Rating: 
Summary: Complex plot with a lot of surprises
Review: The plot of this Edgar Award winning novel by one of Britain's hottest mystery writers is awfully familiar, but in Minette Walters capable hands it's still creepy, interesting and very readable. Rosalind Leigh is commissioned to write a book about Olive Martin, an obese young woman, known as The Sculptress after hacking up her mother and sister with an ax and rearranging the pieces. Now all she carves is little wax figurines in her prison cell, including one of Rosalind after their first interview. At this and subsequent interviews, Olive convinces Rosalind that she did not actually commit the crime, this in spite of her own confession and a mountain of evidence. Of course, as Rosalind starts to dig into the facts of the case, she finds herself in mounting danger. It all sounds painfully standard I know, but it made for a very good BBC adaptation which was shown here on PBS and the book is terrific too. As always in these things, Olive is the most interesting character in the book, but her relationship with Rosalind is especially well done and there are enough surprises to offset the somewhat formulaic basic plot. GRADE: C+
Rating: 
Summary: enough surprises
Review: The plot of this Edgar Award winning novel by one of Britain's hottest mystery writers is awfully familiar, but in Minette Walters capable hands it's still creepy, interesting and very readable. Rosalind Leigh is commissioned to write a book about Olive Martin, an obese young woman, known as The Sculptress after hacking up her mother and sister with an ax and rearranging the pieces. Now all she carves is little wax figurines in her prison cell, including one of Rosalind after their first interview. At this and subsequent interviews, Olive convinces Rosalind that she did not actually commit the crime, this in spite of her own confession and a mountain of evidence. Of course, as Rosalind starts to dig into the facts of the case, she finds herself in mounting danger. It all sounds painfully standard I know, but it made for a very good BBC adaptation which was shown here on PBS and the book is terrific too. As always in these things, Olive is the most interesting character in the book, but her relationship with Rosalind is especially well done and there are enough surprises to offset the somewhat formulaic basic plot. GRADE: C+
Rating:
Summary: A different story
Review: The story of the book is very different from almost all the books that I have read and I have my own questions of the veracity of the facts when they happened 6 years before, but as I always say you read to have fun and you can't expect that everything written in a book is real.
The story of any person in jail is depressing, and I think that is more depressing if that person was innocent no matter what other people think (outside of jail of course).
The book is an easy book to read and is perfect for the beach or any vacations, because is not a turn pager but it keeps you reading, so if you have anything else to do you can stop reading any time.
Rating: 
Summary: THE SCULPTRESS -- A PERFECT TITLE FOR THIS BOOK
Review: This is an intriguing story about Olive Martin, who is in prison for murdering and cutting up the bodies of her mother Gwen and her sister Amber. Enter Roz, an author who is not really interested in writing any longer. Her publisher gives her an ultimatum and an assignment to write a book about Olive and the murders. She reluctantly agrees and once she sinks her teeth into this task, she is no longer convinced that Olive really committed the murders that she has confessed to. Walters' portrayal of Olive as an obese, unkempt woman adds to the story as she allows the reader to want to believe that Olive is in fact the murderer, while at the same time, the story that Roz is unraveling could perhaps tell us otherwise. This book won the 1994 Edgar Award for best mystery novel and it is no surprise why. The real surprise is how deft Minette Walters is at making this gruesome story come alive. It is filled with darkness, tension and sensitivity to the protagonist. Can Minette Walters write a bad book -- I don't think so. She's obviously a master of her craft.
Rating:
Summary: TRUE BEAUTY COMES WRAPPED IN DIFFERENT PACKAGES...
Review: This is an intriguing, well written mystery which garnered the 1994 Edgar Award for best novel of the year for British writer, Minette Walters, who has written quite a number of excellent books. She is a writer in the tradition of that other great British novelist, Ruth Rendell, known also as Barbara Vine. The comparison by those who are familiar with the works of both Ms. Walters and Ms. Rendell is inescapable. This book revolves around two main stories that become by necessity intertwined. One is that of a morbidly obese, young woman, Olive Martin, who is imprisoned for the brutal and grisly murders of her mother, Gwen, and beautiful, younger sister, Amber, whose butchered bodies shocked even the most jaded of folks. On the eve of trial, Olive made a full confession to the crime and received a prison sentence of not less than twenty-five years for her butchery. Known in prison as "The Sculptress", she passes the time making miniature, carved, wax images, a delicate and sensitive pastime for one with a reputation for such primal savagery. Enter Rosalind "Roz" Leigh, a thirties something author suffering from writer's block, who accepts a commission to write about the Olive Martin case. After meeting Olive, she becomes intrigued by her, finding her to be other than what she had expected, and a symbiotic relationship develops between the two. As she delves into the facts of the murder case, and as her interviews with Olive reveal, all is not quite what it seems. The more that Roz sorts through the facts and the more people that she interviews who were in some way associated with the Martin family, the more she becomes convinced that a miscarriage of justice has occurred and that the wrong person is paying a horrific price for the grisly murders of Gwen and Amber. Someone, however, does not wish her to dig too deeply. With the aid of a former police sergeant, Hal Hawksley, an attractive, though conflicted, young man who is now her new love interest and was also the officer who arrested Olive for the murders, Roz stays the course and perserveres in her inquiry. What she discovers is a complex morass of human indifference, greed, and passion that makes for a compelling and well crafted mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: This is one of the best mystery books I've read
in years! And I've read plenty!
Is the presumed murderess "The Sculptress" innocent of slaughtering her mother and sister?
A writer are supposed to write a book about "The Sculptress" but as times goes by she starts
to doubt her guilt.
What was it really that happened that night?
Would "The Sculptress" actually have killed the
sister that eveyone says she adored?
This book has got it all- interesting characters,
thrilling intrigue and well written
Rating:
Summary: Perfect Commuter Reading
Review: This was the first Minette Walters book I have read and I have bought all her others since reading The Sculptress. The characters are well descibed and vivid, the story is a well-blended mix of mystery, emotion, fact and speculation. Walters does not rely on a formula to help her writing output and each of her books comes across as fresh and unique. This is the perfect book to make you look forward to a daily commute - but keep an eye out for your stop!
Rating:
Summary: Perfect Commuter Reading
Review: This was the first Minette Walters book I have read and I have bought all her others since reading The Sculptress. The characters are well descibed and vivid, the story is a well-blended mix of mystery, emotion, fact and speculation. Walters does not rely on a formula to help her writing output and each of her books comes across as fresh and unique. This is the perfect book to make you look forward to a daily commute - but keep an eye out for your stop!
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