Mystery/Thriller Reviews

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

Viking, Penguin USA
Hardcover, 416 pages
ISBN: 0670031909
Ordering information:
Amazon.com


Lost in a Good Book
 by Jasper Fforde Special Operative Tuesday Next, literary detective, has become a national celebrity after her last case, in which she saved the literary masterpiece, Jayne Eyre from destruction by the evil villain Archeron Hades. (See, The Eyre Affair for further details). To make matters worse, the love of her life, her husband Landon, has been eradicated from this timeline by the evil megalithic Goliath Corporation. Tuesday has the rare ability to be able to read herself into a book -- literally. Goliath demands that she enter Poe's The Raven and release a criminal whom she imprisoned there. If she releases the infamous Jack Schitt, then her husband will be restored (right now, no one remembers that he ever even existed.) Tuesday is determined to find her husband, but her boss insists that she work on the case of a heretofore undiscovered Shakespeare play, Cardenio, the discovery of which could have devastating results in the next political election. With the help of Miss Havisham from Great Expectations and the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, Tuesday sets out on a dangerous literary adventure from which she may not return.

Tuesday Next lives in an alternate universe version of 1985 Great Britain where the Crimean War is still dragging on, Goliath Corporation runs just about everything, dodos, Neanderthals and woolly mammoths have been re-engineered, great literature is the great passion of the public, and time travel is possible. It's an absurdist universe, but one that is strangely recognizable. In fact, the Goliath Corporation descriptions bring to mind Enron executives busily manipulating California's energy market in order to make a profit. Jasper Fforde is a truly delightful writer: he excels at witty dialogue, vivid characterizations and insanely devilish plotting. The only annoyance? It will be an entire year until The Well of Lost Plots, which chronicles Tuesday's further adventures in literature, appears in American bookstores.

--Claire E. White


Utopia by Lincoln Child

Doubleday, December, 2002
Hardcover, 400 pages
ISBN: 0385506686
Ordering information:
Amazon.com


Utopia
 by Lincoln Child Dr. Andrew Warner, a brilliant computer engineer, is requested to return to the theme park he helped design for some troubleshooting. Warner designed the Metanet, an intricate self-learning computer system that controls all the robots in Utopia, an amazing hologram-based theme park that attracts over 65,000 people per day. The park has stunning displays, thrilling rides and themed worlds like Camelot, Boardwalk and Gaslight, whose holographic-realism put Disneyland to shame. Warner has brought along his teenage daughter, Georgia, who has been eager to see the park. Unfortunately, this day will be no walk in the park for Warner and his daughter. Warner has been mislead about the extent of the computer problems and terrorists have decided to pick his day of visiting the park as a time to launch an attack. Warner has to figure out what is going wrong in Utopia and stop it before it can harm thousands of innocent park visitors, including his own daughter.

Lincoln Child, who frequently writes entertaining thrillers like Relic, The Ice Limit and The Cabinet of Curiosities with coauthor Douglas Preston, has completed a successful solo mission with Utopia. Utopia is a fascinating and unique thriller with an absolutely remarkable setting in a futuristic theme park. Child has planned the theme park, Utopia, so well that it appears to be a very reasonable view of what a future theme park might be like. The park creates elaborate settings and rides, using holograms and advanced technological wizardry to amaze and stun its audience. Child's Utopia does not just have an appealing backdrop -- the characters are also interesting and entertaining and the threat of terrorism on the park conveys urgency and genuine danger. Utopia is a great read for both thriller and science fiction lovers alike.


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