Mic Breaks Only discussion

Sound the trumpets dum-da-da-dum, I have finished the audio version of Shadow of Night. It has taken quite a long time, 24 hours and 25 minutes to be exact. Without further ado, here is how the rest of the story wraps up.

Diana's father visits for awhile, but ultimately I was disappointed in the amount of narrative dedicated to this reunion. I came away feeling that it was a bit too topical, I wanted to witness some deep-seated family stuff. Diana's father leaves for the present day after merely leaving a note. We don't even get to see a meaningful goodbye or a tight, tearful embrace. Maybe I'm biased because of the amount of reality television present in our current day-to-day but I felt emotionally bereft after this section.

Diana and Matthew follow her Pa's lead and gear up for their own time-walking journey back to the present. There is quite a montage of goodbyes to friends including Diana's adopted coven and Matthew's close knit circle. Diana also engages in a creepy exchange with yucky Father Hubbard in order to secure the safety of loved ones in the 1590's. Matthew and Diana make arrangements for the placement and protection of their wards Annie and Jack.

The de Clairmonts decide to leave Ashmole 782 in the past and finally jump back to the present, specifically to the Bishop family home. Readers follow their delightfully modern journey to Sept-Tours where a gaggle of Matthew and Diana's respective families and their daemon friends have gathered in high anticipation of their arrival. Matthew's mother detects that Diana has not one, but two buns in the oven. Close curtain, the end.

My goodness I need a break from this saga. While the journey is enjoyable, sometimes the sheer number of side characters and sub-plots becomes overwhelming in a soap opera way. I anticipate continuing this story at some point, but I'm not willing to commit to a date quite yet. Let's call it a pre-promise ring.

I nearly finished The Woman in the Window and I am enthralled. The book is organized day by day. Sometimes a day is one very short chapter and sometimes a single day contains multiple longer chapters. Something about this organizational method made me speed read along like an addict chanting, "just one more day, just one more day, just one more day."

I might as well be one of the Von Trapp children in The Sound of Music singing about my favorite things as I talk about this book because there is quite a lot to love. I am obsessed with film noir and and Alfred Hitchcock movies in particular. My one regret is that I didn't make a list of all of the film references so I could watch all of the movies that I haven't seen. This novel reads like a screenplay, it is super easy to visualize the characters on the silver screen and I understand we won't have to wait too long to actually see this story in movie form. I also relish an unreliable narrator. The main character Anna Fox suffers from alcoholism and agoraphobia and she is also heavily medicated. She is a complicated person and knowing that their are pieces of her past that are intentionally left out or glossed over increases the yummy tension as you work through the plot. I am really looking forward to the ending.

I made some headway in the Audible version of The Snowman. Before law enforcement can bring in Idar Vetlesen, his body is discovered at the curling ring where he and his cronies hang out. Initially his death is ruled a suicide, however Harry with some hands on syringe experimentation determines that Idar was murdered. Detectives find that both entrepreneur Arve Støp and Filip Becker had contact with Idar just prior to his murder.

Harry and Katrine respond to the Becker residence and an extremely intense exchange follows with guns drawn. The result is Filip Becker is nearly shot. Stressed out Harry goes to check on Jonas and he believes the child has been killed by Filip Becker. Jonas is fine, but the night ends with Filip Becker in jail as a possible suspect in the Snowman murders.

Housewife Camilla Lossius goes missing, but she doesn't seem to match the criteria of the other victims. She is married, but has no children. Ultimately it is discovered that Filip Becker, with the help of a toy gun, spilled the beans about his wife Birte having a long term affair with Camilla's husband. Camilla subsequently leaves town without telling anyone. She eventually phones her husband to tell him that she is fine, but that she is filing for divorce.

Filip Becker is removed from the list of suspects and Harry shifts his focus to the wealthy and attractive Arve Støp. Mr. Støp has been generally uncooperative with informal questions thus far, so Harry decides to confront him in an oddly aggressive way on a TV talk show. The police haven't bothered correcting media outlets that broadcast the Snowman has been identified as Idar Vetlesen and is now deceased. When Harry discloses that the Snowman has not been apprehended on TV, he creates quite a stir with both the general public and police administration.

Katrine Bratt is also convinced that Arve Støp is a prime suspect and she stalks him at his company work party. She lures him away from the party and nearly kills him. She flees the scene just prior to Harry arriving at Støp's residence. We learn that Arve has slept with many of the victims and that he is the cause for the increase in Fahr's syndrome in the local region. Mr. Støp is also responsible for connecting the victims and their offspring to physician Idar because he was excellent at being discreet about the existence of multiple illegitimate children.

While broadening his search and trying to find Katrine, Harry finds that Katrine is the person who sent him the letter from the Snowman. He also learns more about her past and he adds her to the list of suspects. This section of the book is like a ping pong game, the list of suspects keeps growing and Harry jumps around the table from this person to that person in a manic hunt for the killer.

This section closes with Harry finding and confronting Katrine. A physical altercation ensues and Katrine is taken into custody. The police department is convinced that she suffers from mental health issues. While in custody Katrine becomes catatonic. Police administration discuss how they are going to manage the publicity nightmare of one of their own being a serial killer. It is suggested that Harry be the scapegoat in order to spare the department as a whole from utter embarrassment.