Shutter Island

It's been a good six years or so since I saw the movie so I had pretty much forgotten all about the twist. This psychological suspense novel has pretty good build. It keeps leaving you with more questions. US Marshal Teddy Daniels is sent to Shutter Island to look for a missing woman. The island houses the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane and all of the inmates are violent and crazy. Teddy and his partner are having a tough time getting answers and everything is getting jumbled. Are they doing illegal treatments on the patients? How could this woman have escaped? What are they hiding? Dark, disturbing, and the twist will leave breathless!

Since We Fell

I feel like there is more than one story in here. I didn't particularly like the first half but by the time I got to the second half it's a thriller and everything has turned on it's head and I got jacked! I really enjoyed the story once the pacing picked up, but it was like two separate stories were mushed together. A reporter turns recluse after an embarrassing meltdown on live TV in Haiti and her divorce. Then she runs into a private detective that she hired when she was younger and was trying to find out the identity of her father. The reporter and the former PI get married and everything is fine until Rachel discovers that her husband may be lying and leading a second life. Once that happens shit hits the fan and everything picks up quickly. Overall not a bad read.

The Drop

I made the mistake of watching the movie trailer first so I can only picture Tom Hardy as Bob and James Gandolfini as Cousin Marv. Honestly though, I don't think that's a bad thing. I mean, have you seen Tom Hardy? Yowza! That was one of our main reasons for picking this for book club, because we knew we'd have a great movie to look forward to as well!

This book is quite short for Dennis Lehane novel, in fact, this was originally a short story entitled "The Animal Rescue" that Lehane expanded, and then wrote a screenplay for (his first), at the request of a producer. The resulting story was released at the same time as the movie.

If the movie is half as good as the book, I am going to love it. "The Drop" is phenomenal, it's easily one of my favorite crime/thriller reads of the year. It's gritty, engrossing and totally packs a punch at the end. For being so short, there is some amazing character building. Bob, the bartender and animal rescuer is awesome. Why don't I have a Bob in my life? Tom Hardy seems like an ideal fit to play him. I don't want to summarize the book too much and give it away. Just trust me on this, read it!