I.O.U.

Rating:
Summary: I.O.U.
Review: Ms. Jenny Cain attends the funeral of her own mother already feeling a bit distraught, but she is further ruffled by an unknown person shoving at her from behind, and whispering a cryptic "apology" in her ear. Jenny narrowly avoids toppling onto the coffin. There is also an unsigned card, and flowers, at the site--and all of this is enough to persuade Jenny that it's time to understand her mother's secret past. All she knows, first off, is that her mother suffered some kind of crushing mental breakdown back when Jenny was away in college, and around the time the family business, Cain's Clams, fell apart and was bought up.

From this bleak prelude spins out a story involving Jenny discovering a seemingly endless number of shocking secrets about her mother, each apparently tainting many old friends and mentors who are shown to have not always had the deceased woman's best interests at heart. Why, exactly, did Cain's Clams go bankrupt, and how did it affect mom? What secret confession did Jenny's mother give to crusty old Father Gower? What medical data is Doctor Farrell hiding about his former patient, now dead? Why did the local newspaper sweep certain information under the rug, a long time ago?

The novel is at its tensest when the next big question becomes: Who tries to kill Jenny in her garage?

Overall, this mystery delivers a fast-moving plot that progresses nicely, the more Jenny uncovers. Naturally, some of the dirt dug up is, from the reader's point of view, of the red-herring variety. A weakness of the plot would seem to be some contradictory behaviour on behalf of the person manipulating Jenny from behind the scenes; first, this person seems to be revealing to Jenny that she should be curious about certain things, but then this person is attempting to kill Jenny on the basis that she's finding out too much. Maybe I read the relevant portions too quick, but why does this person seem of two minds, giving Jenny reasons to be suspicious of stuff that has been left to lie, and then trying to impede her progress (if you want to call attempted murder "impeding her progress")?

One other thing: Though I was mostly happy with the plot, this mystery is one of many I have encountered that tends to portray males in a negative context, in subtle ways. I'm not talking about any attempts to create a strong-willed female lead in Jenny (though she is a bit of a crier). I'm refering instead to the total lack of decent, upstanding men in the book, besides Jenny's husband. Jenny has found the one nice male to be seen anywhere within the radius she can travel--her emotional support, her caregiver, her pillar of solidity in a bleak world--and every other guy is a rat, belonging to an Old Boy's Club that had ground down Jenny's mom, and now work to exert male dominance over Jenny too. Further, any women featured in this book who are performing morally questionable acts are sorta let off the hook since, one way or another, their misguided behaviour can be traced back to living in an "Old Boy's Club", male-dominated society. This theme creeps its way into a few mysteries geared to women, and I.O.U. is certainly not the exception. The underlying message would seem to be: find the one decent guy hiding out there to comfort you when you need it, and with him, get ready to face a world of vicious males who are not above guiding well-meaning women onto the wrong tracks.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Anyway, the mystery content was strong, with only a few warts.

Rating:
Summary: I.O.U is the a cutting edge thriller that you've got to see.
Review: Your taken to a world of a girl who suffers from horrible nightmares. Chasing after her in these nightmares, is the essence of all her fear, but when nightmares become reality, she and her family get more than they expect from a troubled teenager. I would recommend that anyone who enjoys nonstop action to read this. You may find yourself hiding in a corner when your through.