A Good Marriage by Stephen King

Title: A Good Marriage
Author: Stephen King
Read by:  Jessica Hecht
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: 3.5 hours (3 CDs)
Source:  Review Copy from Simon & Schuster – Thanks!

A Good Marriage is the perfect novella to listen to if you want to be terrified this fall.  It is an especially good read for Halloween.  It is a perfect tale of suspense that really freaked me out (in a good way) on my commute  A Good Marriage is a Stephen King novella, originally published as a part of Full Dark, No Stars four years ago.  

Darcy Anderson has a good marriage and a good life.  Her husband Bob, an accountant, and she have been married for 27 years.  They met over their shared love of vintage coins and besides Bob’s full time accountant business; they have a side business of buying and trading coins.  They also raised two wonderful children together.  They moved from a starter home to a big beautiful home.  Darcy has kept busy as a homemaker raising the kids, but the kids are now grown up.  Bob has always given back to the community, including being a Cub Scout leader.  

One day while Bob is gone on a coin collecting business trip, Darcy makes a run out to their garage to look for some batteries for the remote.  While she is there, she makes a surprising discovery that shakes the foundations of her world and her marriage.  Caught between a rock and a hard place, Darcy must make a momentous decision to right her world.

Overall, this was a perfect tale of suspense that had me terrified, but wanting more.  One of my favorite parts in the novel is Darcy pondering about the mirror side of Bob that she never knew, the dark side.  She discovers that she has a mirror Darcy as well and wonders how to get back through the mirror to the good side.  I loved this.

Jessica Hecht was a great narrator.  She was Darcy to me with Darcy’s “golly gee” attitude that became something frail, yet fearless when her world was turned upside down.

I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

All I can say is “wow” after finishing I’d Know You Anywhere. It is a powerhouse of a book, one that I literally could not put down. I’d Know You Anywhere is a riveting suspense thriller that causes one to question your position on the death penalty and the justice system.


Eliza Benedict has returned from England with her family and settled near her hometown in Maryland with her loving husband Peter, her troubled teenage daughter Iso, and her precocious young son, Albie. They seem the picture perfect family (except for troubles with their teenage daughter) until the day that Eliza receives a letter from convicted murderer Walter Bowman.

As a teenager, Eliza was kidnapped by Walter and held captive for weeks. She was also his only victim that was left alive. Eliza has spent her time since trying to stay out of the spotlight and to let no one know her past. Changing her name from Elizabeth to Eliza and taking her husband’s last name helped. But what helped most of all was staying out of the area. After seeing her picture with her husband at a society event in the paper after her return, Walter knows that Eliza is his last chance to get off of death row. His execution by the state of Virginia is eminent, and he plays a game of manipulation with Eliza as his one chance to save himself.

What follows is a riveting story. The novel flashes back and forth from the past to the present. As Walter starts his life of crime in 1985 and kidnaps Elizabeth in the past, in the future Eliza tries to hold her family together and protect her privacy. I found myself wanting to know how the situation ended in 1985 and also what was going to ultimately happen to Eliza and Walter in the present.

Also riveting was the sheer canvas of fascinating characters. Lippman had a wonderful cast of three-dimensional characters that were captivating. Even if I didn’t agree with their motivations or ideas, I could understand where they were coming from. Such characters included Barbara, an activist against the death penalty and Trudy, the mother of one of Walter’s victims. The characters all came alive and seemed like ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

The crimes itself are every mother’s worst nightmare. It disturbed me to think that such evil could exist in the world and makes me want to lock up my children. To imagine your 13-year old daughter kidnapped from the end of your driveway is horrifying. What was great about this book is that it doesn’t focus on the violence of the crimes, but more on the effects on the people involved.

I’d Know You Anywhere was our book club pick for the Kewaunee Library Book Club in December. Our book club has been on hiatus, but I’m glad it’s going again. Everyone loved the book (except for one person who did not read it and shall remain nameless) and it provided riveting discussion.

As Kathy pointed out at book club, one of the best quotes in the novel is as follows:

“They were well today, but that could end tomorrow. Of course that was true of every happy family. The difference was that the Lerners knew. Having been unlucky once, they could be unlucky again. There was no protection, no quota system when it came to luck. It was like that moment in math when a child learns the odds of heads or tails is always one-in-two, no matter how many times one has flipped the coin and gotten heads. Every flip, the odds are the same. Every day, you could be unlucky all over again.”

A quote I enjoyed (being a Janeite myself) was “No. I shortened my name in high school to avoid . . . complications. Then I met Peter, and we decided to marry, and well, do you know your Jane Austen? Can you imagine what it’s like to be wonderfully close to Elizabeth Bennet, if only on legal documents? It’s pretty much every Janeite’s fantasy.”

This is my second Laura Lippman novel that I have loved this year (after The Girl in the Green Raincoat). I can’t wait to read The Most Dangerous Thing, which is on my shelf taunting me.

Overall, I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman is one of the best books I’ve read this year and will definitely be on my “top ten” list for the year. I can’t say enough good things about it and I feel like I’m not describing it as great as it was. Just believe me and pick up a copy for yourself! As Stephen King states, I’d Know You Anywhere is “the best suspense novel of the year.”

Book Source: Review Copy from HarperCollins Publishers. Thank-you!

Different Seasons by Stephen King

This is actually the second time that I've read Different Seasons by Stephen King. It was the August pick for my Mom's Club Book Club, and luckily I finished it yesterday morning as the meeting was last night. This is the only Stephen King novel I've read. I've been told I should read The Stand, any other suggestions?

Different Seasons contains four "novellas" by Stephen King. I'm going to split my discussion up between the stories.

1. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. This is definitely my favorite story in the book and is the basis for the fantastic movie, The Shawshank Redemption. Andy is wrongly convicted of a murder and spends twenty something years in Shawshank Redemption. He is the victim of brutal violence, but somehow always manages to keep his dignity and hope intact. He befriends another man named Red, the man who can "get things." This story is wonderful.

2. Apt Pupil. I do not like Apt Pupil, and unfortunatly it is the longest story in the book. The story freaks me out. It tells the story of a young "All American Boy" named Todd who becomes obsessed with the holocaust. He figures out that a neighbor, "Mr. Denker," is really a commandant that was in charge of a concentration camp in hiding in the U.S. Todd blackmails him into telling all of the details of the camps. The two have a parasitic relationship and each separately begins to descend into evil. This story is very disturbing. I don't think I need to read it again!

3. The Body. The Body was made into the movie Stand By Me, which I haven't seen since I was young. It tells the tale of four boys who go off on a gruesome adventureto find the dead body of a lost boy that was killed by a train. The boys each have a tough life and the trip is a defining moment and adventure in their lives. It's an entertaining story.

4. The Breathing Method. This story is intriguing, although freaky. It is about a man who goes to a mysterious "club" with no name after invited by his boss. There are books and things there that are unheard of on the outside world. The men take turns telling stories. One of which is "The Breathing Method." A young woman in the 1930's discovers that she is pregnant and is dumped by her boyfriend. She faces the future with bravery and is determined to have her baby and use the breathing method that the doctor recommends. There is a freak accident when she is on the way to the hospital to delivery the baby. You'll have to read the story to discover the rest. The club itself intrigued me in the story - I wanted to learn more about it. The story was good too, although very disturbing.

Overall, it is a good book and worth a read!