Mammas lille gosse

by Charles H. King

When the Harrow family is murdered in their home, Winston Churchill Harrow--a mute Trinidadian boy adopted by the family who witnessed the slaughter from the linen closet--is the police's only hope for solving the case. Reprint. K.

Genres: Thriller, Crime, Fiction, Horror

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Taylin Reinholtz]

This book started with some serious promise. I was immediately hooked but about a third of the way in, I started to feel like the writing almost got lazy. The calculated killer all of a sudden wasn’t so calculated anymore. This may be naivety on my part, but the fact that his pattern of killing families because of their own secret language was an unbelievable pattern and anticlimactic. The detective’s wife became an increasing more annoying character as the book went on. Did I overall enjoy it? I guess. I don’t regret reading it but I probably won’t read it again.

[Dona]

Nice thriller. not really complicated, but well done.

[Joanie]

5 stars for the wonderfully involving plot. Impossible to put down!

[David]

This book just grabs you from the beginning and want let you go until the end.

[Diana]

J'ai toujours pour principe de terminer un livre que j'ai commencé, même lorsqu'il ne me plaît pas. Ce fut le cas avec Mama's Boy que je n'ai pris aucun plaisir à finir.
Malgré un début et une intrigue prometteurs, je me suis vite ennuyée. De plus, certaines précisions que l'auteur nous donne n'ont absolument aucun intérêt pour l'avancée de l'intrigue. Exemples : l'évocation du viol de Sally quand elle était jeune, la relation incestueuse entre Lamb et sa mère. J'ai trouvé tout cela inutile.
Le personnage de Sally m'a aussi beaucoup irrité. Elle est un peu bête à mes yeux et se laisse manipuler d'une facilité déconcertante. Plus d'une fois, elle a mis les vies de Jake et Winston en danger. Je finissais par lever les yeux au ciel dès que je lisais son nom.
Les passages censés faire monter le suspense m'ont laissé de marbre. Étant une traduction en français, je veux bien accepter que le texte a peut-être plus de force en version originale.

Mama's Boy a été pour moi une lecture facile mais pas stimulante.

[Nik]

This is a book I read a year or so ago but I remember really enjoying it.

It was a pure "Cover Buy" I'd not heard of the author or knew much about the book but it's a very good thriller that kept me engrossed most of the way through.

Would I read it again? Probably. Would I recommend it? Definitely.

Any lover of a good thriller should try this book, you'll be disappointed if you don't.

[Abby Goodrich]

Started this book and didn’t know if I would finish it, but pushed through. I was fully immersed after a few chapters and loved reading this. I was constantly internally screaming at how stupid Sally was at every turn (seriously Sally, WHAT THE HECK) but it made it all the more engaging in my opinion.

[Steven]

I bought this for a dollar at a used book store based on the cover. It was as entertaining as it was dumb. Pretty good story with one infuriatingly stupid character. I would recommend this one for someone bored on an airplane.

[Celeste Granda]

Es un libro atrapador, donde el suspenso prima y las ganas de saber qué va a ocurrir aparecen tras sus páginas. El final, sin embargo, lo encontré un tanto escueto. Tal vez esperaba un cierre menos heroico. Es un buen texto para leer en las noches.

[Jessica Van Vliet]

Wel aardig voor tussendoor. Spannend maar ietsie langdradig

[Bob Box]

Read in 1994. With this astonishing debut novel, King has created a masterful and heartstopping thriller.

[Shonda Cornell]

3 & 1/2 stars, not a keeper due to some sex and a molestation being described with some details not necessary.

[Bent Andreassen]

3 plus to 3 1/2

[Michelle Lemelin]

Livre plutôt bon. La fin m'a toutefois déçue.

[Kelly Chester]

What a great book

[Jocke]

As I grew up during the 1990’s, I know for a fact that no one gave a shit about kids back then but the way the book’s supposed hero keeps dragging his murdered brother’s adoptive son, who is severely traumatized and non-verbal, across the country to active crime scenes, police questionings and new temporary residences is really taking the cake. Throughout the story, he is also very adamant about returning the boy to the orphanage from whence he came and nullifying the adoption as soon as he has caught the killer and hence has no more use of a witness. It is implied that he grows more and more attached to the boy as the story progresses, but it is never made clear if he actually decides to keep him around or not.

Another big problem is Jake’s wife, Sally. The way she is written indicates that Charles King might not have the most positive view of women. She first meets Jake when he intervenes as she is being raped. She then becomes obsessed with him and basically stalks him until he gives in and three weeks later, they are married. This is not problematized at all. Just a fun, cutesy way for a couple to meet. She is also an aspiring crime writer and weaves in Jakes work-stories into her writing. She is unpublished and lacks representation but does not want to write an entire book until she has secured a publisher. She keeps sending chapters and getting rejection letters but feels it would be a waste of her time to actually finish the book until she is sure that it will get published. Seems like an unrealistic expectation to have as an aspiring writer.

She gives up information about the case at a party which sets off a chain of events erupting with the police arresting the wrong man and closing the case, Jake getting shot and an author she wanted to help boost her literary career getting tortured and killed. She is also duped SO EASILY by the killer when he infiltrates a dinner party her parents are hosting. He offers to give her notes on her writing, and she immediately gives him a short story she’s been working on based on the goings-on of the book and by doing so helps the killer immensely with critical information. When Jake finally is about to confront the killer and take him by surprise, he is in the middle of “helping” Sally with her story and when she sees Jake with a gun, she gets hysterical as she thinks he’s just in a jealous rage about her spending time with another man. She proceeds to stop Jake which causes both Jake and Winston to get pretty badly beaten and hurt before they actually manage to get the upper hand. Ditsy dames, right? No, not right Charles King. Shape up!

[Philomena]

This book had story lines from the different lives of the characters, the villain, the victim and the hero. A story of a cop, Jake who was married to androphobic Sally, the woman he had saved from her boyfriend whom had sexually assaulted her. A story of his brother's family who had been murdered save for the young survivor, Jake's adopted nephew, Winston. A story of the killer, his past and present, who took the lives of Roger Harrow and his family. A story of a young boy who had witnessed his family being murdered. A story of Sally Harrow, with a heavy fear of men, she befriends a man who just happened to be the killer. Jake and Winston team up to find the killer. The killer is on the run and Sally is trying to make it big as a writer. A great read!!

[Casi K.]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11425074