The Naked Face

Wow. Sidney Sheldon's The Named Face is the first book I've read in a long time that's actually on The List. Everything else I've been reading has been library or Kindle books. But hopefully that's going to change over the next while because I'm hoping to stick with mostly books that are in my room taking up space.

So anyway, The Naked Face. This is an older Sheldon book and it really shows: in some ways The Naked Face is quite dated (in language and the idea that homosexuality is something that needs to be/can be cured through psychology/psychiatry). But it's still a Sheldon book, and I have generally liked his books, so I wanted to give it a try.

The Naked Face is about Doctor Judd Stevens, a successful psychoanalyst. When one of Stevens' patients is killed, almost immediately followed by his receptionist, one of the detectives assigned to the case (a man whose partner was killed years ago in a case where Stevens' examination allowed the killer to live) believes that Stevens is the one responsible. Stevens has to figure out who the real killer is before the detective arrests him for murder.

The Naked Face was a really fast read (it's about 300 pages long and I finished it in a day AFTER reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull). It was also a lot of fun trying to figure out who the killer was, although that was tough - you don't actually get the full story until near the end, when Stevens himself figures it out. This is made even harder because you don't actually MEET the killer until near the end of the book. But I was happy that the plot wasn't predictable, and overall I really ended up enjoying The Naked Face.

If Tomorrow Comes

If Tomorrow Comes is both my last book of 2013 and first book of 2014. I originally started reading it with the thought of doing a book review on it for work; unfortunately I found the book rather unsuitable due to some of the subject matter.

If Tomorrow Comes is the story of Tracy Whitney. She is going to be married to a wealthy man and is having his baby. But then she is framed for stealing a mafia man's painting and sent to jail.

I honestly thought that the book was going to be all about her getting free and then getting her revenge. So I was quite surprised to find that story arc was finished half way through the book. It took me a long time to actually read the second half of the book because the story, in my mind, was over.

But luckily I did keep reading. And the second half of the book was awesome!

Now that Tracy has gotten her revenge, she wanted to go back to her normal life. But that proved impossible thanks to her criminal record; everyone believed she would steal some more. Out of desperation, Tracy takes a job from someone that actually involves stealing jewellery, thus starting her exciting new life of conning people. 

While I'm glad I read If Tomorrow Comes, it wasn't my favourite Sheldon book. Tracy was an interesting character, and the second half was super good. I definitely recommend this if you can make it through the rather horrible events of the beginning chapters.