Billy Straight is a poor little boy who is too smart for his own good. His mother is a stereotypical welfare recipient and her latest boyfriend is a loser who succeeds in scaring Billy away. He runs away to Hollywood and is soon lost in the world of the homeless, until he witnesses a murder in the park. The case is high profile because the victim is the ex-wife of an actor, and he is the number one suspect.
This is not the best book that Kellerman has written. It was disappointing not to see Alex Delaware (I fell for the inside cover which mentioned Alex Delaware and thought it was a story including him), but the story did have some interesting characters. The storyline was typical and a quick read but ended too abruptly. It seems to me that Kellerman is attempting to start a new series of books, and to attain closure with the characters and subplots in this book, another novel will be in order.
I recommend this book for a quiet rainy weekend when there is nothing else to do.
Toujours Provence by Peter Mayle
Once again we visit Peter Mayle and his wife in the south of France in their home in the Luberon. This book was just as wonderful as A Year in Provence and visits many more colorful characters and places. Toujours Provence is the perfect book to read on the beach, during lunch break at work, on a quiet evening, anytime! It has the charm of short stories with the continuity of a novel.
My favorite chapter of this book is Boy. Mayle's description of the dog he and his wife find and take in is like nothing I have ever read! Here is a small excerpt(I can't resist!):
"The dog was coaxed from his seat and stood there wagging everything. He looked frightful-an unsanitary furball the size of an Alsatian, with a garnish of twigs and leaves entwined in his knotted coat, bones protruding from his body, and an immense brown nose poking through the undergrowth of his moustache."
Toujours Provence makes me anxious to read Encore Provence, Mayle's latest work about his adventures in Provence. If you have read Encore Provence, e-mail me!
To see some of the other books I have recently read, click here!