Smiling Jack by Ken Catran

Title: Smiling Jack



Author: Ken Catran



Published: Auckland : HarperCollins Publishers, 2010



Pages: 271



Snippet:"It was clear that deep secrets had been stirred, and were now swirling around me. There'd been three deaths already, and I had a disturbing sense that there'd be more."



Summary: Robert lives in a small, prosperous rural town where his father is a respected and trusted pillar of the local community.
When his father and uncle are killed in a road accident, Robert's comfortable world is shattered. At the time he barely thinks about the evil grin on the playing-card Jack found at the site of the accident. Until the third death. And the fourth. With Jack's leering, malicious grin there each time. Robert realizes he never knew his father - and as friends and neighbours turn against him, he is forced to look deep into the shadows if he is to get out alive. (Taken from Goodreads)



Review: I was a huge fan of Ken Catran's Talking to Blue trilogy which are big murder mystery books. So when I found out about Smiling Jack I got really excited and tried everything to get my hands on it. In a way I'm glad I did get to read it so fast and that I enjoyed it. But I think after Talking to Blue I had far too high expectations of Smiling Jack and it just wasn't as good.



Smiling Jack is a good read of its own right though. There's no doubt about that. If you're a fan of mysteries then you will enjoy Smiling Jack. By the end I had figured out who the murderer was but I hadn't figured out the motives or some other tiny little details so it was actually a nice surprise in the end.



I really liked Robert as a character.  He was just really down to earth and a great character.  I hated how the townspeople treated him though, I really thought they were far too harsh on poor Robert.  Apart from Robert none of the other characters really stood out to me although Sarge Peggy was pretty cool.



There was a twist at the end that was a little crazy but it wasn't too bad.



To be honest I felt like this book was written more for a younger young adult age group. The writing wasn't too advanced and it was quite simple. It doesn't take very long to read through at all.



Overall, Smiling Jack is a good book by one of my favourite New Zealand authors and I really hope that Ken Catran writes more murder mystery books in the future. If you ever get the chance to read Smiling Jack then I suggest you do because it is pretty awesome.



Source: Library



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This kiwi indicates that this book was written by a New Zealand author. It is also set in New Zealand.Source URL: https://free1image.blogspot.com/search/label/twist%20ending
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Identical by Ellen Hopkins

Title: Identical
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Published: New York : Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2008
Pages: 565
Summary: Kaeleigh and Raeanne are 16-year-old identical twins, the daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother running for US Congress. Everything on the surface seems fine, but underneath run very deep and damaging secrets. When the girls were 9, Daddy started to turn to his beloved Kaeleigh in ways a father never should and has been sexually abusing her for years. For Raeanne, she needs to numb the pain of not being Daddy's favorite; for Kaeleigh, she wants to do everything she can to feel something normal, even if it means cutting herself and vomiting after every binge.
Review: After reading Tricks by Ellen Hopkins I wanted to read more by her and so when the opportunity arose for me to read Identical, I snapped it up and I'm quite glad that I did.
At first I was a little confused about how the story was going but then I got into the swing of what was happening and from there I was intrigued as to what was going to happen next.
One thing I noticed about the Gardella family was that they were a family full of secrets. The whole time we are kept in the dark about most of these secrets and some of them are actually quite serious and shocking. I was amazed at some of the stuff revealed.
While I absolutely love books that have twist endings I was kind of disappointed because I had guessed what the twist was. But if you love books with twist endings then you will definitely love the twist at the end of this book.
I thought that Identical was a really sad book. It was sad because of the ending, and sad because of all the horrible people that were in the girls' lives.
Overall, Ellen Hopkins did a brilliant job with Identical, it was a really good book and I just have a warning that this book is not a light novel and it does have some graphic content. So if you don't really like reading these kinds of books then Identical may not be your type of book.
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