THE DEAD HOUSE

Thank goodness for the draft facility! As unwell as I have been, I'm afraid it was Pooter who has brought about my lack of visiting. Yes there has been a fatality in the Petty Witter household and on Thursday morning Pooter decided not to play anymore and needs a visit to the PC hospital for a more formal diagnosis. As I am unfamiliar with the lap-top (I don't even know how to turn it on.) it is up to Hd to ensure my pre-prepared posts still appear.


You know I had thought I had this whole technology thing sussed but obviously not as it has completely thrown me how Pooter is kaput, has ceased to function and yet there for all to see are my witterings. So I shal endeavour to master the lap-top over the weekend, Hd may die in the process, its the lack of a mouse that throws me.

Hd - I have given up trying to explain how the internet works, it just doesn't sink in. This is someone who used to believe that the washing machine was powered by little men running around on a wheel inside the machine. I don't think Pooter is deaded but the power pack has blown. Not fatal but temporarily disabling.


THE DEAD HOUSE by LINDA FAIRSTEIN.

University professor Lola Dakota has suffered at the hands of her abusive husband for too long and when the police get wind of his plan to hire a hitman to kill her, she agrees to take part in an undercover operation to fake her own murder. the sting seems successful and her husband is arrested. However, less than an a couple of hours later and Lola is dead again ...... this time for good.

Brought in to assist the NYPD, assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cooper finds herself led into the strange world of academia at Columbia University: a world riddled with petty jealousies, swindled funds and extra-marital affairs. And as Alex continues to uncover disturbing tales about missing students and drug dealers, the one common thread is the university's research site on an island off Manhattan - the remains of a Victorian penitentiary, hospitals, lunatic asylums and morgue - the Deadhouse.
..... for the outer back cover.

FIRST SENTENCE: It was hard not to smile as I watched Lola Dakota die.

MEMORABLE MOMENT: The need to to explore the lives of the people whose tragedies came our way took us ti intimate places I had no more desire to enter than the deceased would have had to let me in.

A great, atmospheric cover (sorry that I was not able to show it to better advantage), this sounded like a wonderful read - just my cup of tea, a crime novel with mention of Victorian hospitals, lunatic asylums and a morgue, all of which I admit hold a rather macabre fascination for me. Shame it turned out not to be nearly as exciting or dramatic as I'd hoped.

A rather long read (543 pages), at times this felt a bit like wading through toffee in that though you persisted in trying to move forward you knew you were going nowhere fast.

To be totally honest, I really didn't like this novel but more than that I was disappointed in it. I thought the characters were poorly written and found myself unable to relate to any of them and certainly unable to empathise with their situation BUT worse still I thought at times that the author asked us to believe things that just weren't possible loosing any credibility in the plot that I might have had. A bit too harsh? Probably but there was one bit - I won't say too much in fear of a spoiler but I will say the bit in the morgue near the end of the book that was so far-fetched as to be totally beyond belief.

Ex-library stock, The Deadhouse was purchased at my local library.

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