Customer Reviews

Tabula Rasa

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

 

 

I loved it. Loved the tone. So entertaining! Such fun! And it's a horror story besides with a truly frightening person lurking. Very engaging story with people you will love. Written by an honest-to-goodness Private Eye who specializes in arson, so the theme is Fire, and while you are enjoying the story, you'll learn a lot about fires too.

When I began to read Tabula Rasa I expected another one of Shelly Reuben's great fire procedurals. That would have been enough to please me. This new book, though, is both as good as her previous thrillers and, frankly, much better--even more of a page turner. Her devoted readers will love it because Shelly Reuben continues to give us new things to learn about arson. But she will get a whole raft of new readers who will appreciate her fabulous new intriguing characters. The stunning Annie brings you into her sophisticated but also earthy orbit. Merry is gorgeous, difficult, and captivating. Her husband and brother, fireman and cop respectively, are characters the reader wants more of (and I hear that there will be a sequel to this book--I am really excited). Shelly's use of the Red Cross is ingenious as a device for revealing clues to this mystery. Mystery, yes! But more than a mystery at the same time. Shelly Reuben has written a gripping novel. A must-read.

The baby who lives in the ugly house in the village of Sojourn has dark, staring eyes, but never smiles, only watches. Her mother often speculates that the infant is a changeling. In the hospital, Edith fills out the birth certificate as "Baby Tuttle", promising to give her child a lovely name later. But she never does.

Billy Nightingale comes to firefighting through his avid curiosity and inventiveness, fascinated by the antiquated pumps of the Fire Department in his home town of Elk Mountain, Wyoming. Later, in New York City, Billy lives his dream, becoming a fire marshal, close friends with his brother-in-law, state trooper Sebastian Bly. Nightingale and Bly arrive at the scene of a terrible fire, where two children are lost to the flames, the mother comforted by a neighbor. Edith Tuttle fails to mention a third child to the police. Spooked by the malevolent aura of the fire-ravaged house, Nightingale searches randomly, sure he is missing something. He discovers a terrified, but silent, baby under the foundation of the house, where she has crawled for safety.

Something is terribly wrong at the scene of this fire. Billy's sister, Annie, and her husband, Sebastian, work closely with children's services to adopt the baby, whom they name Meredith, her mother permanently out of the picture. The next few years pass quietly, Merry a contented child. But when Merry inquires about her birth mother, the Bly's are challenged to protect their daughter from a history that could scar her future, their only concern to give this child the bright prospects she so richly deserves. This innocent that came to them from a house of death has known a life free of chaos, stimulated by a loving environment, her career as a professional ballerina already on track. Merry inadvertently sets in motion a chain of events that will threaten her and her adoptive family years later.

Reuben's characters are energetic, their personalities well-defined. The writing crackles with energy and an appreciation of the subtleties of fires, the methods of arson and the clues that help investigators identify causes. Besides the relevant information about arson investigation, a search for adoptive parents and the intricacies of a dancer's life, the novel also deals with the emotional aspects of adoption, especially when a child is driven to find her birth parents. In Tabula Rasa, the happy family circle is shattered by a child's obsessive quest for identity and the dark forces that search unleashes. The author's personal expertise is extensive and evident in the novel, adding interest and believability, a fascinating foray into an area rarely experienced by most. Tabula Rasa suggests that a blank slate can be written on any number of ways, DNA directed toward success instead of failure, with the aid of a loving family. Luan Gaines/2005.

Shelly Reuben should sue Harcourt, they did such a lousy job with her book. Although her plotting and characterization are no great shakes, I would have found the book a moderately enjoyable read. EXCEPT for the inexcusable spelling mistakes it was riddled with. Actually, many of the mistakes weren't really in spelling but in confusing a word with a similar one. In other words, more ignorance than misspelling. Croquette instead of croquet, overhaul for overall (as in "the overhaul condition"), internment for interment, unphased for unfazed, premier instead of premiere - on and on, a seemingly endless list. The publisher is supposed to catch these mistakes, not leave them intact to expose the author's shaky grasp on words. I found it extremely distracting, and the combination of so-so writing with really bad proofing means I certainly won't buy another of her books.

While I appreciate the imagination and uniqueness of this book, I feel it lacked a certain depth and groundedness. I did a little nail-biting toward the end, but otherwise, I just kept waiting to be entertained. The author went around in circles for a bit too long early on, likely trying to paint a picture of the characters. I generally enjoy stories with strong character development, but it seemed to add far too much information, and I wasn't sure which direction the author was going. Of course, that's sometimes part of the fun, but in this case, I found it a bit tedious. Much of the plot was simply too far-fetched to be believable or shocking. But for sheer uniqueness and imagination, this book may be what you're looking for.

... Edith is soon put away, Annie and Billy adopt and name the baby Meredith and, through Book Two, life is so idyllic as Meredith grows up to be a dancer, you begin to think Reuben is writing a soap opera. But, stay. You're being seduced by a very capable writer. Author Reuben has a demonically inspired way of taking us back to the realm of the mystery-thriller, intensified by a stratagem I can only describe as arch. Effectively so.

(...)

Arson investigator Billy Nightingale, on a ride-a-long with his brother-in-law Sebastian Bly, a state trooper, is called to the "ugly" house in Sojourn. Two young children are dead as a result of a house fire.

It is soon apparent that another child had been in the house, but the two men are unable to locate that child. The dead children's mother, Edith Tuttle, while upset over her children's death, fails to mention the missing child. But the reader knows that Edith didn't even bother naming the one-year-old missing girl following her birth. She is known only as "Baby Tuttle" and is an unusual child-one who never smiles or cries; only stares with her dark, penetrating eyes.

Nightingale is not only concerned about the missing child; he believes the fire is suspicious. He begins searching for answers and soon discovers a quiet but terrified child under the ugly house where she crawled to save herself. What Nightingale and Bly discover means Baby Tuttle will need a permanent home as her mother will have her own semi-permanent home for many years to come.

Billy's sister, Annie and husband Sebastian adopt the child (Merry) and the years pass without incident. When Merry, at age eleven, becomes interested in her history, Billy and the Bly's concoct a fantasy history to protect Merry from her horrific past. But a letter Merry mails inadvertently sets into motion a series of events that will threaten her and her family years later when Merry is a fledgling ballerina.

Armchair Interviews says: Tabula Rasa, by Shelly Reuben is simply terrific! The characters are well drawn, complex and unique. The plot is both horrifying and scrumptious with fascinating information about arson, adoption, dancing and the consequences of an obsessive quest and the lies told to protect a loved one. It is scintillating and an absolute must read!

Give Shelly Reuben, author of Tabula Rasa, a blank slate and watch out! Her latest novel will have readers clamoring for moral support before they are able to face the climax of this multilayered, complex, thoughtful, heart tugging, mind numbing, finger biting mystery. Reuben's tale of arson is a mystery in more than just the conventional whodunit sense of the word. Tabula Rasa explores the mystery of enduring love, unflinching loyalty, and above all, hard gained wisdom. Reuben reminds us good can be found everywhere if only one is prepared to look for and nurture it. Reuben's book leaves us spellbound by the triumph of beauty, happiness, and life itself. From the darkness, she leads the reader and her characters to the light that will warm us until they appear again with the publication of her next book.

This novel was a big surprise; not the usual arson whodunit from Shelly Reuben, but a thought-provoking story of the tending and nurturing of a young girl who has faced mortal danger in a fire as a baby and then must face it again as a talented young woman. I liked all the characters very much, their dialog, their independent outlook on life and their places in it, and the reasoning and objections they must bring to the fore in solving a very knotty problem.