Customer Reviews

Grey Beginning (Charnwood Large Print Library Series)

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Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels is one of the few non-fantasy authors that I devote any time to, and when she is good she is AMAZING. Such books as "The Crying Child," "Shattered Silk," and "Houses of Stone" have kept me reading wide-eyed long into the night. This book didn't really have that quality (and normally I love books set in Italy) like the dismal "Here I Stay," which I was unable to FINISH.

Heroine Kathy Malone, recovering from a stay in a loony bin following the death of her husband Bart, is travelling to Italy to tell his formidable grandmother of his death. Through a rather bizarre event, the grandmother comes to believe that Kathy is pregnant with Bart's child, and insists on keeping her there in royal treatment. Kathy gets a boyfriend or two, and befriends a ten-year-old relation named Pietro who is reportedly insane - and then discovers a sinister web of deception and death, that ensnares her and Pietro both.

I wish there were more plot to describe without giving away the ending, but sadly there isn't. This book would have made a better short story. There is too much time spent on Kathy rambling around the Italian village and lying to the Contessa and worrying about not being pregnant and insisting that Pietro is sane. There was nothing particularly endearing or enlightening about Kathy, or indeed about any of the characters. The Contessa is the most engaging person in the book, yet even she is not particularly interesting to the reader.

Michaels is also a master of witty prose/dialogue and romantic suspense, but neither is in this book. The best humor is some heavy-handed stuff about Kathy's childhood nickname, and the romance consists of Kathy conversing (I can't say flirting) with some local guys, all of whom have as little personality as she.

Quite a few sections should have been edited (if Bart was such a fink, why did Kathy continue to have erotic dreams about him?) or explained in more detail (the housekeeper's actions at the end). Even the writing style is rather dry and unexplanatory. The pace is uneven -- the book dribbles along for the first three quarters, then rushes the rest of the way.

I can only assume that Ms. Michaels was having a bad time during the writing of this book, and then go back to "Houses."

Very modern gothic. The atmosphere was perfect: the isolated villa near Firenze, the hostile servants, the tragic little kid. But this is Barbara Michaels, so all this oppressiveness was tempered with touches of humour, like Pietro's preocupation with American football and the character of David. It worked perfectly.

I loved that it took me a long time to be sure of what exactly was happening, though I had some ideas almost from the first. The important thing was that Kathy was perfectly justified in not realizing what was going on; too often the heroine in a gothic comes across as stupid for not noticing things. Not her.

The what exactly was going on was a bit jarring and not completely believable, so this wasn't perfect. Other than that, an excellent example of the genre.

This book focuses on the life of Kathy Morandini, after her death of her husband, Bart. It goes through the challenges and surprises she encounters while trying to cope with her husband's death. In the mean time, she tries to find closure with her husband's old-fashioned Italian family. Primarily, with the Contessa Morandini, Bart's grandmother, who never met the girl with whom Bart spent his last days. Their first meeting ended up with the idea that Kathy was pregnant with Bart's child, a lie which kept her alive. Instead, what Kathy does get out of it is a child branded with madness, a couple of possible new love interests, and the spook of a lifetime. The Italian countryside, where the Morandini villa was located, proved to be a haunting place full of lies, death, treachery, and disgrace, and Kathy was caught in the middle of it all.
Barbara Michaels used an interesting and subtle way to add romance with suspense into her novel. She created a setting for a Nancy Drew mixed with Stephen King suspense elements in The Grey Beginning. I liked the easy-to-read writing that was used for a better understanding of the context and the many surprises that were added which made me not want to put the book down. This book was written to throw the reader off into a game of guessing where everyone was an actor in this mystery.
The clues that were dropped, threw my guesses off track and made me more caught up in the novel. I started to read this book thinking it would just be a story about the memories recollected by a young widow haunted by her husband's death. But because of Barbara Michaels captivating writing skills, this book was far from what I expected it to be. Instead, it was an intriguing look into the dangers of love and hate, faith and betrayal.
I recommend this novel to those who like page-turners full of romance embedded with a mix of thrill and mystery. It was an attention-grabber and I hope everyone will enjoy The Grey Beginning as I did.

Barbara Michaels books are one of my favorite brain candy choices. The Grey Beginning has a nice plot twist, but I found it hard to "get into" the characters. Partly, I never understood why she was willing to marry Bart in the first place. Try another Michaels book first, like The Wizard's Daughter or Shattered Silk

Not one of my favorites by Ms. Michaels, but it was written with her familiar style which I like very much.

For The Grey Beginning, Barbara Michaels departs from her usual setting. Her forte is the cozy Gothic set in or around Washington, D.C. and those are incomparable and wonderful.

TGB is set in a Tuscan Villa. Stock sinister characters such as the loutish henchman, the Mrs. Danverish housekeeper and the young, vulnerable heroine are present, though with the Michaels spin. The heroine has plenty of romantic interests to choose from, and though her encounters with the PhD candidate in the attic, and the attrative psychiatrist are enjoyable reading, the storylines never tie up. The book just ends, after a terrifying though unlikely confrontation.

Still, Barbara Michaels at her worst is better than the average, so if you're a fan, go ahead and read this one. Just don't expect Ammie, Come Home, or Shattered Silk.

One of the things that bothered me most about this book was that a young boy was being mistreated through the whole thing, while it took the heroine forever to get it that something wasn't right about this whole setup. Also, I think the author keeps the reader in the dark way too long about some things concerning the main character's marriage. I think in a mystery the author should provide some clues about the characters, so that at least the reader can look back and say, Oh, that's why he did such and such!" Maybe, the writer didn't know herself at all how it would go, but then she should go back and rewrite a little so that the plot and characters make sense. It would have been nice, too if the selected hero was a tad more effectual. None of the characters were very interesting or engaging, except for the Contessa who was somewhat interesting, and the boy who was engagingly brave and sweet. The story goes on way too long with nothing revealed. Other books by the author are much better written.