Friday
Nov182005
BOOKS: Gentlemen & Players
Friday, November 18, 2005 at 11:00AM
Available January 1, 2006 - pre-order at Amazon.com
This review based on the ADVANCE READER'S EDITION from HarperCollins
Gentlemen & Players, A Novel
I must admit, I took a rather skeptical approach to Joanne Harris's Gentlemen & Players -- I am not normally a mystery/suspense genre reader. I received the advance copy for preview from William Morrow/HarperCollins, and plunged in without a clue, literally.
Gentlemen & Players turned out to be one of those very special, hard-to-put-down, literary experiences -- a masterful tale of murder, scandal, and deceit that keeps you turning pages and guessing through to the very end. The suspense and intrigue is reminiscent of the movie, The Talented Mr. Ripley. The setting, in an upscale private school for boys in England, full of tradition and history, brings to mind Harry Potter's Hogwarts, without the magic--and this is definitely a novel for adults, not for children.
Joanne Harris rolls out the story with dual narrators: a vengeful, murderous psychopath, and a victim representative of the school itself--a well-respected, much-loved professor who has taught at the school so long he has become a fixture of the institution. Switching back and forth between the two first-person narratives can be confusing and hard to keep track of who is who, but also gives fascinating perspective inside the minds of the two central characters.
Through flashbacks to establish history and motive, readers are drawn into the nefarious masterplan from the start, and carried along to puzzle and piece it together with the hapless professor. Harris keeps the plot moving with long-buried secrets and scandals in the history of the school. Mysteries are revealed all along the way, but only as another is presented. You are purposefully led astray for a shocking twist at the end. You may begin to suspect the truth somewhere in the middle of the book, as I did, but you'll have to keep reading for confirmation, and to tie all the loose ends together.
Gentlemen & Players is an absorbing tale -- Potter-esque in some ways (as in Harry Potter), yet more sophisticated for adult readers: a dark adventure about privilege and tradition, with villains, victims, human weakness, and evil all too familiar in the real world.
For more Joanne Harris, and a good book to get you through until Gentlemen & Players is available in January, read CHOCOLAT - the basis of the fabulous movie starring Johnny Depp & Juliette Binoche (2000).
This review based on the ADVANCE READER'S EDITION from HarperCollins
Gentlemen & Players, A Novel
by Joanne Harris - NY Times Bestselling Author
(William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2006)
"WOW -- Deliciously Suspenseful!"
I must admit, I took a rather skeptical approach to Joanne Harris's Gentlemen & Players -- I am not normally a mystery/suspense genre reader. I received the advance copy for preview from William Morrow/HarperCollins, and plunged in without a clue, literally.
Gentlemen & Players turned out to be one of those very special, hard-to-put-down, literary experiences -- a masterful tale of murder, scandal, and deceit that keeps you turning pages and guessing through to the very end. The suspense and intrigue is reminiscent of the movie, The Talented Mr. Ripley. The setting, in an upscale private school for boys in England, full of tradition and history, brings to mind Harry Potter's Hogwarts, without the magic--and this is definitely a novel for adults, not for children.
Joanne Harris rolls out the story with dual narrators: a vengeful, murderous psychopath, and a victim representative of the school itself--a well-respected, much-loved professor who has taught at the school so long he has become a fixture of the institution. Switching back and forth between the two first-person narratives can be confusing and hard to keep track of who is who, but also gives fascinating perspective inside the minds of the two central characters.
Through flashbacks to establish history and motive, readers are drawn into the nefarious masterplan from the start, and carried along to puzzle and piece it together with the hapless professor. Harris keeps the plot moving with long-buried secrets and scandals in the history of the school. Mysteries are revealed all along the way, but only as another is presented. You are purposefully led astray for a shocking twist at the end. You may begin to suspect the truth somewhere in the middle of the book, as I did, but you'll have to keep reading for confirmation, and to tie all the loose ends together.
Gentlemen & Players is an absorbing tale -- Potter-esque in some ways (as in Harry Potter), yet more sophisticated for adult readers: a dark adventure about privilege and tradition, with villains, victims, human weakness, and evil all too familiar in the real world.
For more Joanne Harris, and a good book to get you through until Gentlemen & Players is available in January, read CHOCOLAT - the basis of the fabulous movie starring Johnny Depp & Juliette Binoche (2000).