Customer Reviews

Crying Wolf

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'd purchased "Crying Wolf" for a friend at work. Because he was out of the office and I'd run out of books, I borrowed this from his stack. I actually went to work half an hour early the day after I started reading it, so that I could finish the book before he came in to claim his prize.

I was looking for the suspense since, on the cover, Stephen King is quoted as having said that Peter Abrahams is his "favorite American suspense novelist." I really didn't find suspense. However, I found a good plot with likeable characters. While this book takes place in college - a boarding school, if you will - I kept thinking that Inverness was NOT Hogwarts...

Nat is a young man who wins a scholarship that takes him from his working-class town to Inverness College. Freedy is a young bodybuilder thug. Their paths parallel but never quite meet until...

Nat happens upon Grace and Izzie, very rich twin sisters who attend Inverness (and very different from Patti, his hometown sweetheart). The three students hatch a kidnapping scheme to try to obtain some much-needed money from the girls' father. However, as we learned as children, if you Cry Wolf often enough, when a crisis emerges no one will believe you.

While seldom actually "suspenseful," "Crying Wolf" was nonetheless a good book and a good purchase. I do recommend it; and I will be looking for more books by Peter Abrahams

Raised by a struggling but supportive single mother, Nat finds himself the hero of his small town when he wins an essay contest that provides a meager scholarship. Nat says goodbye to his high school sweetheart, kisses his mom, and heads off to Inverness, a small college packed with the pampered offspring of the privileged. A chance encounter involving a fish aptly named Lorenzo the Magnificent throws Nat together with Izzie and Grace Zorn who are incredibly wealthy, incredibly beautiful twin sisters. Izzie and Grace are daring and captivating, and they do not suffer from the ordinary worries that plague Nat (like how to meet the next tuition payment without his mom losing her house). The three become close friends, and together they find some secret underground passages which become integral in their scheme to help Nat stay in school.

Then along comes Freedy--Friedrich--Knight. Freedy isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he considers himself a dashing, irresistable, and super intelligent sort of guy. Unfortunately, one of his more serious blunders nearly gets him shot and forces him to flee back east to hide out with his mom. Of course, Freedy and the trio cross paths, which places all of them in jeopardy.

Perhaps it is a bit misleading for this book to be labeled a suspense novel. Sure, there is some suspense, but the beauty of this book lies in the coming-of-age story of Nat. Freedy is an intriguing character, and the twins are funny, saucy, and more complicated than they first appear. Nat's observations of his surroundings are both touching and humorous, and it is interesting to see how this small town poor boy carves his niche in the world of the rich. Combine this all with the annoying Professor Leo Uzig, and the story can stand on its characters alone. Peppered throughout the novel are references to Nietzsche who would most likely get quite a chuckle out of the quest for meaning that each of these characters goes through.

Don't pick this one up expecting to lose sleep to figure out "who dunnit." This isn't a hair raising thriller. I liked it for the character development. The "action" of the novel doesn't seem to be the focal point but rather the result of all these characters coming together. I also liked that Abrahams does not go for the Hollywood ending so typical of "suspense" novels these days. I thought the book was worth the price even though it turned out to be more of a dramatic character study rather than a nail-biting thriller. This is my first book by Abrahams, and it most certainly won't be my last.

I love it when I have no idea where a book is going, which in a case like this is only possible if you don't read the blurb on the dust jacket. Stephen King's recommendation of the author persuaded me that the trip would be worthwhile, and it certainly was. Interesting characters, nail-biting suspense, and clever parallels among very different people - some smart, some terminally stupid - as they attempt to put Nietzsche's philosophy into practical use. A winner!

I have been a fan of Peter Abrahams since his first book, The Fury of Rachel Monette, and for the most part have enjoyed all of his books. Unfortunately I am sorry that I spent time reading his newest title, Crying Wolf. By the middle of this book, I was tired of the innocence of the freshman and left cold by the twins. I found myself seriously skimming to get to the end and be finished with it.

If you still are interested in reading a good novel set on a college campus which is a good psychological thriller, then pick up Paullina Simons title from a few years ago called Red Leaves.

In "Crying Wolf," Abrahams introduces to some really well-developed and interesting characters. The hero, Nat, is a likeable protagonist, and his involvement with the wealthy twins, Izzie and Grace, is complex and ultimately doomed. Add Freedy Knight to the mix and you have one crazy plot evolve. Freedy is a great character, and Abrahams' motif of letting us get inside Freedy's rather warped mind is a treat.

The plot moves a little slowly at the beginning, but by the time it picks up, it is involving and ominous. The book's two biggest "twists" however are very obvious, and don't really surprise the reader. These twists involve the identity of Freedy's father and a key plot mechanism involving Izzie and Grace and their kidnapping scheme. Poor Nat, he is pretty blind not to see the obvious in this one!

However, it is a diverting read, not a classic, but not a dud either!

As an alum of Inverness (well...Williams College) this bookmade my think wistfully back to all the opportunities I had, andshould have taken, to explore the subterranean world beneath the school.

This book is exceptional. Nat's struggle against the seduction of wealth, mystery and glamor is told exceptionally well against the backgrounds of NYC, the Carribean, and a beautiful college town (situated on Rte's 7 and 2 in the NW corner of MASS...hmm...I wonder what school that might be...) Half way through the book I was checking to see if Abrahams had written anything else that I might buy.

However, as a passed the 3/4 mark I knew that something was wrong... The style began to feel rushed, lacking the depth that characterized the early sections. Finally, at the end I discovered that the most exceptional thing about the book was its ending....

Indeed, this book has the WORST conclusion of any book I have ever read.... Perhaps Abrahams thinks his readers are stupid, requiring clues to be force fed to them over and over, one more obvious than the next, leading finally to an ending that has become so predictable you wonder if perhaps the whole book is a farce. Or maybe he felt that, despite his glowing praise of the protaganist's intelligence, Nat was really just an absolute moron.

And finally to top off the most anti-climactic climax ever, Abraham decides to wrap up the story in the most unbelievable, illogical, and well...laziest way possible.

Stephen King should be ashamed! And shame on Abrahams for letting such an incredible beginning go to such horrible waste.

Suspenseful? About as suspenseful as Green Eggs and Ham -- I didn't not like it Sam-I-Am.

Stephen King considers Peter Abrahams his favorite American suspense novelist. You won't find any opinions to the contrary here. "Crying Wolf" is suspenseful, well-written, and intricately detailed...all the elements needed to create the perfect atmosphere in which to tell a story, which Abrahams does masterfully.

Nat is headed for a better life...at least that's the opinion of all who know him in the tiny town of Clear Creek. A town in which Nat and his mother struggle to survive their day-to-day existence. When Nat's talents wins him a partial scholarship to the college of his choice, he is elated. He and his mother scheme to come up with the remainder of the costly tuition. Nat has settled on the New England school of Inverness, a choice that is the catalyst for all the events to follow. Once there, he is befriended by twin sisters, Izzie and Grace Zorn, affluent young women to whom wealth is merely something to which they awaken every day. His past life (and girlfriend) are soon forgotten as Nat adjusts to his new life. He grows unwillingly comfortable to his new friendships and their benevolent ways...until the day Nat recieves a letter from his mother telling him that she's been fired from her job and the lifestyle that he lives must come to a close. His mother's house is in danger of being repossessed and Nat's tuition must be sacrificed. In fact, he is told in no uncertain terms, that he must return home immediately. Rather than lose him to such banal matters as money woes, Izzie and Grace concoct a perilous plan that would afford him the means with which to stay at Inverness with no one being the wiser. Silly girls. When Mr. Zorn is presented with the ridiculous plot, he scoffs and writes the whole thing off as "kids games". The plot takes a nasty twist then when Freedy, a mentally unstable young man happens to overhear their plans, and decides to carry them out on his own. Of course, the girls have already cried "Wolf!", and no one will listen to them. The resulting drama is tense and powerful. Laced with Nietzchean philosophy and fully-realized characters, "Crying Wolf" is an incredible moral tale, told with just the right amount of humor and insight to make it intelligent as well. This is one book that comes highly recommended.......

I think it's rather a better book than some other reviewers do, but it does have some problems. What is very well done is the "mcmuffin," the plot device of the identical twins and their relationship with the narrator, and the trouble they get into. And the narrator, a very bright and admirable but equally very unsophisticated college freshman who ventures into the girls' world of the super rich is a quite likeable character. His naivete about this world provides nice little social insights and gives a texture to the novel about class and money in this country which works well. What doesn't work quite so well is the action of the novel. Except for the end, which is melodramatic to a fault, there just isn't enough done with the potentially bizaare twins, the low-life who stumbles into their lives, or even the setting, which is supposed to be Gothic, I think, but comes across more like a preteen's "Secret Clubhouse." Still, Mr. Abrahams writes very well, the minor characters are very well fleshed out, and the books is quite suspenseful for the first half. After that it slows and mumbles, but it's still worth a read. And it may worthily lead some readers back to Abrahams' very first 2 books, which are fine.

I wasn't sure I was going to pick this book, but, when I saw "My favorite American suspense novelist" -Stephen King on the cover, I decided to give it a try. The only reason I finished the book was because I took the time to start it. If I had to describe the book in one word, I would say, shallow. Don't waste your time or money. There are so many wonderful books out there. This does not happen to be one of them.

This is just an average read. Good plot, but somewhat slow until too far into the book.