Fiction | Book Chatter

The Outsider
By Stephen King
Scribner Book Company, 9781501180989, May 2018, 576pp.

The Short of It:

Probably King’s best writing in a long, long time.

The Rest of It:

I am a die-hard King fan but even I’ll admit that some books hit it out of the park while others amuse me. The Outsider hit it out of the park and then some.

A young boy is violated and murdered in the worst possible way. Evidence at the scene and statements from eye witnesses lead investigators to a very unlikely suspect, Terry Maitland. Terry is a stand-up guy. He coaches the town’s little league team and teaches English at the high school. No one, including his wife and two children can believe what is happening when he is hauled in for the murder of that young boy.

What makes the case more complicated, is the DNA and fingerprints recovered at the scene point to Terry but Terry was out-of-town with his colleagues when this all went down. How could he be in two places at the same time?

As the story moves along, you quickly realize that something else is at play here, but what? My mind was going all over the place. Was Terry guilty? Did the investigators really have the right guy? That’s when the lead investigator enlists the help of others and I gotta tell you, that is when the story gets really interesting and King fans will cheer when they get to one particular part in the story.

As you can see, I am not saying much about the plot because it’s too easy to give something away but all I can say is that The Outsider was everything I was hoping it would be. It’s almost 600 pages long but I had to pace myself or blow through it in one sitting. It’s the type of book you want to take your time reading only because it’s so good and you don’t want it to end.

I’ve had friends who listened to the audio say it was fabulous as well. I don’t think you can go wrong with this book. It’s really good, really entertaining and will keep you on the edge of your seat as you try to figure it all out. I love it when Uncle Stevie hits a home run.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Perfect Mother
By Aimee Molloy
Harper, 9780062696793, May 1, 2018, 336pp.

The Short of It:

Another page-turner that keeps you guessing.

The Rest of It:

Motherhood is a hot topic this summer. I wonder why. Maybe because so many of us are overwhelmed, super busy, and give everything we have to our kids? Whatever the reason, I have at least three books in my stack dealing with motherhood in some way and The Perfect Mother was one of them.

May Mothers is a group made-up of women who had their babies in the month of May. They meet at the park for their regular meetings but now that their infants are a couple of months old, they decide it’s time for a girls night out and head to a local bar for some drinks. Excited to be taking a night off from baby duty, they get a little careless and drink a little too much so when one of the moms suddenly vanishes from the bar, only for them to find out later that she is home, with the police, trying to figure out who took her son from his crib, things begin to escalate as the moms try to make sense of what’s happened.

Mommy groups can be very supportive but also very dramatic. That is the case here. These women take it upon themselves to find the missing baby. They inject themselves into the investigation, steal evidence, put themselves in very dangerous situations, usually with their own infant strapped to their chests. It’s crazy what they do!

Although the missing baby is the focus of the story, Molloy also touches on the loss of identity that can come with having a baby and how difficult it is to figure out those first few months as a mother. This, I could relate to well.

The Perfect Mother is not a perfect book. It’s a little predictable and you might tire of all the “mommyness” contained within its pages but it was a quick, entertaining read and a good distraction from the headlines that continue to find me even though I have made a real effort to avoid them.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Chatting with friends about books and life…