The Butler Did It

I'm sure we've all heard that phrase, "The Butler Did It."  It is a popular idiom, and rightly so when it comes to crime/mystery novels.  I was up way too late last night finishing The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon.  I really loved it!  To be honest, It started a little slow, but once I got halfway through I could not put it down.  There were so many twists and turns, and like most good mysteries, I had no idea who Neptune was and who was committing the killings until Reggie figured it out.

So here is a summary of The One I Left Behind:
A serial killer invades the small town of Brighton Falls, Connecticut in 1985, kidnapping women, cutting off their right hand and leaving it at the door of the police station, and killing them five days later and leaving the body.  Reggie's mother becomes one of Neptune's victims and she and her friends try to solve the mystery within the five days to rescue her mother.  They don't solve the crime, but her mother's body also doesn't appear.  25 years later, adult Reggie is surprised when she receives a phone call from her aunt that they have found her mother.  Alive.  She is, of course, missing her right-hand, and mentally seems disoriented.  But she is alive.  Reggie moves home to help aid in her mother's recovery.  While she is helping, one of her childhood friends Tara disappears.  Her right hand appears at the police station and the whole town assumes Neptune is back, or a copycat murderer.  Once again, Reggie delves into solving the mystery.  And this time, she figures out who the killer is.  But was it too late to save Tara?  Herself?  And who was the mysterious Neptune?  You'll have to read to find out!

Fortunately, I finished my book at a good time as this morning I took my CLC classes to the school media center to look for new books.  The nonfiction title, Escape, caught my eye, largely because the co-author shares the same exact name as me!  It is about a radical polygamist cult where the author is a woman who married a 50 year old man when she was 18 and birthed 8 children.  It caught me eye and I read the first 30 pages during bell 2 and am going to keep going.  I found this intriguing interview with the author that helped explain some of the religious background in the book:

What are you reading right now?

Plot Twist!

Don't you just love a good plot twist?  As Reggie was helping take care of her mother after she was found, Neptune struck again.  He hadn't taken anyone or committed one of the repeated crimes in 25 years.  And this time, he struck Reggie's childhood friend Tara.  Tara's hand appeared at the police station, just as the others had 25 years prior.  Now, Reggie has five days to try to save her friend.  The plot continues to thicken when Reggie discovers a newspaper article in her mom's bedroom about Tara's hand.  It had been cut from the newspaper and included a few words written by hand: "Regina is next."  I found an interesting website on plot twists.  If you go to this site, there are various types of plot twists you see in literature and film along with clever nicknames for them.  I would call this plot twist a "Didn't see that coming."  I thought the novel was going to be about her mother's recovery and how their relationship rebuilds, but instead it is turning into more of a crime thriller!  I can't wait to see what happens next!

Setting in "The One I Left Behind"

The book is very clear in labeling the different settings the story takes place in.  Setting #1 is in 1985 in a town called Brighton Falls, Connecticutt.  Here are a few lines from the novel that help tell the setting:

-"The men who worked in high-rises in Hartford moved their familes to places like Brighton Falls, safe little bedroom communities with good schools, no crime, and fresh air" (McMahon location 162).

-"The biggest crime the police had to deal with in recent years had been the time the mayor's son drank too much at graduation, ran a red light, and led the police on an across-town chase that ended when he drove his Mercedes into the country club swimming pool" (McMahon location 175)

These lines describing the town actually remind me very much of Mason (recently ranked 7th best place to live in the United States).  Many Mason parents work in high-rises in Cincinnati and moved here for reasons such as the schools.  This is the town where the crimes were committed by Neptune and everyone was shocked because it was such a sleep, crime-free town, as described above.

The second setting is in fall/early winter 2010 in Rockland, Vermont.  I inferred it was fall due to the following line, "The trees, vivid with oranges, yellows, and reds just last week, were losing their brightness.  The cold and wind of the last three days had brought many of the leaves off the trees.  Out across the lake, a V of Canada geese headed south" (McMahon location 200).  The more modern setting isn't as integral to the story as the former.  The town of Brighton Falls is where the conflict is developed, so the author spends more time in her description.  The modern setting of Rockland isn't described as much since the main plot happens elsewhere. 

The One I Left Behind

I started reading The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon this past weekend.  I downloaded it on a whim from the library, as it sounded somewhat like the Gillian Flynn novels I read earlier this year and LOVED!

I had actually never heard of McMahon before, but the Cincinnati Public Library suggested it when I was on Overdrive searching for new books, so I decided to give it a whirl. So far, the basic problem is that there is a killer (Neptune) who is kidnapping women in the 1980's in idyllic Brighton Falls, Connecticut.  He cuts off their hands and leaves them in a very public place before strangling the women and disposing of their bodies five days later.  The storyline cuts back and forth between the 80's and present day, when the main character, Reggie, discovers that her mother is still alive.  Her mother had been one of Neptune's victims and her hand was discovered but never the rest of her body.  Everyone assumed her mother was dead since other victims had been recovered.  But Reggie's world is turned upside-down when she gets a phone call that her mother has been found.  Alive.

Reggie is a unique, well-developed character.  She has grown up to become a successful architect, renowned for her work incorporating natural elements into the design.  McMahon does a nice job showing us Reggie's friends, interests, and aspirations through methods of both direct and indirect characterization.  One good example of indirect characterization comes from a line her "boyfriend" Len says about her, "It isn't normal for a successful adult to be able to fit everything they own in the back of a pickup truck."  We can infer that material possessions aren't important to Reggie, even though she financially could afford them.  I like how the author jumps back and forth between middle school Reggie in the 80s and the adult Reggie.  The middle school Reggie seems unpopular and questioning of herself; the adult Reggie seems like she has blossomed into a more confident women.

Reggie is a strong adult character and at this point in the plot, it seems like she is going to be the one to take care of her mother, reverse of the typical mother-daughter relationship.  In some ways, it reminds me of a show I started watching last year, Nashville.  Juliette Barnes, played by Hayden Panettiere, had to grow up too fast because her mother wasn't around (for different reasons than in the book) but the mother came back into her life later and Juliette ended up taking care of her, kind of like Reggie and her mother.  In this clip from Nashville, you can see Juliette is forced to send her mom to rehab because she is abusing drugs. Obviously the circumstances are not the same, but there is a connection in the reversed parent/child roles.  (Please forgive the Spanish subtitles...I couldn't find a version without subtitles).

Does this make you want to watch Nashville?  Wednesday nights...I can't wait for the new season to start!  (And to find out what happens now that Reggie's mother is back in The One I Left Behind).

What It's All About...

The new Common Core standards state that 9th graders must, "Use technology, including the internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically."  Therefore, you will be creating a "Book Blog" of sorts to highlight books you are reading or have read.  You will use this blog to review books you have read, set reading goals, make real-world connections to books, find new texts to read, and engage in real-world blogging.  You will have a chance to link to other students' independent reading blogs, comment, and make new discoveries throughout the school year!  Maybe you will like it so much, you will continue blogging about books after freshmen year has ended!