Revisiting "Whispers And Lies" - A Masterpiece Of Mystery By Joy Fielding

If there is one suspense book that strikes me the most PSYCHOLOGICALLY, it's Whispers And Lies (referred as W&L below), by Joy fielding, one of my favorite contemporary mystery writers. I wrote a review years ago, but that's not enough. I even wrote an email to the author a while after I read the book and was thrilled to receive her kind reply. I also purchased a copy for my friend in China. How my friend enjoyed it I do not know (her English might be obstacle of enjoying the story thoroughly), but all these years, this book remains as the best psychological thriller to me, and that's why I purchased another copy recently, and re-read some of my favorite parts of it.

W&L starts slowly and gently, with the main character Terry Painter, a middle aged single woman and hard working nurse, interviewing her potential tenant of her cottage, the 29 year-old good looking Alison Simms:

"She said her name was Alison Simms.
The name tumbled slowly, almost languorously, from her lips, the way honey slides from the blade of a knife. ..."

Who Killed Marilyn Monroe?

Cover of Marilyn Monroe

I know Marilyn Monroe was sexy star and died at young age, and that's pretty much all I know about her. I never bother to know anything more about this legendary figure simply because she was not the type of person I would be interested. So do I really care how did she die? No. But still, this morning when I browsed through a news forum, one article that compares Monroe and Audrey Hepburn drew my attention. It says, that all residents of this planet know that Monroe was murdered by Kennedy brothers except news medias.

So I must lived somewhere else than Earth until this moment!

As matter of fact, I am not interested in Kennedy brothers either. But why I bothered to read through, because of my natural interest in "murder mystery". I would not put myself in labor of writing those details of the "conspiracy", but only want to say, that I have a "natural" tendency to believe in "rumors" about "high profile" figures - especially politicians, than news medias. Just like I believe those nasty stories I read about Mahatma Gandhi was true, so I would like to believe that Monroe was murdered by Kennedy brothers. Not big deal to me, really.

Again, I am interested neither Monroe nor Kennedy brothers, so writing this post probably only shows how bored I am (but I guess by doing so I can at least be qualified to be a "resident of this planet"). I would probably still go ahead to read more details about this case, only because I am a mystery reader, and this is still a unsolved mystery.

At last, even though I said I didn't care, I would still say, poor Marilyn!

"Why Done It" - A Short Review Of "A Judgement Of Stone" By Ruth Rendell

Ruth Rendell, writer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"Eunice Parchman Killed Coverdole family because she could not read or write." This is the first line of the mystery fiction A Judgement Of Stone, by Ruth Rendell. So there is no mystery. But really, I read on with great interest, because what would be a greater mystery than "who done it", is "why done it".

Eurince Parchman is a illiterate by chance, or by misfortune. This "handicap" brings her discomfort, humiliation, and ultimately: fear. To avoid this fear, she is incredibly ingenious in handling "dangerous" situations. But how much she can do to avoid nightmares created by herself? How could such a simple problem not being solved through the course of her 48 years life? We would have clues after we read the book.

Not only this book displays a stunning darkness of human nature and how it was shaped, but also it reflects an unfortunate fact: there really is a limit of what our kindness can do. Sometime, our good will could be extremely fragile when facing some twisted personality that has been gone too far, too stubborn that it is impossible to be mended. It becomes a "stone", not anymore a human being.

This is the first book of Ruth Rendell I read, already I am impressed by her genius insight of humanity. I am excited to read more of her masterpieces. Thanks Ruth Rendell for rendering such a profound insight into a brilliant art work!