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Read A Secret Rage (1985)

A Secret Rage (1985)

Online Book

Rating
3.49 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0345321022 (ISBN13: 9780345321022)
Language
English
Publisher
ballantine books

A Secret Rage (1985) - Plot & Excerpts

Review originally posted here: http://fictionfinders.blogspot.com/20...I must begin by stating that Charlaine Harris is one of my favorite authors. I first began reading her books after I read the Twilight series. I was on a bit of a vampire kick, so I picked up the first book in her Sookie Stackhouse series (the series True Blood is based on). I quickly read through all of the Sookie books that had been released. She now has 12 Sookie books and the 13th and final book in the series will be released in May. As I tried to wait patiently for each Sookie book release, I decided to start reading the books in her other series: Lily Bard, Harper Connelly, and Aurora Teagarden. I also flew through these in no time. While the Sookie series is by far my favorite of her 4 series, the Aurora Teagarden books come in at a close second. I was working on my library science degree at the time and I loved that Aurora is a mystery solving librarian. I finally had the chance to meet Charlaine Harris when I went with some friends to the National Book Fest in Washington D.C. After hearing her talk about all of her books, I decided that I wanted to also read her two standalone books: A Secret Rage and Sweet and Deadly. Synopsis: Nicki Callahan is a former New York City model, who has just been informed by her agent that her services are no longer needed. Nicki is crushed that her modeling career has ended at the young age of 27. She decides to move back home to Knolls, Tennessee to live with her best childhood friend, Mimi, and to finish getting her college degree. As Nicki settles back into life in Knolls, she reconnects with many former acquaintances, including Mimi's brother Cully, her childhood crush. Nicki soon discovers that Knolls is not the quiet little town that it use to be when a serial rapist begins attacking the women around town, Nicki included. The whole town attempts to discover who the rapist is, as the police on the case have determined it is most likely someone they know. My thoughts: This novel was definitely different from most of the other Charlaine Harris novels I have read. There are no vampires, werewolves, or supernatural elements. A Secret Rage is a mystery, but it also deals with the very difficult subject of rape. After reading this book, I discovered that Charlaine Harris is herself a victim of rape. I imagine this must have been a very difficult subject for her to write about. While this mystery was a little more difficult for me to read than her others because of the heavy subject, Charlaine handles it very well. If you are a Charlaine Harris fan, you should definitely add this to your book list.

In her secret novel, Harris introduces readers to a small college town in Tennessee called Knolls. Protagonists Nickie Callahan has come back home to roost as she is moving on from a successful modeling career in New York City. The town is a natural choice since it means being reunited with life long friends Mimi and Cully, two siblings whose family founded the local college.Upon her arrival, Nickie moves in with Mimi in the former home of Mimi's grandmother. They quickly fall into a routine that brings back fond memories of their friendship. This is a perfect situation as it will help Nickie settle in as a student at the college. Everything seems to be going perfect until word comes out that a co-ed has been raped in one of the quiet and beautiful gardens on campus.Fear quickly spreads throughout campus and Knolls as single women become more and more concerned about their own safety. Mimi and Nickie think they have done everything possible until Nickie wakes up in the middle of the night to find a man standing over her, and she becomes the next victim.Nickie, her friends, and some of the earlier victims band together to start looking for the rapist in the hopes from stopping him from striking again. This is crucial as the police have very little evidence to help them with their own search. The victims share their own experiences with each other in order to compile a profile in the hopes of creating a lists of suspects, and they do just that when another woman falls victim, and this one ends up being killed in the process. The list of suspects continues to shrink, but will the rapist/murderer be found before Nickie and her friends end up dead?As with all of Harris' books, quirky characters are at the core, and the result is a perfect example of a cozy set on a Southern college campus. Harris also does a great job of capturing the feel of academic/campus life as the characters weave themselves together throughout the course of the novel. There is no shortage of suspense and problem solving for our detective. This wasn't the strongest of mystery novels, but it was interesting. My biggest problem was a subplot in which Nickie finally gets to develop a relationship with an old high school crush. It just seems a bit out of place considering the crime. Somehow, I don't think most women who are raped find themselves in sexually active relationships mere weeks after they were brutalized ... even if she has known the guy for years.All-in-all, it was a pretty good read.

What do You think about A Secret Rage (1985)?

I hadn't realized how much I'd missed Charlaine Harris' voice until my pusher (aka Mother) added this little book to the stack of others she sent back with me at the end of my last visit with her. The woman is just wicked funny. Ms Harris, I mean; although Mother is no slouch in the sly humor department her own self. That Ms Harris was able to be funny while dealing with incredibly serious material is a credit to her as a writer, all the more so because this book was written what seems like fairly early in her career. I didn't rate the book higher because the ending seemed very rush/slapped together, like there were three chapters that needed to be fleshed out between the existing 12 and 13. I was delighted to find out how many . . .umm, let's call them "journeyman mysteries" she has written, and plan to eventually read all of them.
—Kristi Lamont

Nickie Callahan can handle herself. But after a successful- but brief- career as a model in New York city, she's looking forward to letting down her guard in the sleepy college town of Knolls, Tennessee. Living with her best friend, she plans on carving out a new future for herself by studying to be a writer. But the women of Knolls are not safe. And as Nickie gets swept up in a string of brutally violent crimes, she must take matters of justice into her own hands... This is the second time I read this book. I don't think it will be the last time I reread this book either. I'm still as horrified and shaken as I was the first time I closed the last page on this book. Charlaine Harris captures "The Southerness" so much that its truly tangible. I can hear the accents, watch the mannerisms, and its amazing! I read a review that commented that its a bit dry, and maybe if the Sookie Stackhouse books are more vivacious, I could see that, but this is the first book I read for Charlaine Harris. Its savage, brutal, vital, and important. This book deserves to be considered a true piece of Literature.
—Shahd Mt.

This standalone novel by an author famous for vampire novels is a powerful, fascinating, yet shocking portrayal of one woman, a strong, powerful, successful woman, and how she deals with rape. Nickie Callahan was a successful model in New York, when at the old age of 27, she was informed that she was too old and her career was over. A fateful phone call while she is reviewing her options brings her to little Knolls, Tennessee, and a deep south experience which only someone who lived it can portray accurately, which Ms Harris does. Nickie gets marginally involved in the town – her roommate / hostess is popular and powerful, and involved in everything, so Nickie meets many of the 'best' people. Some of the shocking parts of this story were in the not-so-hidden ways that the 'best' people dealt with race – and rape. A young girl was raped at the college where Nickie enrolls, in an attempt to complete her delayed education. Then Nickie herself is raped, and we see that Harris, a rape survivor herself, is able to put into writing not the graphic details, but the feelings, the determination, the rage, that such a desecration inflames. Working with another victim, Nickie begins to piece together the facts, some hidden, and some dismissed by the police as irrelevant. It’s a known fact that many times people wonder what the victim did to get herself (or sometimes himself) raped, and that is brought into the story as well. Together, the women begin a list of possibles, in an attempt to track down the serial rapist. In addition to the search for the perpetrator, we see Nickie begin to pull herself together, as she refuses to accept the rape as her fault, or as something she could have avoided. Masterfully done, and I recommend this to rape counselors as a story of someone who refuses to define themselves as a victim, showing how to react to those who gossip and stare and cast blame where it doesn't belong.
—Doris

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