So many things happen by chance and so did the meeting of writer Connie and the good looking, younger Elise. I knew from the very first few lines that I wasn’t going to like this book (although I’m sure plenty of others will love it) and sadly that’s exactly how it worked out. It was tedious and long drawn out which is a shame as the blurb made it sound great, just the sort of thing I’d enjoy. Fabulous cover I thought. I didn’t care much for any of the characters so had no interest in where they were or what they were doing - sorry!

I walked away with mixed feelings on this one. The bare bones of the story is absolutely brilliant. In the very beginning, Harry McNamara is attacked in his home. It's brutal, grisly, and chilling. His wife witnesses the whole thing, and her reactions during and after are suspect at best. We also know from the beginning that JP Carney committed the crime. The question is why. At this point, the story had me in its clutches. Unfortunately, it started to lose me rather soon after that. The story starts to move back and forth between the days following the attack and the backstories of the characters. Some of that back info is important to the plot and reasons for everything happening, and some is not. A lot is not. We do finally get to the why of it all, but the book takes the scenic route to get there. Granted, there were things in the past that the reader needs to know for it to all make sense, but I really did not need every detail of every time Julie doubted Harry or every time she looked the other way, nor did I need to know every job that JP had during the years leading up to the crime. Fair warning, be prepared not to like anyone in this one. By the time I trudged through the considerable history of Julie and Harry's marriage and JP's troubled life, I couldn't drum up much empathy for any of them, except for the real victim in this deadly game. In the end, I would give a solid five stars for the beginning and conclusion, but the middle was way too drawn out and had too much downtime for me. So, I ended up somewhere in the middle on The Confession.

It's still raining and the local Mela Festival organised by the Multicultural Centre has been cancelled as the venue currently resembles a pond more than a park. 

So, I just made another mug of tea and am going back to Lucio's Confessions, which has had me glued to its pages all morning. 

I simply can't believe this was written in 1913, it is so ahead of its time that all the images it conjures up for me are from the late 1920s, the heyday of expressionism and modernity, but mixed with fin-siecle sentiment. It's weird. It's glorious. I am loving it.

It seems that Lucio's Confession is a rather elusive book. I had ordered it through Ammy from a 3rd party seller when I first heard about a couple of weeks ago.

A day later I received a message that the order was cancelled by the 3rd party seller.

So, I ordered it again from another seller. 
A few minutes ago, I received the package...but they shipped the wrong book. :(

Does the book exist? Are the sellers trying to tell me something by not letting me get hold of a copy?

"Deep down, I did hate those people – the artists. That is, those false artists whose work consists of the poses they strike: saying outrageous things, cultivating complicated tastes and appetites, being artificial, irritating, [and] unbearable. People who, in fact, take from art only what is false and external.”

In “Lucio's Confession” by Mário de Sá-Carneiro, Margaret Jull Costa (translator)

From the street, two floors below my hotel window in a dreary urban business park slash hotel district, I heard desperate, blood chilling cries for help. I rushed to the window, expecting to see the victim of a hit and run car accident lying bloodied at the curb-side but instead, I saw a young man with a tear stained face wearing only a long sleeved, open-cuffed shirt walking this way and then that, each time with purpose, until the moment he changed his mind. Shouting, pleading with his hands outstretched. For a heartbreaking moment, I thought he looked like my estranged stepson.

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.