Life Sentences [Hardcover]

Alice Blanchard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 2005

Daisy Hubbard, a genetic researcher in a prestigious Boston lab, is driven to find a cure for the rare genetic disease that claimed the life of her younger brother. Her progress is halted, however, when her mentally unstable sister Anna is discovered missing from her California home. Daisy, fearing the worst, drops everything and flies across the country to find Anna. Once there, she is informed by the LAPD that known serial killer Roy Gaines has confessed to Anna's murder, but he will only reveal where he has hidden the body if he can lead Daisy to it himself. Daisy, teaming up with a handsome detective named Jack Makowski, follows Roy to a number of dead bodies, but none of them are Anna's. As Daisy realizes that Roy knows too much about her research, she begins to fear that Anna is a pawn in a game with much larger stakes. It will take all of Daisy's cunning and resolve to stop the killer in his tracks and to uncover his obsession with the disease she has been trying to unravel for her entire life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Blanchard (The Breathtaker) again proves how research enriches detective fiction in this engrossing novel about a Boston scientist on the trail of a psychopath. Neurogeneticist Daisy Hubbard has a personal interest in her research on gene therapy for brain disorders: her brother died of Stier-Zellar's disease; her mother suffers from diabetes and depression, her sister, Anna, from schizophrenia. When Anna vanishes, handsome LAPD Det. Jack Makowski persuades Daisy to come to De Campo Beach, the Pacific coast town where Anna was last seen, with news that the disappearance may be linked to a serial killer as well as Daisy's research. Joining forces, Jack and Daisy find themselves suspicious about the behavior of Anna's associates, Anna's mom and even Anna herself, while Daisy deals with childhood memories, concerns about her research and research supervisor, encounters with a manipulative killer and a growing romance with thrice-married Jack. Blanchard contrasts snowy New England memories with sunny California landscapes, intimate tenderness with violent obsession. Carefully plotted, the novel reveals much of the author's hand racing to the conclusion, but by then the reader is too enrapt to protest, captivated by Blanchard's lucid descriptions, compelling takes on the challenges and heartache of degenerative disease, schizophrenia and abuse, action-packed drama and believable, believably conflicted, characters. (Aug.)
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Review

"A heart-tingling, heart-squeezing mystery...eerie and deliciously scary."

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (August 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446576727
• ISBN-13: 978-0446576727
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.4 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,735,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mechanical, Contrived, and Predictable, July 12, 2006

By 

Kathleen Chamberlain (Emory, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Life Sentences (Hardcover)

I really liked Alice Blanchard's first book, "Darkness Peering." Her second, "Breathtaker," has flaws but is engrossing and interesting all the same. "Life Sentences," however, is a disappointment. Blanchard seems to have phoned this one in. It's rather as if Victor Frankenstein had built his skeleton and then couldn't be bothered to add flesh or muscle or to flip the switch on that life-giving gizmo.

Despite a couple of twists, the plot is predictable. The overall arc of the heroine's story is obvious from the very first page. There's nothing wrong with this approach in theory: you know where the story is going, so the fun comes in seeing how it gets there. In this sort of narrative, it's not the destination that matters; it's the journey.

But this premise works only if the journey is surprising and interesting. The trajectory of "Life Sentences," unfortunately, is just the opposite. There are no real surprises, even though some of the events are more than unbelievable (just wait till you get to the whole forest scene and its aftermath -- and its prologue, come to that.) The action moves implacably and implausibly to the expected final confrontation, which, when it comes, is an anti-climax with little emotional power; we've all seen similar scenes too many times before, and there's no sense that Daisy is in any real danger. The feel-good ending is a treacly fantasy, rather like an "awww" moment in a sitcom -- and just as real.

Character development is both erratic (Jack and Daisy) and cliched (the lecherous boss, the sexual abuser [who reads like one of those featureless composite characters in bad pop-psychology articles], the serial killer who seems to have come from Psychopath Central Casting, [and whose backstory accounts for his behavior far too neatly]). The science is interesting but heavy-handed (it's not hard to understand; it's just presented in "now-it's-time-for-some-exposition" chunks.)

The basic idea is a good one: to explore important questions about genetics, destiny, and family. Based on Blanchard's skill in "Darkness Peering," I would have thought that she could have built this foundation into a complex, ambiguous, and suggestive novel. Alas, she hasn't; the book is ultimately too generic. The whole story feels mechanical and listless, with melodrama (the flood, the fire, the river) and quirkiness (Anna's silly language, the walk on the lakebed, the killer's father's job) substituting for genuine storytelling.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars nice way with words, not so good story telling, September 7, 2005

By 

Sue (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life Sentences (Hardcover)

This book is all over the map. I enjoyed the author's use of language and images. The setup -- a missing sister who is unbalanced without her meds -- is also intriguing. I have no idea why the author opened with a medical suspense scene that has nothing to do with the story. I have to assume the science is right, though given some of the holes in the police work she lays out, I'm not convinced. There were clunky parts -- characters saying things to one another that the other character already knew, chapters that began without establishing point of view or setting us in time and place, Daisy has information she has no way of actually having, character picking up cell phone voicemail messages without knowing a password -- all small things but each time I encountered one, it bugged me enough to take me out of the story. The cop, Jack, does some really stupid and unrealistic things (it's akin to having the heroine walk down into the dark basement alone when she hears an odd sound) and, as expected, he gets himself in trouble. I don't like invincible killers -- maniacs who seem to have unlimited resources and knowledge, they are way over the top. And I didn't particularly like the feel-good wrap up. Bottom line, the book had potential but it falls short. It's uneven enough that the good parts get tainted by the bad. But it's a quick and interesting read if you don't fight the absurdities.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I didn't want this book to end., August 19, 2005

By 

Mary - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life Sentences (Hardcover)

LIFE SENTENCES really got under my skin. It's a suspense thriller involving two sisters whose lives have taken radically different paths. Daisy Hubbard is a professional on a fast-track and her little sister Anna has a history of mental illness and is spinning out of control. When her big sister tries to help, a fascinating mystery unfolds. The story is utterly compelling from first page to last. Blanchard is great at creating three-dimensional characters with tremendous heart. The story is loaded with atmosphere. The action is swift and surprising. The genetics research is beautifully handled. The ideas are fresh and interesting. All these elements are woven together so successfully that LIFE SENTENCES is an impressive tapestry. The great thing about Blanchard is that each one of her books takes a different kind of risk. Take the risk with LIFE SENTENCES--Blanchard's storytelling is masterful.