Customer Reviews

Wired

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

" 'A life Daddy. I want a life. A good one this time.' "

"Charlie smiled to himself and pulled out the little yellow knife with a sailboat on it, and handed it to Matthew. 'No, this is a wiggily life. I want the life that doesn't wiggle.' "

You can't help but immediately feel a connection to Charlie Eames, his wife Mary Elizabeth Eames and their adorable son Matthew from the very beginning of Martha Randolph Carr's novel, Wired. Carr's conversational and familiar writing style takes you to the heart of the home within the first few chapters. Set in a rural community of small town America, in 1989, this struggling marriage is not unlike so many families we see today. Charlie and Mary Elizabeth were high school sweet hearts, shuffling along life's unpaved road for fifteen years, laboring to travel together. They seem lost and disconnected from each other. It is clear that their marriage has been failing for years, and that each spouse is only going through the motions.

"When Mary Elizabeth was feeling kindly toward him, she admitted to herself that he was big and sweet and when she wasn't, she was sure he was stupid."

"He (Charlie) watched her lift her shirt over her head and flip her hair back and felt a sadness that spread through him. He didn't really know this woman and he couldn't bring himself to try harder or to hate her."

At first glance, this novel is about a husband and wife trying to find their way back to each other. Mary Elizabeth is privately battling past demons; horrors only alluded to in small doses to keep the reader questioning what could have happened to her twenty years earlier. We are left wondering what could have been so life altering, following her into her adulthood and in to her marriage. Early in the story, she says to herself, "Less of me exists every year", a sinking feeling I think many stay at home moms can relate. Charlie is a small business owner, oblivious to the true needs of his wife, perhaps even content to live in ignorance. He appears to just allow life to happen around him, rather than really be a part of anything. Another pivotal character in this novel is Douglas, an older black man that works for Charlie. He is the voice of reason, an unexpected father figure and a true friend to the Eames family. Each of these characters must make a personal journey, exploring their perspective about life, love and friendship through a series of hard decisions, heartbreak and honesty.

I think what makes this book so entertaining is its multifaceted story line. Carr combines a raw description of life and marriage with a brutal series of murders and the journey to solve these crimes. Clues are dropped cleverly throughout each conversation, interaction, character and scene description in a very Alfred Hitchcock kind of way. The reader doesn't even realize that they have been gifted important insight into future events. Several times, I had an "a-ha" moment, recalling a previous passage that suddenly became very relevant, like a harmless nickname or nervous twitch. Carr also does a great job of throwing the reader a few distractions, so that the true killer and unresolved secrets are not revealed too quickly, allowing the reader time to savor each plot development.

Although a minor character, Douglas' sister Thelma became my favorite. She brought an element of whimsy and joy to an otherwise dark and depressing plot. I found myself wanting to get to know her better, learn more of her story and understand what made her so desirable. Her relationship with her brother and Charlie was both believable and necessary in order for each of these men to gain personal growth and maturity. In Thelma, I saw optimism and the possibility of a fruitful future, something all of the main characters were in search of, reminding me of Matthew's sweet way of calling a knife, a life and Charlie's response of, "I want the life that doesn't wiggle."

I could relate to many of the characters in this novel. It is not hard to imagine a stay at home mom searching to find her identity or a husband hoping that ignorance will be bliss. Prejudices and prejudgments about people's skin color, economic background, religion or politics is always a struggle, which has been evident throughout history, as well as in this book. And perhaps, one of the most unfortunate and believable elements of this novel is the ease in which the killer was able to lure his victims. As a parent of two girls, it definitely gave me something to think about in regards to talking to my children about being safe.

It was also surprising how easily Carr was able to weave together the perspectives of so many different characters without confusing the reader. And it was refreshing how she manipulated romantic scenes in a way that was sexual without being obscene, as well as reveal certain sexual elements of the murders without being overly graphic. Carr allowed just enough exposure in each situation to be either stimulating or heartbreaking, but never uncomfortable. The story line unraveled quickly and did not waste time with unimportant details. This book was a very fast read, and definitely worth recommending to a friend.

If I had to choose one quote to summarize this novel, it would be the description of Charlie and Mary Elizabeth's neighborhood. It was a flashback about their realtor when they first moved in to their starter home. She described the neighborhood as "nearly dead or newlywed", something that struck me at the beginning of the novel, but then took on a whole new meaning by the end.

Imagine surviving a brutal attack. One where the obvious conclusion is your death but somehow you get away. Now imagine you are only 15yrs old, terrified to get help from the police and unable to confide in your mother.
Fifteen years into the future is where you will begin this story. Mary Elizabeth has a family now. A husband and beautiful son but there is something missing in her soul. Her heart doesn't seem complete and those closest to her have begun to distance themselves. Her husband Charlie knows something has been wrong with Mary Elizabeth for some time but is unable to get her to talk with him, so he avoids the problem. Her young son is obviously much more closer to Charlie.
I found the beginning of this thriller to be very dark and oppressive. I identified with Charlie but found I truly disliked Mary Elizabeth. This was at once awkward and authentic to me.
There is an unwritten rule most of us subscribe to when we read a thriller or suspense story like Wired. We will ALWAYS identify and like the main character. Most especially if she is a victim. The problem with this is it isn't always reasonable.
Given the circumstances of Wired and the role Mary Elizabeth has been given by Martha Randolph Carr, there is no way you will believe she is a strong, loving, sympathetic character.
I promise you this, you will understand her and you will eventually empathize with her.
Martha Randolph Carr does and exceptional job in the creation of Mary. The building of tension is felt by all characters and I felt it as well. As most people who have read my reviews know, I put great stock in characters. I just have to believe them in most cases. There is always the exception but if you feel as I do, pick up this fantastic read!

Loved the book! Started out fast paced and stayed that way. Had plenty of twists and turns and didn't see the ending coming.

There are moments in life when you freeze. It can last for seconds or minutes or days. The world continues to spin but you're stuck where you are with nowhere to go and nothing to say and your insides keep running in place because to stop would mean you'd have to confront whatever it is that's wrong with you. Somewhere deep inside, you know you're not strong enough, not brave enough, not fast enough, not smart enough, but if you're the one who flinches first, you'll drop to the ground and scream and scream and scream, and that can never ever happen so you keep your mouth shut and wait for the moment to pass.

These are the moments that make up Wired by Martha Randolph Carr. Mary Elizabeth's traumatic past, Charlie's crumbling marriage, Mitch's breakdown, Rose's cantankerous attitude. Each character is unable to move forward, stuck in suspended animation. Even the setting, a small town in the 80's left relatively untouched by change, seems frozen in time. Businesses are owned by local families. Racial intolerance, while not acknowledged out loud, is the accepted norm. Cell phones and technology are virtually nonexistent.

As a serial killer begins to kidnap, torture, and murder young women, the horrific news shake each character to life. Mary Elizabeth, unable to deal with her past at first, finds solace in tending her garden at night. Charlie's first secret tryst, hidden in the shadows late one night, is with a woman who is, in every way, the opposite of his wife. But it's not until they learn to see themselves, and each other, under the harsh light of day that they learn they are stronger together than apart.

Thoughts: I'm not sure what I was expecting when I started to read this book. To me, the title suggested something high-tech or drug related so I kept second guessing myself. The pacing was slow at first, reinforcing the feel of Mary Elizabeth and Charlie's state of mind, before picking up about half way through. Carr spends a lot of time fleshing out each character and their relationship with one another.

Showing trumps telling in a well-written novel, and in the hands of an experienced writer, very few words are needed to tell you everything you need to know about Charlie and Mary Elizabeth's failing marriage. The writer in me clapped enthusiastically. The reader in me shed a tear for the characters. The wife in me ran to hug my husband out of the blue because "omg, we should never ever fight and end up like these two characters, m'okay???"

Though despite her fantastic skill at creating depth in her characters, I wished she had taken the time to do the same with the killer. Carr basically paints him with a crazy brush and leaves it at that. There are hints of a disturbed relationship with his mother and a possible electrical accident but aside from the creeptastic voice in his head, we never find out why he is compelled to not only murder and rape young women but to do it in such a methodical and bizarre way. "The voice told me to do it" or "electricity turns me on" doesn't cut it for me. If I'm forced to read passages from the point of view of a sadistic killer, I want to know the WHY even more so than the HOW and the WHAT.

By the way, I loved the use of symbolism in the story. Carr doesn't beat you over the head with it but uses it as a consistent theme throughout to demonstrate the growth of individual characters. For example, Mary Elizabeth trying to explain to her neighbor why she loves to garden or one of my favorite characters, Lucy, who serves as a source of strength and wisdom to Mary Elizabeth as they work together in the garden.

And the smutty sex scenes? I give it four heaving bosoms out of five. Tasteful but hot. Slutty but leaves you wanting more.

Bonus: Any book containing hot dogs and turtles all in the same scene deserves two thumbs up from me! (And no!! Neither were used for sex!!)

Side note: I found myself distracted by the odd formatting of the Kindle version, often needing to go back to reread certain passages, when quotation marks went missing or paragraph breaks appeared out of nowhere. I nearly spat out my coffee at one point during a chapter that switched back and forth between Charlie and the killer's point of view. It read horribly horribly (did I say horribly??) wrong without an obvious section break.

Conclusion: Wired is an entertaining read though I hesitate to classify this as a thriller. It's less a villain-driven, suspenseful, oh-my-god, nail-biting novel and more a slice-of-life fiction with the added drama of a serial killer plot line. If you enjoy reading books that are a little less visceral (suspense lite, so to speak) and more character-driven, I highly recommend Wired by Martha Randolph Carr.

Full, non-spoiler review courtesy at ~ Book & Movie Dimension a Blog ~

A lifetime of suffering has plagued Mary Elizabeth, a mother and wife. As her her marriage keeps deteorating she must come to terms with her past. A past filled with memories wanting to be shared. Mary Elizabeth has to since she just might be the only one who can stop a serial killer who is perfect in alluding. Thanks hopefully to the love between her husband, Charlie, she might be able to have the strength to survive to reveal a sick killer.
Our main character Mary Elizabeth is such a tortured soul that wants to feel a connection to her life again that has been forever altered by a traumatic event. There are so many well-constructed characters also. The movement of of the story is very neat which moves perfectly right. Loved how there is this signature in the writing of narration that tells us what's happening with care. Immensely entertaining thriller!

Overall: Touching read
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Thriller
Recommend Ages: 17 and Up

Blurb

Mary Elizabeth and Charlie's marriage is fading away as Charlie tries to just get along and Mary Elizabeth struggles not to disappear completely. A murdered teenager is discovered at the local teenage hangout on a bluff high above main street bringing back memories to Mary Elizabeth that she would rather forget but may hold the key to saving an entire town. But when the bodies keep popping up everyone must struggle with feelings of guilt, shame and redemption.

Review

Now those that read this blog know that I am a sucker for romance and thrillers. Well in Wired I got both. Martha Carr's writing is an interesting blend of characterization, plot, and dialogue that is so real and dynamic you think you are reading a movie. Only the screen is in your head. I'll also mention movie rights are being discussed. I'm not surprised.

It is expected in any novel that the reader identify with the main protagonist. That the readers feels what they feel, cries with them, roots for them and just all around connects with them. While you will feel, cry and even root for Mary Elizabeth it is hard to like her...until the end. From the first paragraph I didn't hate her but I didn't like her. Charlie, her husband, was typical yet layered. It's obvious he has a much better relationship with their adorable son. It takes talent to make a reader to feel so strongly about the characters as I did in Wired.

Martha has a craft similar to thriller authors like Vincent Zandri where they reveal a little here and there. And then at some point you start having these moments where things begin to click but still leave you surprised with the ending.



However, her writing of the sexual scenes and thoughts were tasteful yet emotional and poignant like the romance authors I adore some much.

I highly recommend Wired. It's a great read especially for right before Halloween.

It is a summer of change. Change brought on by unspeakable tragedy, and change brought on by self-discovery and survival.

Mary Elizabeth and Charlie have been together for fourteen years, and have a young son. All that time, Mary Elizabeth has been hiding a horrifying secret, more so from herself than from anyone else. But recent events in her small town pull at her inner fortress, pushing her further away from Charlie and their son.

Soon, Mary Elizabeth pushes Charlie out of their house, promising him it's not forever, but not really knowing for sure. All she knows is that she's falling apart and can't seem to stop it.

Charlie takes refuge in the basement of the shoe store he owns, until being invited to move into the home of his only employee, Douglas. When he moves toDouglas's home, Charlie also moves into a world within the world of the town where he grew up. A world of black families, familiar individually yet foreign as a unit to Charlie.

As the horrors in the community continue, Mary Elizabeth continues to unravel, and Charlie starts his own journey. Charlie grapples with issues of race, new love, and how he fits into it all. Mary Elizabeth fights to keep herself together, not realizing yet that she must first fall completely apart in order to make herself whole again. They first travel on separate paths, discovering new friends who guide them to places within themselves that they never knew existed. Building to a crescendo, their struggles to survive emotionally crash against the terror stalking the community, until everything explodes in a resolution that saves them and brings them together more deeply than ever.

Carr creates sympathetic characters with depth, even as their faults show through. Supporting characters, as well as Mary Elizabeth and Charlie, grab the reader with their raw emotions. Each character is drawn against the backdrop of what is tearing the town apart, bringing their own fears and strengths to bear for themselves and for each other.

Most thrillers center around the events, with characters, even the major ones, acting as support to the plot. Character-driven stories use the plot secondarily, focusing on the personal and emotional development of the people who in habit the story. In Wired, Carr skillfully combines the two. Solving the crisis at the heart of the title plays equally with the growth of Mary Elizabeth, Charlie, and the people in their lives. The story is resolved with redemption, if not always peace, for all.

--a secret that has never left her. Indeed, it has grown and festered in her psyche, hard as she's tried to control it and live with it in a dusty corner of her memories.
But now that secret is manifesting itself again, and wreaking havoc with the people in the small town where Mary Elizabeth and Charlie call home.
It's more skilled and efficient now, and it's hit too close to home.
How this couple exorcises the secret Mary Elizabeth holds is the journey you take when you pick up Wired.

Wired is like a roller coaster -- a slow climb up, ...up... u p ... until you reach the peak...
... and then one long, whip-fast, twisting, emotional ride all the way down to the final resolution.

Charlie is the rollercoaster car the reader rides along in, identifying and sympathizing with his emotions - indignation, bafflement, frustration - and turns them into self-discovery, wonderment, joy, and finally, a satisfying resolution. The reader can't help but root for this hero who comes to learn more about himself in the midst of devastating loss than he ever did in the tedium of safe, everyday life. Ms. Carr takes us through a wringer of a journey in learning Charlie's essence and the stuff he's made of.

Mary Elizabeth's character arc doesn't disappoint either - like kudzu that can overwhelm a garden, until a gardener appears to prune and shear and manicure it into submission.

Mentors and temptations appear for both characters on their journeys, which makes for a satisfying analysis if anybody wants to talk Vogler's journey or Hauge's plot structure over some wine with this writermason.

Get Wired. Be prepared to be tense and just as tightly coiled as Mary Elizabeth - I actually got a headache.
But savor it on a long rainy afternoon when you don't need to do anything else.
And wait for a movie, because if this isn't a candidate, I don't know what is.

Well now, I love a good mystery/suspense novel and most I have read so far have been pretty good, some even GREAT, but it takes a great plot and characters to make a GREAT mystery/suspense. Dean Koontz is one my all time favorite and I have to say this novel is right up there with any of Dean Koontz's novels.

Martha Carr's writing style is superb, from creating a cast of characters you will be able to relate to, almost hate but them empathize with in the end. I really like Charlie and their son Matthew. I was amazed at how the author was able to give us so many different perspectives of the characters without being lost and confused, but she made it work. It was a fast action book with romance scenes that you knew were sexual without going overboard to the point of too graphic, it let our own imagination take each one of us where WE wanted to go with it. This novel pulled you right in from the very first chapter and would NOT let you go until the very last page, I will be in line for her next book guaranteed, It gave me a battery of emotions going through this book, and just when you think you have it all figured out, no way, the author throws at you a curve to throw you off the track and make you think its someone different than what you thought. It's twists and turns and around and around and not once getting lost, I am very in awe at how she did this and wove a fantastic story at the same time. It's suspense, dark, intense with the right amount of chills.

I recommend this book to EVERYONE it is a fantastic book and you will be missing out if you don't grab your copy to read, I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. Enjoy!!

As a first-time author (The Diva's Demise: A Cape Cod Crime Mystery), I enjoyed Wired very much. The characters were full and the story line was engaging. It was hard not to think from time to time how crime mysteries are investigated in 2011 and how different it was at the time this story takes place. I particularly liked Charlie's relationship with his son, Matthew. And the neighbor, Lucy, was described as someone I'm sure I've known. I'll recommend this to my friends.