering it's clichéd bigger, darker, more shocking but at the same time it's funnier, more poignant and more personal (these are from the author's words.)

© 2017 Melody's Reading Corner (https://mel-reading-corner.blogspot.sg/), All Rights Reserved. If you are reading this post from other site(s), please take note that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong

Sphere | January 2016 | 480 pgs

Source: Purchased

City of the Lost is Kelley Armstrong's first book of her Casey Duncan series and I was excited to read it as it features a tough, flawed female detective and a setting of the isolated Yukon wilderness.

The story opens with an intriguing scene of Casey visiting her new therapist. Twelve years ago, Casey had killed a man. While an incident had left Casey both emotionally and physically scarred, she knew that man didn't deserve death despite what he had done. She then moved on and became a homicide detective and she knew someday the crime she had committed will catch up on her. On the other end, Diana, who is Casey's best friend, faces a problem involving her ex-husband who is stalking and abusing her. Diana knew there is a town where they would be safe; Rockton has only about 200+ population and it is meant for people who want to shed their old lives, just like them. They managed to get into Rockton after going through some procedures.

While Diana has a valid reason of escaping from her ex-husband, Casey gained her entrance into Rockton as the new detective in town. Sheriff Eric Dalton is wary of Casey as a newbie but Rockton needs her expertise considering they have their very first murder case. Rockton may deem as a sanctuary for those who want to escape their old life, but are all the residents they claimed as who they are? Or was the horrific murder done by the hostiles; those who lost something when they left Rockton had began to lose their humanity and revert to something animalistic?

City of the Lost is a great first book of a new series with an interesting cast of characters and the atmospheric Rockton made this book stand out from the rest. The plot and the suspense captivated me, but it was the characters who held my interest throughout the story. Casey Duncan is a woman who has a flawed past and one who doesn't shy away from the imperfections in life or in people. Her willingness to get involved with an ex-con who had come clean in the initial stage of the story tells a lot about her personality and her way of viewing things in general, never mind if they have a future or not. Her interactions with Sheriff Eric Dalton came off as a slow start and with doubts so it was interesting to see their attitudes towards each other changed as the story progresses. All in all this was an intriguing story and I look forward to reading her next installment, A Darkness Absolute.

© 2017 Melody's Reading Corner (https://mel-reading-corner.blogspot.sg/), All Rights Reserved. If you are reading this post from other site(s), please take note that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Burntown by Jennifer McMahon

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group | April 2017 | 304 pgs

Source: Edelweiss via Publisher (Advance Reading Copy)

Ashford, Vermont, 1975. There was once a Sandeskis family living in a sleepy town where they resided among abandoned mills and factories. Burntown, as they called this town, was their home and the Sandeskis were a happily family. Miles was a respected professor and during his free time, he would make mechanical animals and talking dolls for his young daughter, Eva. But his greatest invention was a plan which was passed on by Miles's father; a machine which would allow the living to communicate with the dead. Then came the Great Flood which Eva believed that was what killed her father and her brother, Errol. Eva and her mother, Lily, left their place and lived off the grid in a campsite on the river's edge with three mystical women who called themselves "fire eaters". These women knew how to breathe and eat fires through a herb they called "devil's snuff" and it also allowed them to see the future through their vision.

Eva, now known as "Necco" on the street, has been hiding away her life ever since her mother passed. According to Lily, her father was murdered by someone called "Snake Eyes" (or the Chicken Man) who wanted her father's invention. But Eva never believed what she was told and thought her mother was under depression and grief, until her mysterious death and Eva's boyfriend being murdered signified that there is indeed someone out there who is looking for her and wants her father's plan.

Along the way, Eva befriended two people; Theo, a high school senior who is scrambling to find her lost bag containing some drugs and money she owes a drugs dealer and Pru, a woman who works as a cafeteria lady at a Catholic School and runs errands for a circus as her other secret life. Pru knew Theo because she has been relying on her for her "vitamins" for some time but she hasn't heard from Theo for awhile and she needs her stuff to get her going. As the lives of these three different women intersect, they knew they have to rely on one another to get their life in order and most of all, to escape from "Snake Eyes" who has begun to close in on them.

Jennifer McMahon's stories never fail to surprise me; each of them is different and I knew I can always count on her for a good escapism read. Be it supernatural, fantasy or thriller, she has a knack for capturing your attention through the various worlds she created and soon you will find yourself engaged in her characterisations and premises, never mind if the subjects might seem bizarre or not. That is how Jennifer McMahon's books are and I like the different style and topics she imply in them. While I was fascinated by Burntown and the imagination of a great machine which could allow the living to communicate with the dead (it sounds creepy!), it was these notion - "one's hope to dream and dare to make them true" and "girl power" which spoke volumes to me. Eva, Theo and Pru have their flaws and I liked how they overcome their issues and daring to dream under difficult circumstances and of course, through the support of their friendship. Pru might be a secondary character but surprisingly, she was my favourite character among all. I liked that she finds her courage and dreams despite she thinks she is fat and worthless; and what she did in the end brought a smile to my face. Burntown may not be my favourite McMahon book but it was quite an inspiring read in my opinion.

© 2017 Melody's Reading Corner (https://mel-reading-corner.blogspot.sg/), All Rights Reserved. If you are reading this post from other site(s), please take note that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Rattle by Fiona Cummins

Macmillan | January 2017 | 496 pgs

Source: Library

Rattle is a book which is neither easy to read nor write after turning that last page. It was hard to articulate my thoughts and put them into words as aside from the horror of the crimes, it also features a medical condition of Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (Stone Man Syndrome); a rare debilitating disease that causes sufferers to grow a second skeleton which literally traps them in a prison of bone (this definition was extracted from the author's note. For more info please click above link.)

And on top of it all was a terrifying serial killer, named the Bone Collector, is a psychopath who leads two lives - an ordinary man who's like anyone else and a caretaker of his family's macabre museum in another. Aside from abducting little children who seem to have some skeletal deformities, his other modus operandi is leaving rabbit skeletons around either as a clue or as a taunt, nobody knows but Detective Sergeant Etta Fitzroy is adamant to trace him down and to see that the children are returned safely back to their parents.

But that is not all, two sets of parents (with their children missing) face some marital problems; most of which is one parent is not attentive enough to their family and even DS Etta Fitzroy doesn't escape from her own woes - a stillborn baby and an older broker husband who doesn't really want children. However, Fitzroy's characteristic shine in her devotion to her work amid her personal life.

As for our antagonist the Bone Collector, he remains as a shadow and readers know very little of him until the last quarter of the book; and by then the intensity was full-blown and readers would be caught up by the cat-and-mouse race. Overall, Rattle was quite an unsettling read with a creepy psychopath and his evil deeds and while it was a thrilling read to me, I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending. Perhaps there is a sequel to it? I hope so.

© 2017 Melody's Reading Corner (https://mel-reading-corner.blogspot.sg/), All Rights Reserved. If you are reading this post from other site(s), please take note that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.