Review: Unsettling - might not be for everyone
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 30, 2011
As with The Long Run, I purchased this on Christmas Day - my family were mystified as to why I would purchase a story of ill will from one human being towards another! At first I thought that the deceased killer had killed a relative of the author but I quickly realised that he shot a subsequent girlfriend before taking his own life. Rachel is quite sympathetic and even forgiving towards the dead man which surprised me; I had expected her to react in a "That could have been my mother" way. There's a bit later in the story where she meets the dead woman's son and it doesn't go well but perhaps that was to be expected, given the circumstances. The Iowa countryside is described as a place of bleakness but it also had a kind of beauty (jolie laide?). After reading this story the state will have more significance for me than being the venue for one of the primaries in the US Presidential election. The story may upset some, may infuriate others but I do think that it is worth reading and judging for oneself.