Death from the Woods

Rating:
Summary: Gem of a Whodunnit
Review: An extraordinary thriller centring around the heroine, Elise Andrioli, who has been left blind, mute and quadriplegic as a result of an IRA bomb in Northern Ireland.
Back home in France, Elise leads a sedentary and solitary life and when a number of murders of boys take place, she is befriended by a little girl, Virginie, who confides that she has witnessed the murders. This sets the scene for an unusual and intriguing whodunnit. Elise, a very different heroine, is fabulously witty and sarcastic in the manner she relates to the reader her thoughts and opinions on the characters she comes into contact with.
Its a creepy, spine-chilling, roller-coaster of a book and one which I enjoyed immensely. This book is highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: From a promising premise... into the sewer
Review: Aubert begins with a fascinating premise, the whole novel from the persepctive of a young woman who is paralyzed, dumb and blind. And that is a beguiling perspective, and a frightening one, which is - importantly - guilded with a sharp sense of humor, especially refreshing for one in that devestating state. And, for awhile, that's enough. Because Aubert does keepone guessing, as to whom is killing all those 8 year-old boys and defacing them horribly. But then, the solution begins to develop through ever-more murders, including several attacks upon the woman herself, for - it turns out - no better reason than hate. And through this dung-heap of violence, one begins to notice one wildly improbable event after another - a coincidence here, a relationship out of the blue there, a connection that's as farfetched as a satellite from Pluto... And then you come to the climactic revelation. Through the longest scene of melodramatic mishmash I've endured for quite some time. Just as the French admire Jerry Lewis, this prize-winner is inexplicable to me.

Rating:
Summary: At the edge of your chair
Review: Bodies pile up three deep while Elise - a quadriplegic who cannot see or speak but hears - tries to solve the mystery with her inner monologue. The book is lengthy of speech, with a few happenings thrown in at random. This is what French novelists do best, and Aubert surely is one of them. To that degree, the book is very enjoyable. But then it is time to solve the crime, and that is where the author gets stuck. 30 pages of explaining the dreadful deeds, with numerous new revelations nobody could guess at, just simply is too much.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books of 2000
Review: Brigitte Aubert's first book to be translated into English, "Death from the Woods" has received critical acclaim. Among the books many fine points is its protagonist, Elise Andrioli, who has been hailed as a brilliantly original character. Actually, Elise's situation - paralayzed, blind and mute - is similar to the heroine of Patricia Carlon's "The Whispering Wall", who is left paralyzed and mute after a stroke. That said, "Death from the Woods" is a brilliant read and a wonderful study in suspense.

We "see" all the action from Elise's point of view and the story unfolds in a highly entertaining mixture of suspense, terror and wonderfully black humor. A self-described "living vegetable", Elise tries to figure out who "Death from the Woods" - a serial killer who's been murdering young boys in her Paris suburb - could be. The cast of suspects includes Virginie, the young girl who first tells Elise that she saw "Death from the Woods" come for the boys, Virginie's father Paul, the local police captain, and virtually every character that Elise comes into contact with. Hampered by her inability to communicate - she can only raise an index finger in response to "yes/no" questions - or move, Elise must find a way around her handicap. Naturally, the book builds to a confrontation between Elise and the killer which is superbly done and full of suspense.

Some readers have criticized the book's overly convoluted plot - some have even called it contrived - that requires a great deal of explaining at the end. To some extent, I can understand their frustration as this is a whodunnit with a very complex plot and the unfamiliarity of French names for an American audience may require some backtracking to reacquire a lost thread or two. But at the end of the day, it's all worth it because Elise is a wonderful character who paves over all the little cracks and flaws in the novel. Funny, bitter, courageous and quirky, she is a character that readers can really fall in love with. Aubert is said to be working on a sequel and I for one can hardly wait - I might even have to start brushing up on my French again!

Rating:
Summary: What's the word I'm looking for...?
Review: Brilliance! That's it! Brilliance is the only to describe France thriller writer Brigitte Aubert's English debut, "Death From the Woods" about blind, quadripalegic, mute Elise Andrioli. You're thinking, how and the hell could such a disabled woman blink, much less solve a slew of child murders? With her all-encompassing hope of being able to move again, and her sardonic wit. Elise lives with Yvette, her nursemaid and general caregiver. One day Yvette decides to take Elise with her to the market. She parks Elise under an oak tree, and goes on about her shopping. A little girl Elise learns is named Virginie comes up to Elise and asks if perhaps Elise would like hear a story? Elise can't move anything but an index finger, so she raises it to signal, yes, she would like to hear a story. It sure beats sitting there, doing her impersonation of a sack of potatoes in a wheelchair (her words, not mine). So Virginie begins telling Elise the story of Death From the Woods. Death comes from the Woods and strangles pretty little boys. Elise is terrified, thinking maybe Virginie is just a bit on nutty side, when she hears that another little boy has been killed. Elise is then thrown into an investigation, wheelchair and all, meeting a phony cop, Yssart, and another cop Gassinet. If you aren't fluent in French, a few of the names like Boissy and Migoin might throw you a little, but don't let that stop you. This book is too good to pass up.

Rating:
Summary: What's the word I'm looking for...?
Review: Brilliance! That's it! Brilliance is the only to describe France thriller writer Brigitte Aubert's English debut, "Death From the Woods" about blind, quadripalegic, mute Elise Andrioli. You're thinking, how and the hell could such a disabled woman blink, much less solve a slew of child murders? With her all-encompassing hope of being able to move again, and her sardonic wit. Elise lives with Yvette, her nursemaid and general caregiver. One day Yvette decides to take Elise with her to the market. She parks Elise under an oak tree, and goes on about her shopping. A little girl Elise learns is named Virginie comes up to Elise and asks if perhaps Elise would like hear a story? Elise can't move anything but an index finger, so she raises it to signal, yes, she would like to hear a story. It sure beats sitting there, doing her impersonation of a sack of potatoes in a wheelchair (her words, not mine). So Virginie begins telling Elise the story of Death From the Woods. Death comes from the Woods and strangles pretty little boys. Elise is terrified, thinking maybe Virginie is just a bit on nutty side, when she hears that another little boy has been killed. Elise is then thrown into an investigation, wheelchair and all, meeting a phony cop, Yssart, and another cop Gassinet. If you aren't fluent in French, a few of the names like Boissy and Migoin might throw you a little, but don't let that stop you. This book is too good to pass up.

Rating:
Summary: Unique protagonist in a classic-feeling mystery story
Review: One afternoon, Elise Andrioli is sitting in the park when a young girl approaches and whispers that she's witnessed the murder of a neighbourhood boy. Cryptically refusing to call the murderer anything other than "Death from the woods," little Virginie draws Elise into a web of terror and frustration as this serial killer gets ready to strike again. The unique thing about this story is that our protagonist Elise is mute, blind, and quadriplegic, so she doesn't know how to convey this information to anyone else, and is left to suffer with her knowledge in silence as events progress around her at an alarming speed.

A lot of the events in this book are a little unrealistic and will require a good dose of suspension of disbelief. In addition, you'll need the ability to look beyond some somewhat one-dimensional supporting characters. If you don't possess either of these two things, you might not enjoy this book. Otherwise, however, Aubert does a great job of creating an interesting character in Elise, and letting us live this story through her experiences. You can feel the frustration and tension that Elise herself must feel, being unable to communicate what she knows. This whole story had a very "classic" mystery feel to it, along the lines of Christie (except better), as we weave in and out of the story, never knowing who's guilty or innocent from one moment to the next. I would read another by this author.

Rating:
Summary: Unique protagonist in a classic-feeling mystery story
Review: One afternoon, Elise Andrioli is sitting in the park when a young girl approaches and whispers that she's witnessed the murder of a neighbourhood boy. Cryptically refusing to call the murderer anything other than "Death from the woods," little Virginie draws Elise into a web of terror and frustration as this serial killer gets ready to strike again. The unique thing about this story is that our protagonist Elise is mute, blind, and quadriplegic, so she doesn't know how to convey this information to anyone else, and is left to suffer with her knowledge in silence as events progress around her at an alarming speed.

A lot of the events in this book are a little unrealistic and will require a good dose of suspension of disbelief. In addition, you'll need the ability to look beyond some somewhat one-dimensional supporting characters. If you don't possess either of these two things, you might not enjoy this book. Otherwise, however, Aubert does a great job of creating an interesting character in Elise, and letting us live this story through her experiences. You can feel the frustration and tension that Elise herself must feel, being unable to communicate what she knows. This whole story had a very "classic" mystery feel to it, along the lines of Christie (except better), as we weave in and out of the story, never knowing who's guilty or innocent from one moment to the next. I would read another by this author.

Rating:
Summary: a sleuth with good instincts and a wry sense of humor
Review: The protagonist of DEATH FROM THE WOODS, Elise Andrioli, is a blind and mute quadriplegic. One afternoon while her caretaker is grocery shopping, a young girl approaches Elise and tells her she witnessed a person named Death From the Woods kill her little brother. Elise is shocked and horrified. The little girl walks away and Elise is on the hunt for the killer and his/her identity.

Because she cannot see, speak or move, she is "imprisoned" in her body. She can hear what others are saying and she listens for clues from her neighbors as to the whereabouts of the killer and his possible next moves.

Elise's humorous observations of her caretaker and her visitors are often quite sarcastic but accurate. They go through their daily routines as if Elise has no cognizance of the world and the events surrounding her.

Without giving too much of the plot away, suffice to say that Elise has more than her share of "bad luck" in her search for the child killer loose in her neighborhood.

The author has taken great care in creating a realistic and gripping story. I certainly hope more translations of Aubert's other books are planned for the future.

Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Good? Raise An Index Finger
Review: The talented Brigitte Aubert has written this thriller in a style that immerses the reader into the body and mind of Elise, a mute and blind quadriplegic woman who has been told shocking and secret information about recent murders and disappearances of several young boys. The reader struggles to solve the murders with the same limitations Elise has, especially being mute and blind. The only descriptions of scene and characters from Elise's point of view are through the senses of touch and hearing.

Aubert has created a psychologically strong Elise who has a quick wit, keen mind, and clever sense of humor which help her overcome physical impairment so severe she is limited to raising her index finger as her only way of answering questions in the affirmative. Her strong mind helps her survive situations that would methodically drive a weaker person into incapacitating despair.

For a first rate mystery from a truly unique perspective portraying the resiliency of the human spirit, this is a highly recommended thriller.