Another thriller – in this, our heroine, Jordan Glass, is a burnt-out photojournalist whose twin sister vanished over a year ago from her home in New Orleans and is thought to have been the victim of serial killer. While in Hong Kong, Jordan stumbles across an exhibition of paintings, all of nude women, who may be sleeping but look more like they may be dead. And – one is an exact portrait of Jordan’s sister! (And therefore also of Jordan). Jordan immediately contact the FBI agents investigating the disappearances in New Orleans with this new information, and the story goes from there.This was quite a nifty book, plot wise – nicely written too, and the author has certainly done some research regarding painting and art authentication. However…the character of Jordan bugged me from the start. She’s a pretty hard-nosed character – she’s tough, she gets what she wants, has had to survive in a man’s world etc etc – and I wondered if I was suffering from some culturally inflicted misogynism that disapproves of a somewhat mannish woman. Or did I succumb to my prejudices regarding men who write from the female perspective? (I.e. It never quite works). Whichever, I felt Jordan didn’t ring true. It felt like Iles was trying a bit too hard to make her a post-feminism modern woman – and yet a woman of which men would approve. Tough, but non-threatening all round. I don’t know, I’m babbling now. But not a bad read – I’ll give Iles another go.So, is it possible for a man to write convincingly from a woman’s perspective, and vice versa? People seem to get in trouble, for example, for writing from the perspective of a black underprivileged drag queen if they are in fact a straight, upper-class white chick, but nobody blinks twice at men writing as women and so on. Not that I think you should blink, I think anyone should be free to write in the character of whoever they like – just that your resulting book might not be terribly convincing to anyone who really is a black underprivileged drag queen. The trouble with my theory is that I can’t judge its validity from anyone else’s perspective – I can only really judge books portraying white middle-class women of a certain age, after all.
While in Hong Kong, photojournalist Jordan Glass wanders into an exhibit of paintings called "The Sleeping Women," and is unable to imagine why her presence is causing such a stir among the patrons and staff of the museum. The paintings alone are unsettling, because it appears to her trained eye that the women are not merely sleeping but are, in fact, dead. And then Jordan gets the shock of her life when she sees her own mirror image staring lifelessly back at her from one of the paintings.More than a year ago, Jordan's twin sister, Jane, was kidnapped near her home in New Orleans, one of a string of women to be abducted in the city. None of the women, Jane included, has ever been seen again and now the victims have surfaced in this series of paintings, which are selling for upwards of a million dollars apiece. But who is the artist, and what has become of the women he has abducted and used as his models?Jordan's discovery is the first major break in the case, and the FBI suggests that they might use Jordan to bait the killer into revealing himself. Haunted by the memory of her lost sister, Jordan readily agrees and soon finds herself at the center of a complex and absorbing investigation.This is, really, a first-rate, complex, psychological thriller that grabs you from the opening chapter and keeps you enthralled through the final sentence. The characters are well-imagined and expertly fleshed out. The plot is taut and gripping and the action is well staged. It's hard to imagine that any fan of crime fiction would not be immediately seduced by this book.
What do You think about Dead Sleep (2002)?
Jordan Glass has followed in her Father's footsteps as a photojournalist. She still holds out hope that Jonathan Glass didn't die in Cambodia, and has spent her life looking for him.Now her twin sister (Jane) is missing. Fearing the worst she has almost given up hope when she views a portrait of her sister in The Hong Kong Museum of Art. The exhibit is titled "Sleeping Women" but they look dead and they are all of women who disappeared from New Orleans. Contacting the FBI with her discovery she heads back to the States. Using her contacts she finds the art dealer who sold the paintings and pays him a visit, realizing he knows more then he is telling and fearing for her life she starts to leave when an explosion ends the art dealers life and Jordan barely escapes from the building. The FBI agent that was on the scene was killed in his car, and the murder nearly grabs Jordan.Using her skills as a photographer and the information she has Jordan manages to get the FBI to include her in their investigation. The chemistry between her and Agent John Kaiser is instant and they begin a romantic relationship in between investigating the suspects. When Jordan is taken prisoner she can only pray that John will find her in time but determined to survive she uses her wits to outwit the killer. Rescued in the nick of time she has barely recovered from an insulin overdose when a mysterious man from her Father's past ask to see her in person. Since De Becque is a fugitive she must fly to his home on Grand Cayman to meet with him, but the surprise he has in store for her is well worth the trip.
—Alasandra Alawine
Seruuuuuu...sukaaak. Bos-bosnya FBI pada turun ke lapangan langsung ikut pengintaian. Gak kayak beberapa buku suspense lain yang petinggi penegak hukumnya duduk di kantor nunggu laporan anak buah.Gak ada adegan kasur di buku ini, tapi jalinan cinta Kaiser+Jordan malah sukses bikin deg-degan. Ngepens nih sama John Kaiser.Terjemahannya lumayan bikin ganggu. Masa di New Orleans ada pematang sih? Pematang itu bukannya yang di sawah-sawah kayak di Indo? Kalo di New Orleans, pematang itu semacam apa? Trotoarkah? Jalankah? Mbuh ah.Trus yang dimaksud bukaan dalam lukisan Wheaton tu apaan sih? Padang rumput? Padang terbuka? Hutan? Ato apa?Bdw, ni Bentang nerbitin langsung buku ketiga ya? Nyari di gugel yang buku 1+2 kok gak ada inponya.
—Mahareni Maldini
I am in a bad financial place where I am stuck reading books from my (very small) local public library. I am only going to write one review but I have galloped through everything this library has by Greg Iles. Quintessential airplane reading, these fast-moving suspense novels always seem to feature nasty doctors (and a couple of good ones) getting up to nasty murderous doings in either Mississippi or Louisiana, Iles' home turf. The plots are INSANELY ludicrous....BUT Iles writes very very well indeed and one is never bored. So if one can swallow the concept of a mad pathologist injecting uber-wealthy divorce candidates with a retrovirus which causes cancer to save their spouses a hefty divorce settlement or a famous painter with multiple personality disorder who kills women so he can paint them naked in a bath tub and sell the resulting paintings for millions of $$ to wealthy Japanese businessmen, etc etc. - hey these are fun. :) But omg there are a lot of serial killers in Mississippi/Louisiana. And is the FBI really that horribly incompetent ? So high tech and yet so...dumb. And as an occasional taxpayer, I sort of resent the FBI's careless use of Lear jets for non-essential errands. Heh heh.
—Kyra
