The Lady of the House

Rating:
Summary: Gripping psychological drama - Recommended
Review: Jessica, divorced and mother of two, revels in the opportunity to periodically play the role of lady of the house when her friend Linda is away. Sipping iced tea at the poolside or borrowing a luxury car comes as quite an escape from breast-feeding and money worries. She happens to be at Linda's and offers iced tea to a sexy lawn care man one afternoon. Jessica has no idea that her pretense will lead to a life-threatening situation.

Three men arrive dressed in sky masks, grabbing Linda and demanding to know the location of the lady of the house. Linda's protestations go unheeded, and only Jessica's timely intervention prevents worse damage by a knife. The men throw Jessica in the back of a van and transport her to a farm, planning to demand a ransom from her wealthy family. Little do they suspect they have the wrong woman.

Author Roy King reveals a powerful talent for creating gripping psychological drama with THE LADY OF THE HOUSE. While readers may find the first fifty pages a bit slow, as the pace increases they will be swept away by convincing characterizations and powerful drama. The vicious and dangerous perpetrators keep readers glued to the pages as Jessica struggles against horrifying circumstances with fierce determination. Her willingness to sacrifice herself and offer herself as victim when her friend's life is endangered, her ability to survive isolation, torture and rape each reveal surprising strength and resilience. Secondary characters likewise sparkle, including her new boyfriend and wealthy friends who offer to pay her ransom. Some readers, especially women, may find the level of perversion and brutality objectionable. THE LADY OF THE HOUSE comes recommended.

Rating:
Summary: needs work; has potential
Review: The author has a potentially intriguing story idea here: inside the psyche of a woman kidnapped by mistake. Unfortunately, missed opportunities and stylistic issues lower the enjoyment.

A published book should not have issues with punctuation, but this one does, and they are not just 'where to put the comma' issues. The ones that broke up the flow most harshly were sentence fragments. Punctuated with periods. In places where they simply did not flow. Likewise, some language uses come through as clunky. A good example is the laudatory blurb on the back that tells us: "The Lady of the House is an incredibly gripping psychological thriller that will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions." Something about the second part of the sentence just feels awkward; perhaps 'an emotional rollercoaster ride' would work better? These sorts of instances are not uncommon in the book.

The majority of the story is narrative of the protagonist's feelings. This is natural, and King merits praise for focusing squarely on her. Unfortunately, he misses the opportunity to let her speak in her own words through internal monologue, set off with italics. The closest he comes is through a number of dream sequences, which are pretty good, and which if accompanied by more internal monologue would have helped.

In general, character development is sparse for all but the main character. It is difficult to differentiate the three kidnappers until well into the story. The FBI agents, the protagonist's lover, and her wealthy friends aren't terribly vivid or individual. More description is needed, not only physical but by *showing* through behaviours.

Which brings us to the aspect of the novel most needing work: too often we are told rather than shown, especially from the protagonist's standpoint. This ties in with the character development because showing rather than telling how people feel is a key character development tool: highlight an aspect of personality through action or speech rather than by just telling us that they feel X.

This will sound very snobbish, and I don't like to say it, but it's the truth as I see it: the story will appeal most to less sophisticated readers on whom subtleties are either lost or who don't care to look for them. From that standpoint, I can see it as a suspenseful and successful book.

I do see King as worth watching in the psychothriller genre. I think he's one good book on self-editing (or the employment of a professional editor) away from writing a very good story. Unlike Dean Koontz, he didn't come up with a retarded plot concept; this one's quite sensible. Unlike Dale Brown, he doesn't have a goofy idea of plausibility; this could happen. Unlike most of Stephen King, he's readable (albeit bumpy at times).

Rating:
Summary: 3.5 Stars; Good Suspense, Rough Edges
Review: The Story: A woman is mistaken for a rich man's wife (she's actually the housekeeper) and is kidnapped and held incommunicado on a remote farm. The kidnappers eventually realize their error, but the rich man, the woman's boyfriend, and the FBI work diligently and methodically to locate and rescue her. Meanwhile, she is not only held captive but is also tortured and raped by one of the kidnappers. She has to find a way to survive without giving up and giving in completely. Along the way, the victim learns about life's priorities and becomes a more three-dimensional person.

The Good: The characters seems fairly realistic, the pace is fast (after a somewhat slow start), the people act in realistic ways (especially the victim, the FBI, the rich man and his wife, and the woman's boyfriend), and the editing is pretty good (see below for exception). This book was very gripping and suspenseful.

The Bad: Every chapter had to start on an odd-numbered page, which meant that, if a chapter ended on an odd-numbered page, there was a blank page before the next chapter. My hardcover edition was numbered to page 209, but fourteen of those pages were blank. The ending was also weak and simplistic; after enduring weeks of captivity, some time locked a lightless and freezing cellar, being raped repeatedly by a perverted kidnapper, being whipped badly twice, and having to twice talk her way out of being killed after failed escape attempts, the heroine lives happily ever after as soon as she is rescued. No scars? No signs of trauma? Very unrealistic.

The Ugly: I know there are people like the kidnappers in the world, but the level of sadism, perversion, and brutality seems excessive. Early in the story (but after the kidnapping), the kidnappers also use profanity to an excessive degree, to the point where it seems forced and gratuitous. While the story was gripping, some of the language and some of the scenes were so extreme and ugly that it was almost as hard to keep reading as it would have been to stop. I did need to take a few breaks to avoid becoming disgusted.

Overall: A good story that is overdone at times, and that has a weak ending. I hope that the author learns from this novel, and writes more, and more refined, novels.