Kim Powers (1)

Right away, the title grabs your attention making me think: what...a book about being dead? I had to read it.

The book starts with the mother, Creola, who has just died in Texas, 1966. It's not clear right away what has happened but she's flying above her family watching them at their favorite place: the drive-in movies. She's trying to figure things out. Her ten-year-old son, Clarke, is motivated to also find out what happened. He feels like one of the spies in the movies. He has a younger brother, Corey, who faces the trauma in his own way. And then there's the husband and father: Lloyd Edwin (LE). He works at an appliance store with a drinking problem on the side. There's more: he's having an affair.

Clarke loves movies and goes all the time. "Movies take your mind off things." His mom was an Elvis fan which he admired as well. Creola watches her sons from the afterlife and says: "they spend all their time sitting in the dark, watching movies up on a screen, living the lives of those characters instead of their own lives. This is what I did." While there's some humor, the book is filled with a lot of emotional sadness and drama.

The author is a good story teller with an original plot. I read it quickly.… (mehr)

Ethan “Hercules” Holt won in his twenties the decathlon at the Olympics. But now thirteen years later is he teaching at his alma mater and raising his young daughter Skip and trying to move on with his life after his wife death five years earlier. But the day after his birthday party is Skip kidnapped and the kidnapper wants Ethan to perform the Twelve Labors of Hercules. If he fails will he never see her alive...

DIG TWO GRAVES is a well-written and intensive thriller about obsession. Ethan and Skip live an ordinary life in a small town and since there are just the two of them are they very close. But the birthday party that Skip had planned didn't turn out as she wanted it to. She was hurt that her father didn't seem to appreciate the movie about his life that she has made and that Ethan had invited Wendy his girlfriend to the party. But, Ethan notices they day after when he comes home after working that Skip has planned to cook dinner for him, but she has never got to it, she is gone...

I think Kim Powers has done tremendous work of writing a thriller that shows just how far a father would go to find his daughter. His love for Skip shines through the book and every obstacle he takes on pushes him closer to finding her and also learning the truth about the kidnapper. In the middle of the all we also have a young man that is looking for the truth from Ethan, is he involved with the kidnapping? I had my suspicious towards the end on whom the kidnapper would be, but that never ruined the reading. And, the ending was heartbreaking.

DIG TWO GRAVES is a great book and a perfect book for anyone that is looking for a good thriller.… (mehr)

Another solid three star read: not bad, but not particularly gripping either. In 1960s Texas, a young mother dies in mysterious circumstances and 'haunts' her family until she and they can put together the memories of her final days and establish how she died. Creola (what a name!) can't remember, her husband is ashamed that she killed herself, her eldest son Clarke believes that his father is a murderer, and youngest son Corey takes the blame himself. But who is right?

My issue with the story is what I consider to be a plot hole but could be demoted to a literary device: why wasn't an inquest held to determine why a young woman in her forties died suddenly? The father tells the police that he doesn't want an autopsy and they go along with him! I know that law and order was a bit shady in 60s Texas - the Kennedy assassination and death of Lee Harvey Oswald, referenced in the story, for instance - but surely this isn't realistic.

However she died, Creola's unreliable narrative and Clarke's youthful interpretation of events were enjoyable to read, and I liked how the clues started falling into place with chapters from the perspectives of the boys' violent father L.E., his kind-hearted girlfriend Rita, Creola's gay friend Maurice and even young Corey, who suffers from epilepsy. The differing insights made me feel both angry and sorry for everyone, especially Creola who was going through some kind of breakdown before she died, and brought all of the characters to life. Ten year old Clarke, in love with the silver screen and starting to learn about his sexuality, was the best of the bunch.

I'm not sure why reading this quirky yet heartfelt novel took so long but I could only get through a few pages before losing interest. The story is introspective, relying on Creola's patchy memory and Clarke's gathering of 'evidence', but I still struggled to engage with the writing even though I usually enjoy character-based fiction. The weird clash of religion - Creola is waiting to gain her 'wings' - and ignorance in suburban Texas was typically disturbing, however, so perhaps I was simply suffering a negative reaction to the setting!… (mehr)

Right away, the title grabs your attention making me think: what...a book about being dead? I had to read it.

The book starts with the mother, Creola, who has just died in Texas, 1966. It's not clear right away what has happened but she's flying above her family watching them at their favorite place: the drive-in movies. She's trying to figure things out. Her ten-year-old son, Clarke, is motivated to also find out what happened. He feels like one of the spies in the movies. He has a younger brother, Corey, who faces the trauma in his own way. And then there's the husband and father: Lloyd Edwin (LE). He works at an appliance store with a drinking problem on the side. There's more: he's having an affair.

Clarke loves movies and goes all the time. "Movies take your mind off things." His mom was an Elvis fan which he admired as well. Creola watches her sons from the afterlife and says: "they spend all their time sitting in the dark, watching movies up on a screen, living the lives of those characters instead of their own lives. This is what I did." While there's some humor, the book is filled with a lot of emotional sadness and drama.

The author is a good story teller with an original plot. I read it quickly.… (mehr)