Author: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
Publication Date: September 27th 2012
~A copy was provided by Arrow (Young) in exchange for an honest review.~
1. She was one of the last people to see her parents alive.
2. She and her brothers are the only suspects.
3. She can't trust anyone - maybe not even herself.
Having grown up under their parents' intense perfectionist demands, none of the Angel children have come away undamaged.
Tandy decides that she will have to solve the crime on her own, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous game. As she uncovers haunting secrets and slowly begins to remember flashes of disturbing past events buried in her memory, Tandy is forced to ask: What is the Angel family truly capable of?
The Angel household is about to be changed, for the worse or
better, you pick. Matthew (the oldest) Tandoori "Tandy", her twin
Harry, and Hugo (The youngest) are woken up to police threatening to break down
their door, and find out that their parents are dead. Not only have their
parents been murdered, but there was no break-in, nothing unlocked or out of
normal, no sign of a struggle, and they are
the main suspects.
Even our Narrator, Tandy, thinks it could be one of them,
even herself, thanks to her little
black-out tendency and holes in her memory. She even thinks it could be her
twin. With little evidence of outside foul play, all evidence points to them,
and since she's the most methodical and emotionless one, all fingers point to
her. But being all of those things also make her the sharpest and intelligent
of them.
Really, it isn't.
Overall, Confessions of A Murder Suspect was surprisingly addictive, strange, weird and utterly brilliant.
It also makes her the most dangerous, because she will find out the truth.
Even if it means her.
For the first 70 pages I wondered what the hell I'd gotten
myself into. Their parents had just been murdered and there was nothing.
No tears.
No screams.
No sadness.
No emotion.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Their parents were dead and it was just, where's the damn fire?
When it was said they were a bunch a sociopaths, I thought
it was a joke.
Apparently not.
But don't worry, you'll get it eventually.
The Angels are rich, not rich-rich, but filthy rich, and get this, they have a coffee table tank for the pygmy sharks the kids have. You know those funny looking things that look
like a slightly larger looking tadpole? Yes, those. I can honestly say I really didn't most of the characters at
all, to put it nicely, they're weird.
Really weird.
Harry was hilarious though, and Hugo, our little ball of
rage. I disliked Matthew the most, though not as slimy as their Uncle Peter
seemed, but he did seem a little dicey. He, out of them all seemed the most
likely to do it. I eventually warmed up to Tandy though, she was certainly a interesting character and as pointed
out, she is an unreliable narrator, and it was annoying as hell while being the most blunt, emotionless, effective
and captivating voice, ever.
I felt bad for them really, that their parents were dead and
the youngest is ten, and they were all being accused of murdering them. They
were just kids, well, apart from Matthew, but still. Then throughout and the
more we found out about their sociopathic parents, I just thought...Whichever
one of you it was, fucking good for you, sir or madam. The truth, is nothing
like you'd suspect. Really, it isn't.
There are some bits
and information towards the end where you think, oh Malcolm and Maud are human and not some strange lab
experiment. (Ahem). And maybe, in a
sense, whichever way you look at it, it did make them seem human, but those
little things do not by any sense
whatsoever make up for all those nasty, disgusting, inhuman and verging on both
physical and mental abuse, or make them human by any standards. For two people
that seem so important, sharp and moralistic, they do not have any morals
whatsoever but to keep that image by any means. And I mean any means.
When something doesn't go their way, or as planned, or their
children act like children and not how
they want them to act they take control and make them behave that way. They guilt them, they manipulate them,
they teach them lessons. The Big Chops they have when they've
disappoint, or disobeyed their parents consist of really, really cruel things.
No extra house jobs, no tidy your room and think about what you did, no
ordinary grounding. No surrey, not for the Angel kids. They are also very
selfish for what they did, and though it was their chance to show that they are
human, they didn't. They took the selfish way out, so sorry, not giving up my
sorry card just yet.
They were honestly the most vile characters I've ever come
across.
Throughout Tandy's recollection and things they find out
along the way, she constantly pointed out that they were not 'normal', and not
just what was normal for them. Well, no shit. I mean, it really wasn't normal, the way Malcolm and Maud
had raised-and I use that word loosely- them, and the way it effected them and
made them the way they were, the way they interacted. I'd also like to point
out how Tandy doesn't sound or come across as the sixteen year old she is, but
she wasn't like any other sixteen
year old, she didn't get a chance to. Personally, I love characters that surprise
you, characters that sound older than they are because I connect to them more.
It's what I loved most about The Fault in Our Stars. When I was her age, I
didn't act like I should have because sometimes life forces you to grow up
quicker than you should.
But, there are hints there, with Tandy, and the boy that
made her feel normal, that humanised her, that she can't remember, not yet,
because she also doesn't want to, because there's also pain there.
She isn't
totally lost.
So, I'm looking forward, and hoping there's more to that
story in The Private School Murders.Overall, Confessions of A Murder Suspect was surprisingly addictive, strange, weird and utterly brilliant.
Rating: 4/5
