{"id":7057,"date":"2018-02-06T07:22:32","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T12:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7057"},"modified":"2018-02-06T07:51:20","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T12:51:20","slug":"white-bodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7057","title":{"rendered":"****White Bodies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"strangers-on-a-train\"

Farley Granger & Robert Walker, the “Strangers on a Train”<\/p><\/div>\n

By Jane Robins – This is a fun read that puts a 21st century twist on the premise of the famous 1951 Alfred Hitchcock movie, Strangers on a Train<\/em>. That\u2019s the one where two strangers fall into conversation and agree to murder a person of the other\u2019s choosing. They convince themselves that, since there is nothing to connect murderer and victim, the crimes will be easy to get away with. Right.<\/p>\n

But, how would you effect such an anonymous encounter today? Where would you look for such a willing accomplice? The Internet, of course! \u201cThe internet is where psychos find each other,\u201d says character Tilda. And Robins makes good use of the strengths and weaknesses of social media in crafting her tale.<\/p>\n

The protagonist in this London-based domestic thriller is Callie\u2014a bit socially awkward, insecure about her looks (and everything else), a librarian. The relationship between her and her glamorous twin sister Tilda is explored in both the current time and a succession of flashbacks. Callie increasingly believes that \u201cthe perfect man\u201d Tilda has become involved with\u2014the wealthy, handsome, larger-than-life and more than a bit obsessive-compulsive American, Felix Nordberg\u2014is actually quite dangerous.<\/p>\n

Desperate to help Tilda, Callie becomes involved with a website called controllingmen.com, where all the classic signs of a relationship headed toward abuse are spelled out, just the way she sees them in Tilda and Felix\u2019s relationship.<\/p>\n

But Tilda dismisses her sister\u2019s concerns, and you\u2019ll understand Callie\u2019s bafflement at how to proceed without creating a rift between them. At times you may want to wring her neck for the way she can\u2019t stop herself from blurting out her suspicions. Moreover, she can\u2019t seem to see how her obsession with Tilda and Felix is interfering with her own life.<\/p>\n

We know from the first pages that Felix is dead. But was he murdered? The medical examiner says he died from natural causes. Although I thought I understood how Felix died, I hadn\u2019t reckoned with Jane Robins\u2019s diabolical imagination. I had to reread some of the last bits to be sure I understood the extent of the duplicity. That sense of something happening behind the scenes that I hadn\u2019t quite grasped really kept the pages turning.<\/p>\n

Robins has written several true-crime and non-fiction books and has a straightforward style that is a nice counterpoint to the emotions rampaging through Callie, and every one of the main characters in White Bodies<\/em> is believable.<\/p>\n

As a side note, a disadvantage to book reviewing is the \u201cpromotional cover.\u201d The White Bodies<\/em> review copy bore a temporary cover with a quote in tall, all-capital scarlet letters, \u201cEveryone wants someone murdered.\u201d Not the kind of thing you can put on an empty train seat beside you for a stranger to see.
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jane Robins – This is a fun read that puts a 21st century twist on the premise of the famous 1951 Alfred Hitchcock movie, Strangers on a Train. That\u2019s the one where two strangers fall into conversation and agree … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"****White Bodies - \"The internet is where psychos find each other\"; Jane Robins's 21st C take on Strangers on a Train!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,40,3,126],"tags":[519,1240,678,181,1241],"class_list":["post-7057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-fiction","category-mystery","category-reading-2","tag-england","tag-jane-robins","tag-murder","tag-social-media","tag-white-bodies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1PP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7057"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7060,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7057\/revisions\/7060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}