145. the LAST CHILD

John Hart 2009

Johnny Merrimon's twin sister Ashley suddenly vanished a year ago, when they were twelve years old. And even if everyone else seems to have given up hope on finding her, Johnny has not. In fact, he has secretly spent most of everyday looking for her, going on foot, on 'borrowed' cars and going house to house, waiting and searching patiently. When another girl, Tiffany,  disappears, the secret and mystery of Ashley's disappearance slowly unravels. Quite a satisfying whirlwind of a read. 

'Asphalt cut the country like a scar, a long, hot burn of razor-black. Heat had not twisted the air, but the driver knew it was coming, the scorching glare, the shimmer at the far place where blue hammered down.'(opening lines)

'Johnny learned early. If somebody asked him why he was so different, why he held himself so still and why his eyes seemed to swallow light, that's what he'd tell them. He learned early that there was no safe place, not the backyard or the playground, not the front porch or the quiet road that grazed the edge of town. No safe place, and no one to protect you. Childhood was illusion.'(7)

'He thought that the cop probably meant what he said. He was probably a good guy. But Johnny could never look at him without remembering Alyssa, and that kind of thinking required concentration. He had to picture her alive and smiling, not in a dirt-floored cellar or in the back of some car. She was twelve the last time he'd seen her. Twelve, with black hair, cut like a boy's.'(16)

'People were not right. The cop had that part straight. Johnny had peered over more fences and into more windows than he could count. He'd knocked on doors at all hours, and he's seen things that weren't right. Things that people did when they thought they were alone and no one was watching. He'd seen kids sniff drugs and old people eat food that fell on the floor. He once saw a preacher in his underwear, hot-faced and screaming at his wife as she cried. That was messed up. But Johnny was no idiot. He knew that crazy people could look like anybody else.'(39)

"Life is a comedy," Jack said, but there was no smile left. His mother was scary religious, born again and taking no prisoners. She was on Jack all the time with threats of hellfire and damnation. He played it off, but the cracks showed.'(43)

'Levi Freemantle carried a precious thing on his shoulder. It was a heavy box, wrapped twice in black plastic and closed up with silver tape. Few men could carry it as far as Levi had, but Levi was not like other men. He ignored the hurt of it, the sense of it. He kept his feet on the path and moved his lips when words rose up in his mind. He listened to God's voice in his head and followed the river like his momma taught him when he was a boy. The river was the river, never-changing, and Levi had walked the river trail a hundred times, maybe. Not that he counted that good.'(53)

'Hunt shook his head at the absurdity of the word. There was nothing mere about the boy Johnny had become. The evidence was everywhere: in his actions and his attitudes, in this bare-walled room and even in the books he kept. They were not a boy's books. Johnny had books on history and ancient religions, vision quests, and the hunting rituals on the Plain Indians.'(112)

'He drove out the fear and put his fingers on the key. His eyes, in the mirror, showed red lines and blackened lids. He was untouchable, he told himself, a warrior.... He was an Indian chief.(118)

"The world is what it is, unjust and tragic and full of crying shames. Don't hate me for it."(127)

'The kid knew things. Hunt was certain of it. He pictured again, as he had many times, the black eyes and wariness, the profound stillness of deep and careful thought. Johnny was messed up in so many fundamental ways, confused, twisted sideways; but the clarity with which he saw certain things... Loyalty. Fierceness. Determination.'(187-188)

'Darkness is a cancer of the human heart.'(338)

a Thomas Dunne Book for Minotaur Books
419 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge
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143. the SURGEON

Tess Gerritsen 2001

A terrifying thriller guaranteed to keep you turning the pages. A serial murderer is on the hunt for women, torturing them with the precise cuttings of a 'Surgeon'. Added to the mystery is the eerie similarity of the crime to the previous rape and near death of Dr. Catherine Cordel, who survived the assault by killing his attacker two years before. Is the 'Surgeon' a copycat killer or is there a hideous connection? 

'Today they will find her body.'(opening line)

'There were two visible wounds. One was a deep slash across the throat, extending from beneath the left ear, transecting the left carotid artery, and laying open the laryngeal cartilage. The coup de grace. The second slash was low on the abdomen. This wound had not meant to kill; it had served an entirely different purpose.'(5)

'And when it was done, when her agonal struggles had ceased, you left us a calling card. You neatly folded the victim's nightshirt, and you left it on the dresser. Why? Is it some twisted sign of respect for the woman you've just slaughtered? Or is it your way of mocking us? Your way of telling us that you are in control?'(16)

'No matter how much you try to maintain order in your life, no matter how careful you are to guard against mistakes, against imperfections, there is always some smudge, some flaw, lurking out of sight. Waiting to surprise you.'(30)

'Evil doesn't die. It never dies. It just takes on a new face, a new name. Just because we've been touched by it once, it doesn't mean we're immune to ever being hurt again. Lightning can strike twice.'(51)

"This is the worst kind of unsub we can face. He went a whole year between attacks -- that's extremely rare. It means he can go months between hunts. We could run ourselves ragged looking for him, while he sits patiently waiting for the next kill. He is careful. He is organized. He will leave few, if any, clues behind.'(58)

'This isn't a souvenir. And it's not a mark of ownership." He set down the necklace, a tangled filigree of gold that had skimmed the flesh of two dead women.
A shudder went through Rizzouli. "It's a calling card," she said softly.
Moore nodded. "The Surgeon is talking to us."(87)

'Where we go depends on what we know, and what we know depends on where we go.'(137)

'No kiss, no embrace, could bring two people any closer than we are right now. The most intimate emotion two people can share is neither love nor desire but pain.'(156)

'Some men are worth trusting. Moore had told her.
Yes, but which ones? I never know.
You won't know until push comes to shove. He'll be the one still standing beside you.'(295)

"This is a boy who never stood out, never alarmed anyone. This is the most frightening killer of all, because there's no pathology, no psychiatric diagnosis. He's like Ted Bundy. Intelligent, organized, and, on the surface, quite functional. But he has one personality quirk: he enjoys torturing women. This is someone you might work with every day. And you'd never suspect that when he's looking at you, smiling at you, he's thinking about some new and creative way to rip out your guts.'(305)

'Twenty years of marriage, with all its countless memories. The whispers late at night, the private jokes, the history. Yes, the history. A marriage is made up of such little things as burned suppers and midnight swims, yet it's those little things that bind two lives into one.'(343)

a Ballantine Book
350 pages
Book borrowed from the library
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge

116. the BIG SLEEP

Raymond Chandler 1939

In this classic detective fiction, the author creates Philip Marlowe, one that epitomizes the private detective of by-gone days, working for the love of the skill . He is a smart-talking, quick-thinking, cynical but idealistic, sensitive but brutally honest detective who is seemingly incorruptible and always focused on the task at hand. When wealthy but ailing General Sternwood hires him to deal with blackmailer Geiger, what looks like a simple problem becomes a mere fraction of a complicated plot that also involves the General's two unruly daughters, Carmen and Vivian Regan. This book is a primary example of a book I quote because of the descriptive and ever-interesting play of words.

'It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be.'(opening lines)

"Vivian went to good schools of the snob type and to college. Carmen went to half a dozen schools of greater and greater liberality, and ended up where she started. I presume they both had, and still have, all the usual vices. If I sound a little sinister as a parent, Mr. Marlowe, it is because my hold on life is too slight to include any Victorian hypocrisy... I need not add that a man who indulges in parenthood for the first time at the age of fifty-four deserves all he gets.'(13)

'I sat down on the edge of a deep soft chair and looked at Mrs. Regan. She was worth a stare. She was trouble... Her hair was black and wiry and parted in the middle and she had the hot black eyes of the portrait in the hall. She had a good mouth and a good chin. There was a sulky droop to her lips and the lower lip was full.'(17)

"I didn't ask to see you. You sent for me. I don't mind your ritzing me or drinking your lunch out of a Scotch bottle. I don't mind your showing me your legs. They're very swell legs and it's a pleasure to make their acquaintance. I don't mind if you don't like my manners. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings. But don't waste your time trying to cross-examine me."(19)

'She had a beautiful body, small, lithe, compact, firm, rounded. Her skin in the lamplight had the shimmering luster of pearl. Her legs didn't quite have the raffish grace of Mrs. Regan's legs, but they were very nice. I looked her over without either embarrassment or ruttishness. As a naked girl she was not there in that room at all. She was just a dope. To me she was always just a dope.'(36)

"Keep quiet or you'll get the same and more of it. Just lie quiet and hold your breath. Hold it until you can't hold it any longer and then tell yourself that you have to breathe, that you're black in the face, that your eyeballs are popping out, and that you're going to breathe right now, but that you're sitting strapped in the chair in the clean little gas chamber up in San Quentin and when you take that breath you're fighting with all your soul not to take it, it won't be air you'll get, it will be cyanide fumes. And that's what they call humane execution in our state now."(101)

'It's goddamned funny in this police racket how an old woman can look out of a window and see a guy running and pick him out of a line-up six months later, but we can show hotel help a clear photo and they just can't be sure... "That's one of the qualifications for good hotel help," I said.'(122)

'He pushed a shiny print across the desk and I looked at an Irish face that was more sad than merry and more reserved than brash. Not the face of a tough guy and not the face of a man who could be pushed around much by anybody. Straight dark brows with strong bone under them. A forehead wide rather than high, a mat of dark clustering hair, a thin short nose, a wide mouth. a chin that had strong lines but was small for the mouth. A face that looked a little taut, the face of a man who would move fast and play for keeps. I passed the print back. I would know that face, if I saw it.'(123)

"Men have been shot for practically nothing. The first time we met I told you I was a detective. Get it through your lovely head. I work at it, lady. I don't play at it."(151)

'I was as empty of life as a scarecrow's pockets. I went out to the kitchenette and drank two cups of black coffee. You can have a hangover from other things than alcohol. I had one from women. Women made me sick.'(159)

"Just a plain pine box," I said. "don't bother with bronze or silver handles. And don't scatter my ashes over the blue Pacific. I like the worms better. Did you know that worms are of both sexes and that any worm can love any other worm?"(191)

'The game I play is not spillikins. There's always a large element of bluff connected with it. Whatever I might say to a cop, he would apt to discount it. And to that cop it wouldn't make a difference what I said. When you hire a boy in my line of work it isn't like hiring a window-washer and showing him eight windows and saying: 'Wash those and you're through.' You don't know what I have to go through or over or under to do your job for you. I do it my way. I do my best to protect you and I may break a few rules, but I break them in your favor. The client comes first, unless he's crooked. Even then all I do is hand the job back to him and keep my mouth shut.'(212)

' What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell.'(230)

First Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Edition, August 1992

231 pages

Book borrowed from the Classic section/Library

112. TELL NO ONE

Harlan Coben 2001

An easy, entertaining suspense thriller read. A straightforward novel with enough twists and action to keep me turning the page. Dr. David Beck, a pediatrician lost his wife Elizabeth eight years ago from a brutal serial killer. As he tries to go on with his life, still unable to totally cope with this tragedy, he then receives a series of e-mails he cannot tell anyone. As he plunges head on and discovers secrets and cover-ups, he raises to answer the important question: Can Elizabeth still be alive after all?

'There should have been a dark whisper in the wind. Or maybe a deep chill in the bone. An ethereal song only Elizabeth or I could hear. A tightness in the air. Some textbook premonition.'(opening lines)

'We could have gone to the same college, but we discussed it and decided that this would be yet another excellent test for our relationship. Again, we were doing the mature thing. The result? We missed each other like mad. The separation deepened our commitment and gave our love a new distance-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder dimension... Nauseating, I know.'(16)

'For anniversaries or holidays or Elizabeth's birthday, I get so geared up that I usually handle them with no problems. It's the "regular" days that are hard. When I flip with the remote and stumble across a classic episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show or Cheers. When I walk through a bookstore and see a new title by Alice Hoffman or Anne Tyler. When I listen to the O'Jays or the Four Tops or Nina Simone. Regular stuff.'(18)

'I clicked the little icon and the email came up:

Tomorrow same time plus two hours at Bigfoot.com

A message for you will be left under:

Your user Name: Bat Street

Password:Teenage

Beneath this, clinging to the bottom of the screen, just five more words:

They're watching. Tell no one.'(54)

'Part of being a doctor is patience. I constantly give children tests that have life-altering-- if not life-ending-- implications and tell them and their parents to wait for the results. They have no choice. Perhaps the same could be said for this situation. There were too many variables right now.'(76)

'It's an amazing thing really, when you think about it, we learn life's most important lessons from TV.'(90)

'Still, death is a great teacher. It's just too harsh... I wish I could tell you that through the tragedy I mined some undiscovered, life-altering absolute that I could pass on to you. I didn't. The cliches apply-- people are what count, life is precious, materialism is overrated, the little things matter, live in the moment-- and I can repeat them to you ad nauseam. You might listen, but you won't internalize. Tragedy hammers it home. Tragedy etched it onto your soul. You might not be happier. But you will be better.'(103)

'Hope, that caged bird that just won't die, broke free. I leaned back. Tears flooded my eyes, but for the first time in a long while, I let loose a real smile... Elizabeth. She was still the smartest person I knew.'(150)

'You might argue that I'm nesting myself on an awfully slippery slope. I would agree with you, though I might counter that most of my life is lived out there. The problem was, there were repercussions when you lived in the grays-- not just theoretical ones that taint your soul, but the brick-and-mortar ones, the unforeseeable destruction that such choices leave behind.'(300)

A Dell Book

370 pages

Book borrowed from the library, the 'Classic' section(?). See related post here.

54. the GIRL who KICKED the HORNETS' NEST

Stieg Larsson 2007
Translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland

This definitive conclusion to the Millennium Trilogy masterfully unravels most of Lisbeth Salander's convoluted cruel past, introduces many sub-plots and answers most of the questions from the last two books with the very riveting and satisfying last 100 pages.

'Dr. Jonasson was woken by Nurse Nicander five minutes before the helicopter was exxpected to land. It was just before I.30 in the morning.'(5)

'The axe isn't still in his head. I assume it was Salander who nailed him. His real name is Alexander Zalachenko and he's Lisbeth's father. He was a hit man for Russian military intelligence. He defected in the '70s and was then on the books of Sapo until the collapse of the Soviet Union. He's been running his own criminal network ever since.'(19)

'She was surprised to be alive. Yet she felt indifferent. If death was the black emptiness from which she had just woken up, then death was nothing to worry about. She would hardly notice the difference. With which esoteric thoughts she closed her eyes and fell asleep again.'(50)

'She has been called a psychopath, a murderer, and a lesbian Satanist. There has been almost no limit to the fantasies that have been circulated about her. In this issue, Millenium will tell the story of how government officials conspired against Salander in order to protect a pathological murderer...'(52)

'"The Section" was Francke's idea. He called it "the last line of defence". An ultra-secret unit that was given strategic positions within the Firm, but which was invinsible. It was never referred to in writing, even in budget memoranda, and therefore it could not be infiltrated.'(88)

'Teleborian's report from 1991 has been leaked, and it's potentially as serious threat as Zalachenko.'(113)

'She was afraid that it was a moral issue, and that was one of his weaknesses. He was Salander's friend. She knew her brother. She knew that he was loyal to the point of foolishness once he had made someone a friend, even if the friend was impossible and obviously flawed.'(178)

'Besides, he had--literally--rootled around in her brain. Someone who rummaged around in your brain had to be treated with respect. To her surprise she found the visits of Dr. Jonasson pleasant, despite the fact that he poked at her and fussed over her fever chart.'(181)

'It's not over. The conspiracy is continuing. It's the only way to explain the tapped telephones, the attack of Annika, and the double theft of the Salander report. Perhaps the murder of Zalachenko is a part of it too.'(190)

'Your job description as a journalist is to question and scrutinize most critically. And never to repeat claims uncritically, no matter how highly placed the sources in the bureaucracy. Don't ever forget that. You're a terrific writer, but the talent is completely worthless if you forget your job description.'(203)

'Putting a mobile telephone into an air vent inside a locked cleaning supplies room, turned on but not uplinked, was so crazy that Ghidi could not imagine what use it could be.'(223)

Her heart skipped a beat. It's my Palm. But how...In amazement she glanced over at the locked door. Jonasson was a catalogue of surprises. In great excitement she turned on the computer at once and discovered that it was password-protected.'(252)

'Hacker republic comprised a very exclusive club of the best of the best, an elite force that any defense organization in the world would have paid enormous sums to use for cyber-military purpose...'(258)

'The only person who can decide your future is you. It doesn't matter how hard Annika works for you, or how much Armansky and Palmgren and I, and others, try to support you.. I'm not going to try to convince you one way or the other. You've got to decide for yourself. You could turn the trial to your advantage or let them convict you. But if you want to win, you're going to have to fight.'(286)

'She had decided to go along with Blomkvist's plan. That was why she had written the plain, unvarnished truth about her life in a crackingly terse autobiography of forty pages. She had been quite precise. Everything she has written was true.' (375)

'And I guess that in some way I'm falling for you because you are who you are. It's easy to sleep with you because there's no bullshit and you make me feel safe.'(451)

'It was a question of credibility. She had come as herself and no-one else. Way over the top--for clarity. She was not pretending to be someone she was not. Her message to the court was that she had no reason to be ashamed or to put on a show. If the court had a problem with her appearance, it was no concern of hers.'(493)
_____________________________________

Great Britain edition 2009
599 pages
Book borrowed from my friend SHK, February 2010
_____________________________________

Personal Note: Although this is the last book, somehow, I am left with the same feeling as most that there were supposed to be more...

53. the GIRL who PLAYED with FIRE

Stieg Larsson 2009
Translated from Swedish by Reg Keeland

This very entertaining 2nd book of the Millennium Trilogy pairs yet again Mikael Blomkvist, publisher and Lisbeth Salander, brilliant computer hacker into proving Lisbeth's innocence after she becomes the prime suspect in the murder of a journalist and his girlfriend just before the couple was due to publish their book about sex trade in Sweden. Lisbeth has to solve the murder while confronting her dark past.

"She lay on her back fastened by leather straps to a narrow bed with a steel frame. The harness was tight across her rib cage. Her hands were manacled to the sides of the bed."(3)

"She had discovered that the most effective method of keeping fear at bay was to fantasize about something that gave her a feeling of strength. She closed her eyes and conjured up the smell of gasoline."(4)

"He had come to realize that she was a world-class hacker, and within an exclusive international community devoted to computer crime at the highest level--and not only to combating it--she was a legend. She was known online only as Wasp."(13)

"Bjurman wrote down the words All The Evil. The years in foster homes? Some particular attack?"(39)

"Of all the crimes involving the sex trade, 99.9 percent are not reported to the police, and those that are hardly ever lead to change. This has got to be the biggest iceberg of all in the Swedish criminal world." (73)

"The theme of the May issue is the sex trade. The point we have to make is that trafficking is a crime against human rights and that these criminals must be exposed and treated like war criminals or death squads or torturers anywhere in the world."(75)

"In this sense there is a sort of gender perspective to my thesis. It's not often that a researcher can establish roles along gender lines so clearly. Girls--victims; boys--perpetrators."(79)

"She felt that some fundamental change had taken place or was taking place in her life. Maybe it was having access to billions of kronor and not having to think about every krona she spent. Maybe it was the adult world which was belatedly pushing its way into her life."(84)

"Mimmi and Salander did not have the same taste in clothes, furniture, or intellectual stimulation. Correction: Mimmi had taste and definite views on how she wanted her living quarters to look, what kind of furniture she wanted, and what sort of clothes one should wear. Salander had no taste whatsoever, Mimmi realized."(109)

"Dear Lisbeth, I'm writing this letter and leaving it on my hard drive knowing that sooner or later you'll read it...The events of the past few days have linked us again, whether you like or not...Help me. Please. What's the connection? Mikael."(250)

"What is she trying to say? Is Zala the link between Bjurman and Dag and Mia? How? Why? Who is he? And how did Salander know that? How is she involved?"(270)

"She was irritated by the passport photograph that appeared everywhere. She looked stupid."(311)

"As Salander watched Teleborian's face on TV, her heart became a little lump of ice. She wondered whether he still used the same disgusting aftershave. He had been responsible for what was defined as her care."(316)

"He had a state-endorsed mandate to tie down disobedient little girls with leather straps."(317)

"There are no innocents. There are, however, different degrees of responsibility."(323)

"It was completely impossible to box with her. She had only one style, which we called Terminator Mode. She would try to nail her opponent, and it didn't matter if it was just a warm-up of friendly sparring."(338)

"Paolo Roberto backed up, breathed as steadily as he could, and took stock. He's no boxer. He moves like a boxer, but he can't box for shit. He's only pretending. He can't block. He telegraphs his punches. Ans he's slow as a tortoise."(384)

First United States Edition
503 pages
Book owned

33. the GIRL with the DRAGON TATTOO

Stieg Larson 2008
translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland

This first of the Millenium Trilogy is a highly intriguing book about Lisbeth Salander. She is 24 years old, mysterious, baffling, seemingly impenetrable and ultimately admirable brilliant computer hacker who is the unlikely help to Michael Blomkvist, a journalist investigating the disappearance of Harriet Vanger.

"Armansky's star researcher was a pale, anorexic young woman who had hair as short as a fuse, and a pierced nose and eyebrows. She had a wasp tattoo about an inch long on her neck, a tattooed loop around the biceps of her arm and another around her left ankle...a dragon tattoo on her left shoulder blade."

"He had taken her for stupid, maybe even retarded. He had not expected that a girl who had cut so many classes in school that she did not graduate could write a report so grammatically correct...he quite simply could not comprehend how she could have acquired such facts."

"Blomkvist did not think very highly of Beckman, and he had never understood Berger's love for him. But he was glad that he accepted that she could love two men at the same time."

"In the world of financial reporting, however, the normal journalistic mandate to undertake critical investigations and objectively report findings to the readers appears not to apply. Instead the most successful rogue is applauded."

"At lunchtime Salander booted up her iBook and opened Eudora to write an email. She typed:"Have you got time?" She signed it Wasp and sent it to the address . To be on the safe side, she ran the message through her PGP encryption programme."

""That was the first. I got it in 1958." He pointed to the next one. "1959." Buttercup. "1960." Daisy. "It became a tradition. She would make the frame sometime during the summer and save it until my birthday."

"People always have secrets. It's just a matter of finding out what they are."

"She was not afraid of Bjurman--Salander was rarely afraid of anyone or anything."

"Palmgren declared that he would be happy to take on the job of serving as Froken Salander's guardian--but on one condition: "that Froken Salander must be willing to trust me and accept me as her guardian.""

"Life has to go on; it does go on. But the unsolved murders keep gnawing away and in the end there's only one person left who thinks night and day about the victim: it's the officer who's left with the investigation."

"Salander never forgets an injustice, and by nature she was anything but forgiving."

"She got down from the bed, cocked her head to one side, and regarded her handiwork with a critical eye. Her artistic talents were limited. The letters looked at best impressionistic. She had used red and blue ink. The message was written in caps over five lines that covered..."

"I call them Salander's Principles. One of them is that a bastard is always a bastard, and if I can hurt a bastard by digging up shit about him, then he deserves it."

"To her own surprise she replied, "I'm probably the best in Sweden. There may be two or three others at about my level.""

Personal Note: Read and loved this book in London, June 2009