Customer Reviews

The Night Bus

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Catherine "Cath" Tolland was fleeing from her New England home by bus when she was mugged and suffered the head injury. She has no credit cards or other identification her and cannot remember anything about her past including her name. The police find out who she really is.

Her Connecticut husband brings Cath to what he insists was their happy home. Yet Cath begins to remember some of his affairs with his music students. Her sister-in-law insists that Cath was losing her mind before she suffered from amnesia and her runaway attempt by bus was the latest mental incident. Yet Cath wonders why she remembers no hints of psychological care. Her lawyer insists she is rich. Yet Cath wonders why she left home with no money or credit to ride a bus south. As Cath begins to recover her memory, she realizes that for years someone has been murdering Derek's most talented female students. Cath wonders if she is the killer?

THE NIGHT BUS is an exciting psychological thriller that demonstrates the width of talent of author Janice Law. The story line is fast-paced, exciting, and avoids the prime pitfalls of using amnesia as a plot mechanism. The main charcaters seem genuine due to their weird but realistic interrelationships. Although the occasional character introspection slows the tale a bit, Ms. Law shows she has the ability to bring her audience along for a ride on the darker side of human emotion.

Harriet Klausner

I picked out this book because I sometimes enjoy psychological suspense stories and because I often find amnesia mysteries (a distinct small genre in thrillers!) to be fascinating. The first few pages seemed so anxious and uncomfortable I almost put the book aside! Then I was compelled to read a few more pages, and a few more--and then I was hooked. Now I am glad that I read the whole book, since I found it to be totally engaging and captivating. It was one of those books that became so suspenseful that I barely could look up to converse with my family at times! I found the character of Cath to be quite sympathetic, although her flights of fancy could be disturbing and I began to fear--as she did--what might lie in her past. I'm not sure I'd wish to rush to be her friend, but I had a growing compassion and affection for her as the book developed, and truly wanted everything to work out for her. I don't know if something like this story could truly happen in real life, but as fiction it was compelling, fascinating, and intriguing. The characters of the husband and sister-in-law were very complex and unusual--as was Cath's--and were revealed gradually amid engrossing suspense. I never felt as if I had it all figured out; I couldn't wait for the next revelation. The theme of music in the book was very enjoyable and added another dimension. Cath and her husband are both gifted musicians, and the wonderful music they create together provides both a calming backdrop for the dark events as well as adding adding complexity to their relationship. I recommend the book wholeheartedly as a great psychological suspense thriller.

Cath's mysterious ride to Florida leaves her with pneumonia, head trauma, and amnesia. Sister-in-law Yvonne, with her glove covered mutilated hand, comes to the rescue. Yvonne brings Cath back to their home in Connecticut, where nothing is the same. Cath claws at snippets of memories, searching for prolems in her marriage to Derek. Derek and Yvonne try to convince Cath that she has been mentally ill for some time now. Cath struggles to break free of the claustrophobic cage of Derek and Yvonne.

Interwoven nicely are tales from Cath's past. There's her childhood, where we learn about her hippie New Age parents who are now deceased. Her trusty dog, Danny, whose death has its own set of mysterious circumstances. Stories about college, where she first met Derek and his then fiancee, who also died.

Cath doesn't know what to make of her relationship with Derek. She can't stomach Yvonne's constant presence, either. Cath beings to question her identity as she grows suspicious of the people around her. The reader can feel the walls caving in on Cath as she reasseses her life.

This book is dark and disturbing. Sometimes, the reader will want to console Cath; othertimes, berate her for not escaping her dysfunctional house. In small glimpses, Yvonne and Derek evoke sympathy, but not for long. The book brightens at the end; unfortunately, two chapters of sunshine is unneccessary.

I began reading this book with high hopes, for the idea of the plot (a woman leaving her home for unkown reasons, and being determined to possibly have some sort of mental problem) seemed very interesting. Unfortunately, the longer I read the book, the more boring it became. The action (if you could call it that) moved at a snail's pace, and the underlying "mystery", the deaths of several young women, was capable of very easy solution.

When the plot finally came to an end, and the suspected murderer was unmasked, it was just "ho hum, I knew it all along". Rather than end the book on the note of discovery, the author had to attach a very sappy ending, which made a poor book even worse. I definitely do not recommend this book, but I will say that my wife enjoyed it very much, and were she a reviewer, would give it 5 stars. Perhaps it's just a woman's thing, and I "didn't get it".

The Night Bus is one of those rare novels whose lyrical, ethereal prose is matched by the strength of its plot. Told from the point of view of Cath, who walks a narrow stretch between sanity and insanity, the story masterfully unfolds. Without ever hitting you over the head with melodramatic revelations, Janice Law deftly weaves in subtle clues and red herrings that compell you to read through to the end (without stopping, if you can help it).

When reading The Night Bus, you enter a different plain, where protagonist Cath's own sensibilities lie. As compelling as this novel is -- I really did have a hard time putting it down -- here's why I rated it at four stars instead of five. Though the story is told in relatively close third person, you feel someone distanced from Cath, which makes sense since she is also somewhat removed from herself. However, this also makes it hard to feel particularly close to Cath and to the other characters, as well. Also, Cath's "special gift," alluded to throughout, is never fully explored. Nonetheless, this rich world of music, murder, good and evil, crafted with great skill by the talented Janice Law, makes The Night Bus a thrilling and satisfying read. I highly recommend it.

"The Night Bus" refers not only to the wheeled vehicle that Cath uses for her journey, but also as a symbol of her attempt to find freedom from madness.

The question throughout the book is, who is insane: Cath, or perhaps her husband Derek? What about her cruel sister-in-law, Derek's sister Yvonne? Is Cath's attorney, Luc, really on her side?

The book begins (oddly enough, like the beginning of Zenna Henderson's "Pilgrimage") with a woman on a bus in the dead of night, fleeing problems she doesn't want to face. (It was this sole similarity to Henderson's books that made me continue.) The woman, who is suffering from amnesia and who makes up a name from bits and pieces she overhears, thinks that she has escaped. At this point, she is mugged, and the hospital and police put out a bulletin that brings the sister-in-law of the woman -- CATH, we learn, -- to her "aid."

Throughout the book, Cath begins to remember bits and pieces of a frightening truth. The book is hard to put down, not only because of the suspense but because there are phrases that are downright poetic. Cath's (the author's?) enjoyment that comes from etymology makes the book such fun to read.

The twist in plot -- and in the characters' minds -- makes for a good book. I'm only holding back a * because "The Night Bus" left me feeling almost... unclean... as though people can't be trusted. That, and only that, caused the story to be unsatisfying. However, on the whole, it's a good, solid book.

If you read or saw Sleeping with the Enemy, you ge the idea of this book. Fragile woman in love with a potentially evil man and her attempts to free herself from the emotional entanglement. Of course she's mentally fragile and physically delicate and wonderfully arty. Of course right away she meets a tall man with incredibly kind eyes. Not much new here.

From time to time I found the writing to be superb, almost poetic. Other times I found myself skipping pages that were filled with exquisite details of conversations and occurances that were there only to lead up to something and were unimportant in themselves (do we really have to know all about Attorney Luc's children?).

Finally, I was desperately irritated with the cover of this book. I know, I know, never judge a book...But I did. I got this book primarily because of the cover. I thought it would be lighthearted and maybe full of magical realism because of the wavy text and the musical score and the inviting park scene. Well, forget it! This is supposed to be a rather dark and twisted tale though it never amounts to much more than a "scary" episode on a daily soap opera (remember Dark Shadows?) And if you can't figure out who the bad guy is from the first few chapters, you have to turn in your Sherlock Holmes decoder ring!