No comments about Wilberger suspect pleads in N.M. case.(Courts)(Joel Courtney may face charges later this year in the Oregon woman's slaying): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR).

No comments about Help me, Charley Buoy.

No comments about The Puzzle Club Case of the Kidnapped Kid (Puzzle Club).

No comments about Blood to Burn (Thorndike Large Print Western Series).

No comments about The Case of the Disappearing Daughter (Pathway Books).

No comments about Journalists taught how to survive kidnapping.: An article from: National Defense.

No comments about Del Secuestro Y Otras Muertes / Kidnapping and Other Deaths.

5 comments about The Child in Time.

1. Even though I was forced to read this for my A level.. I loved it. I was in floods of tears by the end of the first chapter and stayed with the plot to the end. The emotions that this book brought to the surface stayed with me for hours after I'd finished.



2. I see I'm not alone in loving Ian McEwan's books. I'm working my way through them all, but "The Child In Time" is one to stop and savor. As has been said by many others, McEwan's novels often revolve around protagonists who go through a trial or trauma not of their own making, and the ways in which they reach resolution or some sort of eventual peace. Many marriages do not survive the loss of a child, whatever the circumstances. And it does appear that Stephen and Julie will never reconcile once their small daughter, Kate, is abducted from a supermarket checkout line under her father's nose, in less time than it takes to say it. After the loss of Kate and a lengthy and fruitless search for her, the book becomes largely Stephen's story. As is often the case, each parent grieves differently, and their manners of grief cannot coexist. But even while Julie is absent, her presence remains strong. She is never far away from Stephen or the reader. To say more would not be fair to the first-time reader. But the ending seems appropriate and is very moving. I, for one, did not see it coming.
   
   It seems that few authors writing today are especially confident in their storytelling abilities and their readers' interest in or willingness to stay with them through complex, multi-layered narratives. McEwan isn't like that, and because he is so justifiably certain of his gifts, he spends leisurely, lengthy passages on characters and settings which don't -- at first blush -- seem to have any real function in the plot. But they always do, and finding out what these elements mean, and how they lead to the resolution of McEwan's novels, is part of what makes his writing so enjoyable. He doesn't labor over details, and yet I feel as though I know what his characters look and sound like, what their houses are like. I can feel the rain and smell the flowers in the gardens.
   
   McEwan's fascination with science almost always plays a part in his stories; Thelma, a secondary character in this novel, is a physicist, and I expect she sounds like a real one. (I don't know any.) It is always the role of McEwan's scientists to provide tangible, mathematical proof of the emotional stages his characters are going through. Time either renews or destroys, but it doesn't stand still. As long as this remains so, (and it is Thelma's job in "The Child in Time" to remind Stephen of this), Ian McEwan's subject matter will remain infinite.



3. McEwan manages to take the theme of a kidnapped child and turn it into a story of courage, love, and hope, without dredging it in sentimentality and triteness. Not as immersed in irony as is ON CHESIL BEACH, it nevertheless manages to leave a lasting impression both as a story and a well-written novel.



4. This is the eighth book of McEwan's that I have read, and it was not among my favorites. This was probably McEwan's most introspective novel so far, but I found myself getting bored with Stephen's thoughts. I enjoyed the plotline involving the disappearance of his daughter and how that tragedy affected his relationship with his wife. I liked his reflection on how he became a children's writer, but I thought the whole relationship with his publisher Charles and his wife a bit strange. Charles' wife's ramblings about Time were uninteresting, as was Stephen's work with the committee. I typically fly through McEwan, but certain parts of this one just had me stuck.
   
   While the title has many levels aside from Stephen's missing daughter, there were layers that I thought seemed irrelevant. If you prefer the more introspective McEwan novels, like Saturday, then you'd enjoy The Child in Time. This did not have the shock value of The Cement Garden or The Comfort of Strangers, or the epic novelty that made Atonement a huge success, but it's still McEwan through and through.



5. The two key themes of A Child in Time are contained in the title, which is a kind of a pun on the baby that arrives in time to save the marriage. There is the stolen child lost in time, Kate; Steven tries to keep her in time, to give her imaginary growth, but fails. Julie has to learn to allow her to be lost to a past time yet still loved in present time. There is the child out of time - Steven's revisiting his own former self in some supernatural experience. There is the fictional child of his novels, children forever children in the constructed world that fiction allows. And there is the adult who wants to return to the naivety and lack of responsibility of childhood, and actually attempts a real regression to that level. His attempt is catastrophic. The character Charles raises the issue of time quite early in the novel, when he comments that to children, there is no time; their world is somehow played out with little awareness of the passing of time or of a real future. The comment: "In every child there is a hidden adult and in every adult there is a hidden child", plays with changes in time's forward arrow. Charles's desire to return to the innocence and insouciance of childhood, we are told by Thelma, is a widespread problem amongst adults; it is accentuated as pathology in Charles.
   The novel, as most of McEwan's novels, travels to and fro in time with back flashes interspersing the narrative of the present, and a future never out of sight. Although the novel returns in time, and although Steven's memory does also, McEwan constantly reminds us that our present is the result of past decisions, past important moments of choice that cannot be retrieved or extirpated. Time travels on, and the missing Kate has to find her own place in that arrow of time in a way that will allow the parents to move on without her, yet with loving memories of her.
   Within this thematic, there are some lovely moments: I think it the only work of McEwan that has brought me to actual tears. But the tears are momentary. It has none of the poignancy of On Chesil Beach, or the enduring sense of loss or tragedy - but then, it is not a tragedy, so that is hardly surprising. The style is recognisably and wonderfully McEwan even while it lacks the more refined and subtle skills he has at his disposal today (the original copyright is 1987). Part of his lack of skill is in his methodology - his actual story telling. He is not able, as he is now, to get as expertly inside his characters and quarry their psychological depths.
   For me, his greatest failure centred on the actual stealing of Kate. I find it barely credible. I also find the failure to follow the psyches or the conversations of the couple at this time to be frustrating. He can't quite deal with the magnitude of his own plot at this point, and steps too far back from both action and characters for me. There are unexplained gaps in plot, jumps in logic, presumptions and omissions that stretch the reader's belief.
   I would not recommend it to anyone as their first McEwan, and I would certainly not recommend it to anyone as a marvel in its own right. Neither would I criticise it as a failed attempt. I would love to see what the more mature McEwan could do today with the same theme, but even the less experienced version indicates enormous promise, and is a pleasure to read. The disappointment occurs because we now know he can do better.

5 comments about Twylla.

1. As well-conceived mystery thrillers go, this one has terrific character mosaics and a bittersweet if not surreal romance going for it. I see this girl as your typical high school sweetheart trying to run from her past only to get swarmed by really evil people trying to do her in. She brings out the hero in all us home-boys.



2. I cried for this young girl. I think she showed a lot of courage to finally face the ghosts of her past. And I loved the ending. Although the story centers around a mystery, with a fair amount of violence, the book is really about people and making the good choices in life. I recommend Twylla to anyone who wants an unforgettable trip in to the real world of both joy and pain.



3. As well-conceived mystery thrillers go, this one has terrific character mosaics and a bittersweet if not surreal romance going for it. I see this gal as your typical high school sweetheart trying to run from her past only to get swarmed by really evil people trying to do her in. She brings out the hero in all us home-boys.



4. I cried for this young girl. I thought she showed a lot of courage to finally face the ghosts of her past. Although the story centers around a mystery, with a fair amount of violence, the book is really about people and making the good choices in life. I recommend Twylla to anyone who wants an unforgettable journey in to the real world of both joy and pain.



5. Captures very well a particular time and place. The central character, Twylla, has an appealing sweetness, an innocence, just right for the time. She is all the more compelling when corruption and violence erupt around her. Twylla is a fast, fun read.

2 comments about The Gunmaster (G K Hall Large Print Western Series).

1. the main character Aaron Lebetter, the fasted gun in the west, is used by a U.S. marshal Sam Back, who is old, slow, and fat but wants the citizens of his town to respect him. so after arresting Ledbetter, he blackmails him into infiltrating a very tough gang and recapturing a local girl and $5,000. and then of. a very good read.



2. Ray Hogan's The Gunmaster is a large print novel about Aaron Ledbetter, a "Widowmaker" gunslinger who, when at last cornered by U.S. Marshall Sam Back, has but one chance to escape the gallows - he must find a kidnap victim within twenty-four hours. The Gunmaster is a fast-paced thriller set in the shadows of law and order, where rough justice is better than none. The large print format makes The Gunmaster a welcome addition to personal and community library large print collections for older readers whose "reading comfort" requires a large font text.