Reprisal

This is largely a review of the other reviews on this page. They complain that Smith's novel, "Reprisal" wasn't a mystery. Well, it wasn't supposed to be a mystery. It had poetry in it. Oh, my goodness! Imagine, someone forcing you to read a poem! Unconstitutional, certainly. This book is about an extraordinarily disturbed human being. The fact that her identity isn't a mystery is irrelevant. What she does, and what is done to her in reprisal, is the subject matter of this excellent novel. I recommend it.

I've finally started reading ebooks, including those published in electronic format ONLY (presumably because mainstream publishers won't give these authors and their manuscripts a chance, etc).It has come to this: every 9th or 10th ebook by an unknown nobody I read is unforgettable, delicious, flawlessly written, unique, side-splitting, heart-wrenching, classy, original and best-of-its genre. Meanwhile: paperbacks from mainstream publishers get worse, worse, and worse. Of the last 30 I've read, NONE has been memorable or very worthwhile, or even entertaining in many cases, so tell me, HOW do these publishing experts decide this stuff? Surely not EVERY paperback writer is a publishing editor's cousin's wife or a former college roommate or --Anyway, about REPRISAL and Mitchel Smith, I did enjoy this book, I liked the characters/characterization, admired the poetry even though poetry bores me usually, and I respect the writer now that I'm done. But this is the FIRST book I've ever read in which I was able to SKIP HUGE SECTIONS, was in fact UNable to continue reading otherwise. Something definitely wrong there. I'm obsessive/compulsive about little things like that (skipping a single word in a book, missing a spot on a dish I wash; I often leave my bed unmade because smoothing and straightening it corner-to-corner-perfect takes just TOO long...).About the peeing, was that really the strangest thing y'all noticed this male author having his female protagonist do, that women just DO NOT DO? Can I say it? Better not.The ending bummed me out, by the way. I like my novels dark, but approving endings like this, I reserve for only the MOST worthwhile tales-leading-up, and Reprisal by Mitchell Smith is not one.In my opinion, the book reads like a rejected manuscript that either needs a world of additional work before re-submitting, or the author to start another, better book.

After spending the day reading this novel, as the story progressed, all I could think of was wanting to read more of his novels. We all know that variety is the spice of life, and after reading previous reviews, this is shown to be true with me. Admittedly, I didn't understand the use of "peeing", like "all women always have to pee before they go anywhere", but I felt the story to be fast-paced, pretty incredible, but very believable when you know the true stories of some of those very mixed up people that walk our streets. I felt that in places he became a bit "wordy", but felt that it might not be for possibly more intellectual people than myself. I am not much of a fan of poetry, especially literary poetry, and could have done without some of those references personally.I thought it to be a good day of good myteries, and definitely something that I see Hollywood making a movie of. Very enjoyable and I plan to purchase more by this author.

Seldom does a book come along with the potential to grip you from the first page to the last and keep hanging on after you're done. Well, here it is. Mr. Smith is a craftsman's craftsman. His insights and understandings displayed in taking the story from his mind and relaying it to the printed page is brilliant.I'll not iterate a synopsis of the story here. Get it and see for yourself. Oh...By the way...BRACE YOURSELF!!

Joining her family at Asconsett Island, Massachusetts, Joanna Reed, a noted poet, looks forward to the vacation. However, her idyllic summer abruptly ends when her spouse dies in an apparent drowning accident. Joanna cannot accept that her husband, a professional sailor who always used a life jacket, did not have one on him when he drowned. Her father soon dies in a fire. She argues with the local sheriff that both so-called accidents seem suspicious, but he figures she is just grieving. A summer school roommate of Joanna's daughter, Charis Langenberg enters the distraught woman's life as a compassionate friend. However, unbeknownst to Joanna (but not to readers), Charis has killed the two men. When Joanna's daughter dies next from a roof top fall ruled a suicide, a mentally collapsed Joanna knows she must uncover the malevolent spirit destroying her family one person at a time. REPRISAL is a well-written mystery that leaves readers wondering about the connection between the killer and her ultimate victim. The audience knows from the start that Charis is the killer, but Mitchell Smith hooks his fans by getting them to realize how cool and smooth the sociopath Charis is in her endeavor to get inside Joanna's life. Mr. Smith delicately provides glimpses into the deteriorating mind of Joanna as one tragedy after another is officially written off as an accident or suicide. Though the drug scene subplot seems to never reunite with the main plot, no one will doubt that this is a worthy thriller along the lines of Hitchcock's Frenzy.Harriet Klausner