Rating: 
Summary: Personal Growth without Personal Interaction
Review: The Drowning People, by Richard Mason, is a portrayal a young man learning about who he is as a person and what it means to be human. James is actually a seventy-year-old man looking back and telling the story of his younger years. I had heard many wonderful things about this book, and I expected to be completely enthralled, but I was not able to directly relate to any certain character. There were characteristics of certain characters that I found familiar, yet, it failed to draw the reader in on a more personal level. Regardless, I did enjoy the novel. Once the reader sees past the moral dilemmas such as murder, they realize that it is truly the story of a young man trying to learn how to react to and accept the unexpected. Mason uses a different method for capturing the attention of the reader by beginning the story with the conclusion. He makes it clear that he has killed his wife and the temptation to read on is for the reader to find out why. This new twist for a beginning is uncommon and therefore encourages the reader to keep reading in order to experience something new. On the other hand, Mason has another twist at the end, which is supposed to be unexpected, but I was not surprised. Mason had given many hints throughout the book, and having read other stories with similar outcomes, the results were not new or unexpected.Overall, this novel is enjoyable and the positive aspects outweigh the negative ones. If willing to see further than the shocking and immoral actions of some of the characters, the reader can use this story as an example for what it means to accept being human.
Rating: 
Summary: Caution: Before you Drown, Read This
Review: WARNING: Do not even attempt to read this novel if you like uneventful, unsuspenseful, and contrived books. Do not open this bestseller if you do not like mystery, plot twists, foreign lands, curses, tainted love, social critiques, or stories of revenge. But if you want to read a book that is packed with suspense and difficult to put down, then ask yourself this question, "Why am I not reading 'The Drowning People' instead of this online review?" The reader may have even greater appreciation for the writing when he/she finds out Richard Mason was only eighteen when he wrote it, but that is besides the point. One should not read the book because of the author's age, but rather for his talent. Ignore the hype about the author's age and appearance, and appreciate him for what he is, a brilliant writer. To say The Drowning People is a murder mystery does not do the novel justice. Murder mystery sounds so uncreative, and this book is far from unoriginal. Mason writes about the lives of the English upper class in a bittersweet tale of jealousy and revenge. The perfect and impenetrable world they create for themselves is shattered from within. Mason reveals the murderer on the first page of the novel, "My wife of more than forty-five years shot herself yesterday afternoon. At least that is what the police assume, and I am playing the part of grieving widower with enthusiasm and success... It was I who killed her." The narrator (and murderer) spends the rest of the book describing the events that lead up to the murder and he goes back fifty years, to 1994, to tell his tale, but his motive is not revealed until the final pages of the book. I will say only one unfortunate thing about the novel; Mason uses too much suspense at times to keep the reader captivated, but that is easily forgiven since the rest of the book is so intriguing. I am impatiently awaiting Mason's next novel and I cannot recommend his first one enough.
Rating:
Summary: A delicious read...but 4, not 5 stars for implausibility
Review: What a yummy read, however, it was mightily implausible. But then, who cares when the story is so melodramatic (and well-written). Actually, I did something I never do - I got the unabridged audio (Time Warner) read by Martin Jarvis. I was shocked. Unlike so many abridged audios, it was impeccably edited. I can't imagine the actual book being
better.Congratulations to a young writer with great talent. To sustain the tension, to write such a taut, haunting novel at such a tender age, is something of a miracle.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasing Prose; Worrysome Modern Ending
Review: I still can't believe this is Richard Mason's first novel. What a delight to read! I found his prose very pleasing, especially his vivid descriptions of people, places, and sensual stimuli (like smells). I also thought his story very engaging, his characters well developed, and the plot well done (though I got tired of his clues teasing since it reminded me of watching a made-for-tv drama). I was a bit disappointed that I figured out the entire plot way too early (when Ella confides to James that she stole Sarah's love away for fun), but I did enjoy the way the remorseful old James allows us to tour his varigated feelings and thoughts as he remembers the details. What worried me most about the book was its ending: James get's away with murder. It left me uneasy that the author left us with James feeling somehow heroic in his taking justice into his own hands (like too many people are doing in the news today), in meating out Sarah's punishment (even though it may have been well-deserved), without himself (his actions, his morals, his accountability) being subjected to anything more than his own private, face-saving, self-inflicted trial where he is both prosecuting and defending attorney for himself, juror of one, and judge of one. No one (other than the reader) ever finds out what he did to anyone! I prefer more the P.D. James sort of justice like in her recent A Perfect Justice. I also wonder at the irony of Sarah's death in terms of the Harcourt curse that now passes--with the title and castle--to her daughter, whom I assume also has daughters. Perhaps Mr. Mason has a sequel in mind? All in all I would recommend this book highly and everyone in my bookclub (The Routy Readers in Belmont, MA, USA) thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Mason's first work and hope he continues to write many more.
Rating:
Summary: a very worthy upper-class murder suspense
Review: Over the years I've made the acquaintance of many authors and other people in the book industry, including this author. Richard Mason is a nice, down-to-earth kind of guy who never let his success over the sale of this first novel get to his head. Altogther he got almost a million dollars for "The Drowning People" and reviews compared him to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Henry James, his responses to such exhuberant praise were modest. The comparison to Hugh Grant embarrassed him. In a similarly humble letter I received from him, he pointed out the transcience of literary fame and made me realize that fame is always a fleeting thing. This novel, begun when he was just 18, is an ambitious, psychologically insightful, suspenseful, romantic, intriguing foray into the inner world of upper-class England. I thought there was a lot of repetitive psychology and needless description and the editors could have cut about a fourth of the book out to give free-er, faster flow to the plot, which would have strengthened the storyline. Yes, may have been a few clumsy or seemingly implausible things in the story, but overall, this was a very good novel. If John Grisham or Michael Creighton had written this book, we would be calling it a very good novel, trust me, but because it was written by this young college kid, automatically any perceived flaws in the work are magnified. Mason's a very talented author indeed, and his contract is a two-book deal, so I hope his publishers finally put out his second novel. I look forward to it. Some of us have been waiting a very long time. David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"
Rating: 
Summary: I'm drowning in boredom - is it finally over???
Review: I am not a big fan of English film and perhaps that's the reason I didn't really like this book. It just kept going and going and going. I found so many areas extremely boring but I always (well almost) finish a book once I start. There was not enough story for the length of the book.
Rating:
Summary: a ho-hum story brought to life by terrific prose...
Review: Richard Mason should be proud. It is hard to believe that a 20 year old university student can produce such sumptious prose in his first novel ('The Drowning People'). The words flow beautifully. Not only is it an effortless read, the prose is on par with the best of today's fiction writers. So yes, I loved this book. However the story itself isn't exactly flawless. The story is a about a love triangle (actually, a quadrangle) set in modern London. A talented violinist falls in love with a troubled young woman with a bizarre past. The bane of this woman's existence is her identical cousin (..hmmm, sounds like 'The Patty Duke Show'). Further complicating matters is the relationship of a (very close) male friend. Sounds like a soap opera? Well, it actually works better than it sounds. A bit contrived, but thanks to the prose it is all compulsive reading. Bottom line: a fantastic debut of a promising writer. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing book
Review: I listened to the book, and liked the narration. Even though the first few lines tell one what happens at the end of the story, the author did a good job of getting us there. He meets Ella Harcourt in a park, and the story takes off from there. I never really got to like her, and was not sure why he loved her so much. But then, that is life, and one can never see what others see.
The tragedy of Eric is not dealt with in a convincing manner (eg, how could his parents swallow such a weak story). Also, cousins can never look so alike that they are mistaken for each other as they share only 25% of their genes. I found that a little problematic. At the end, I felt that I had a view of the evil that men (and women) are capable of, and that was not a comforting feeling. If you are able to take a few assumptions with a pinch of salt, this book is worth reading and definitely worth listening to. I look forward to his next book.
Rating: 
Summary: An obscured life, built on a façade of shattered illusions
Review: An amazing piece of work from a writer who at the age of eighteen writes with amazing clarity and intimacy. Mason's writing is verbose to the point of illustrious, filled with foreshadowing fed to the reader like so many breadcrumbs discarded along a path, leading us to one unexpected twist after another. The story unravels slowly, not at the breakneck pace of the usual page-turner, but with an expressive usage of language that is reminiscent of Bronte and Austen. The story begins with the protagonist telling the reader that he has killed his wife of 45 years, but for all intent and purposes it is believed to be a suicide. It is the story of a man who lived his life in a prison of his own making. A moment of transparency in his carefully constructed life has led him to look back on the choices that brought him to this point.There are events buried deep within that are just too terrible to face. The unspoken compact that has held him fast and firm through life is about to come to light, and the results are yet to be determined. I enjoyed this book immensely but I have to say it was the writing style that really caught my attention. This is not your usual cookie cutter mystery story. This is an excellent book from a writer that I'm sure you will hear more from in the future. Kelsana 6/19/02
Rating: 
Summary: Laughable
Review: In essence, there are three problems with this book. Firstly, it is grossly overwritten given that it is rather banal. It's a 150-page novella blown up to two or three times that length by the narrator's tedious musings on life, love, youth, and coincidence. Little of this advances the plot and none of it is very interesting, so it is difficult not to suspect that it was inserted as padding to meet the word-count target. Secondly, the plot turns entirely on preposterous coincidences and absurdly improbable behaviour. At times it is unintentionally hilarious. For instance, the hero meets the heroine after she accosts him out running in a public park, the way women do, and broaches the subject of his socks. This triggers - you guessed it - a rumination by the narrator on the sublimity of love versus the ordinariness of socks. Jeffrey Archer would have been proud of it, but frankly I actually wondered if it had been added in for laughs. The narrator subsequently runs into the heroine's sister (in yet another park), deduces who she is, and introduces himself. She then relates her entire life history to him, the way women do to total strangers. I fell off the sofa laughing when, at one point, the hero samples homsoexuality with his best mate to prove to the heroine that he loves her. Must remember to try that one myself. Third, there is a peculiar sense of temporal dislocation. Although the "action" is supposed to be set in the 1990s it actually all feels self-consciously Edwardian.The narrator attends cocktail parties - you know, the way 19-year-olds do - and keeps running into the same cast of two-dimensional characters, who all know each other, so that one is left with the impression that London is a city of about 200 people. Needless to say they're all sparklingly interesting - we know this because the writer tells us so. The scenes set in 2040 feature the lord of the manor addressing his forehead-knuckling tenants, as though it's 1740. I have no doubt this is intentional, but what end it is supposed to accomplish is a mystery. In about 5 or 6 years the writer will be very embarrassed about this, and it is hoped that he hasn't spent all the money by then, because he isn't going to make much more unless he improves pretty sharpish. Poor.
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