by Luanne Bennett

Alex was born in New York, but she was shipped off to Indiana as a small child and her return to the big city takes some adapting. What she finds most difficult is that people keep staring at her rather than minding their own business like she remembers New Yorkers doing in the past.

One of the two items she keeps close is a silver medallion necklace that her mother gave her, telling her to keep it hidden. She wears it under clothing, assuming the warning was because it has some value and keeping it as a treasure to remember her mother.

There were some seemingly supernatural forces at work here. The story had real possibilities, but I didn't like the turn it took.

The one thing I found really irritating was a significant character who is of help to Alex when she gets into a dire situation, but is rather domineering and keeps information to himself. The worst part is that the guy is treating her badly, but she finds him attractive. Puke! It would probably appeal to those who enjoy books like Fifty Shades of Grey, but it's not something I would normally even finish.

The writing was good enough, it was the plot and characters I found not to my taste. There was a chance here for a really interesting supernatural story, but the domineering romance took over as the main theme.

The story of a haunted amulet, which is out to get everyone in the city of Pine Cone. 

This was gross, deeply disturbing, very creative in the way the people died and darkly comedic at times. Parts of this story I really enjoyed, but towards the end of the book it became a tad tedious, because the same happens all the time:

And I would like to give a shout out to one of the most vile characters that ever has made an appearance on the page of a book: Jo Howell. What a vile person.

After having finished a book in which women didn´t have a significant or meaningful role at all (yes, I´m side-eying you, Red Rising), it´s so refreshing to read this book. All the power, whether it is used for good or evil, lies in the hands of the women in town.

"We gone get in trouble, Sheriff?" the farmer asked. "You know," he said piteously, "I didn´t mean to run the woman down."

"Well," Garrett replied, "wasn´t your fault, like you said. She wasn´t wearing white, and she ought not to be running up on bridges when the sun´s gone down. And she ought not be killing her husband with pine branches either."

"Ought not do that in any case," added the deputy. "No, sir," he added a moment later, for emphasis, when no one thought to second his opinion.

"It´s real peculiar," mused the sheriff.

"What is?" said Jack.

"Everybody dying like they are..." said the sheriff.

"You mean these two, and then the policemen and his wife?" asked Jack. "Not much family left, is there?"

"Wasn´t just them," said Deputy Barnes, "cause last Wednesday night seven people burned up on the other side of town."

"Well," said the farmer, "burning up´s a lot different from stabbing and shooting and getting run down on bridges and being hit on the head with pine branches in the middle of the creek."

"Maybe," saif the sheriff, "but I tell you, sir. I just can´t say I was suprised when you folks pulled up and said you had two bodies in the back of your truck, what with all these people dying. And if I had thought about it for twenty second I think I could have guessed that it would be Malcolm and Dorothy Sims."

"And you know what´s funny too?" said the deputy.

"What?" asked the sheriff, pulling the canvas back over the corpses; there wasn´t any point in examining them further now. 

"For the last nine dying," said the deputy, "we ain´t had one open coffin, and from the looks of these two, we´re not gone get it now."

"We not gone get them anyway. They was from Montgomery," said the deputy.

"You´d think she´d have waited till they got back to Montgomerey," said the deputy.

"I sure do wish she had," said Jack Weaver, shaking his head slowly.

The dialogue is pure gold and darkly comedic. These police men remind me an awful lot of the police people in the movie / tv-show Fargo.

Yes, I know, I´m a day late for a Friday Reads. Anyhow, I have three planned reads for this weekend. 

BrokenTune and I are buddy reading another one of Highsmith´s disturbing novels and I have to say, this is a particularly weird one. The main protagonist, who is a 17-year-old, gin and tonic drinking science enthusiast and the religious mad man his father has suddenly turned into is just the beginning. Reading this for:

Since the Highsmith isn´t what I would call light reading, I need something that is more charming and cozy. And a Miss Marple novel definitely fits that description, so I will be reading A Pocket Full of Rye for the following square:

And last but not least, I finished the amazing audiobook of Daphne Du Mauriers Rebecca yesterday. My next audiobook is going to be The Amulet by Michael McDowell, I hope it won´t be too scary. This book will fit this square:

Have a nice weekend and happy reading everyone :)