Sculptress

- By Minette Walters

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about this novel... while I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, it still left me slightly disappointed.

Rosalind Leigh is an author drowning in her own misery when her agent issues an ultimatum to find a story, like yesterday. Further to that, she is asked to write the story on Olive Martin, a convicted murderer.

Olive Martin is not easy to like. She is a heavy set woman, with fondness to eating and a temper like wild fire when riled. She lives in an unhappy house, with her mother, sister and homosexual father. On her birthday, having been disappointed with her family not throwing a party for her, she gets into an awful row with her mother and sister and finally hacks them with an axe and rearranges the pieces. Then suddenly, she finds a bout of compassion for her father and she does not want him to see the monstrosity that she committed and so, she confesses her crime to the cops. Her lawyers could do little to help her find a lenient verdict and she is sentenced to twenty five years of prison life.

In prison, she is called sculptress for the wax figurines she carves each day. During the arrest or the trail, nobody bothers to ask her as to why she committed the crime. Until now, when Rosalind visits her in prison, to find her side of the story. While Olive looks grotesque, she manages to make an impression on Rosalind which is quite contradictory to that of a psychopath capable of hacking people. And Rosalind wonders, if Olive Martin did commit the murders for which she was convicted. In her research to understanding more about Olive, Rosalind identifies a series of inconsistencies that makes her believe that Olive did not commit those murders. But, Olive insists that she did. Why?

The novel progresses with Rosalind's research, unraveling Olive's life in bits and pieces, each new piece adding more to the puzzle. Olive and Amber, her sister, have been inseparable growing up. So why did Olive kill her? No one seems to remember Olive exhibiting any wild or irrational behavior, yet she committed gruesome murders. Why? The cop who arrested her, found her talks to be non-threatening and yet, the violence found at the murder scene speaks loudly that he needs to be wary of her. And when Rosalind visits Olive in prison, she seems to be touched by her compassion for her misery. How can a person capable of compassion commit such heinous crimes?

As we reach ending, I personally felt that the novel went a bit flat. The pieces of the puzzle fall together to complete the picture, yet something is quite left unsaid. While I enjoyed the writing and the ease of story telling, I am dissatisfied with it, like just eating a spoon of ice-cream while the bowl of it is left untouched! Definitely savory, but not fulfilling.

Having said that, just for the thrill of reading a mystery, I would recommend this book.

Leaving Time

- By Jodi Picoult

This was a random pick which was on my to-read list for sometime now. I usually shun away from Jodi Picoult novels as they are not my usual cup of tea. Having said that, reading Leaving time has been a fabulous experience, albeit an emotional one.

Alice is a scientist, researching elephant herds and studying their empathy responses, primarily grief, in an elephant sanctuary, along with her husband Thomas. Thomas owns the sanctuary and has three employees - Gideon, Grace and Nevvie. One night, Nevvie is found dead, trampled by an Elephant and Alice is severely injured. Alice is rushed to the hospital, from which she disappears on the same night. Thomas is institutionalized in a traumatic turn of events, leaving Jenna, a three year old, in the care of her grand mother.

Ten years later, a thirteen year old Jenna is obsessed about finding the truth of her mother's disappearance. In the quest for truth, Jenna methodically searches the missing person's list and unclaimed Jane Doe's on the internet every night. When the searches have been futile, in a desperate attempt, she seeks out a psychic, Serenity, who once specialized in missing persons. Serenity, though was not very keen on finding the truth, on the happen chance of finding Alice's wallet in the elephant sanctuary, close to the site of where Alice was found, she signs up for finding the truth about Alice. Jenna, however, does not want to leave the chance of finding her mother purely to a psychic, who needs visions to find answers. So she hunts down the investigative officer, Virgil, who was working the case on the night of her mother's disappearance and is thrilled to see that he is now a private detective. She approaches him to enlist his services in finding Alice.

The rest of the story, told from varying perspectives of Alice, Jenna, Serenity, Virgil, interlaced with life in an Elephant sanctuary, is an emotional ride in search for answers. In a captivating tale of intrigue, Jodi Picoult leaves no stone unturned to engage the reader. The Elephants in this novel are as much a part of the story, as every other character in the novel and reading about them has been a fascinating, though elaborate experience. And the ending? I did NOT see that one coming. I had to go back and re-read it, to make sure I read it right. And just on the off-chance that I misread it again, I read it, AGAIN and sure, I still did not see that ending in my wildest imaginations. While this is a well executed story, it saddened me.

In her own words: "The moral of this story is that no matter how much we try, no matter how much we want it … some stories just don’t have a happy ending."

In case you are picking this up, do read it on a weekend, with a day to spare, to get over the emotional gut-wrenching this novel seems to unload. And if you happen to be the sort of reader who gets into the heads of characters, like me, do keep some tissues handy!! Don't say I did not warn you!!

Happy reading, fella readers!