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Bezig met laden... Punishmentdoor Linden MacIntyre
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. I received a free copy of this novel through the goodreads first reads program. This book was not what I expected. It was not really a mystery, but a drama, where an ex-corrections officer is in a dilemma where he wants to make good, but everyone around him wants him to leave it be. This novel follows Tony Breau, a retired corrections officer, who moves back to his home town hot on the heels of his divorce. He's seeking solitude and peace but ends up getting a whole lot more than he bargained for when an ex-con with personal ties gets arrested for murder and looks to him for help. The victim is the granddaughter of his old flame, and with lust and the community on one side, and his conscious on the other we witness Tony's struggle to do the right thing. All the characters in this novel are flawed human beings; some are trying to find redemption, while others loudly defend their obnoxious behaviour. Throughout this book many questions arise such as: Where is justice? What is punishment? Who is/is not culpable? What is community? Where is truth? These questions will make you think. This book just didn't grab me. There were several story lines but I felt that none of them were taken to a satisfactory conclusion. It was also incredibly slow at the beginning with the character development of Tony. I didn't need to read 100 pages to establish that his character was a sad, broken man. The second half of the book was better pace wise but again, I felt like the author began several different lines but then didn't carry them through all the way. And sorry but I predicted the plot twist. Not one of my favourites. Tony Breau's career as a corrections officer has ended in the wake of an incident that resulted in the death of an inmate. Guilt-ridden, he has returned to his Nova Scotia home, in the village of St. Ninian. Awaiting him there are various friends and neighbours as well as ghosts from his past: Catherine Stewart (Caddy), with whom many years earlier he was in love but who left town one day without explanation, Neil MacDonald, a tormentor from his school days, and Dwayne Strickland, a much younger local man whose criminal actions led him to cross paths with Tony in his professional capacity. Dwayne is a charming manipulator, an ex-con who knows how to read people and push their buttons. When Tony arrives in St. Ninian Dwayne is living on his own in his family's old house and building a reputation among local youth as the go-to for drugs. Unfortunately for him a girl has died of an overdose under his roof--Mary Stewart, Caddy's grand-daughter--and he has been charged with murder, and because of their shared history he seeks out Tony for advice and for testimony on his behalf. However, the facts of the case are inconclusive, and when it comes down to the crunch the case is thrown out for lack of evidence before it can go to trial. With Strickland free and the girl's death unresolved, Tony finds himself at the centre of a volatile mix of emotion, accusation and speculation, all of which contribute--in a series of troubling and tragic events that as the story moves forward begin to carry the weight of inevitability--to the book's searing climax. In the world that Linden MacIntyre conjures in this novel truth is layered and multi-faceted: the deeper you dig the more you find, but even when you hold it in your hand it changes appearance depending on the angle of the light. Morally compromised and struggling with an array of demons, Tony Breau attracts our sympathy even while we acknowledge his many personal weaknesses and the numerous poor choices he's made in his life and continues to make in the pages of this book. Punishment can be enjoyed as a crime thriller, but it is one that probes human motivation in unsentimental fashion and unflinchingly demonstrates that secrets and lies long past can have far-reaching consequences. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
In Punishment, his first novel since completing his Long Stretch trilogy, Scotiabank Giller-winner Linden MacIntyre brings us a powerful exploration of justice and vengeance, and the peril that ensues when passion replaces reason, in a small town shaken by a tragic death. Forced to retire early from his job as a corrections officer in Kingston Penitentiary, Tony Breau has limped back to the village where he grew up to lick his wounds, only to find that Dwayne Strickland, a young con he'd had dealings with in prison is back there too-and once again in trouble. Strickland has just been arrested following the suspicious death of a teenage girl, the granddaughter of Caddy Stewart, Tony's first love. Tony is soon caught in a fierce emotional struggle between the outcast Strickland and the still alluring Caddy. And then another figure from Tony's past, the forceful Neil Archie MacDonald-just retired in murky circumstances from the Boston police force-stokes the community's anger and suspicion and an irresistible demand for punishment. As Tony struggles to resist the vortex of vigilante action, Punishment builds into a total page-turner that blindsides you with twists and betrayals. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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Seems to me a book that could do with some editing. Lost track of he storyline what with all the stuff about Vietnam and Iraq and so forth. Too much proselytizing for me. I prefer when the story makes the point a bit less heavy-handedly. ( )