Monday, December 5, 2011

"No Second Chance" to be the "Mockingjay"

I have continued and finished reading No Second Chance by Harlan Coben. Since my last blog post, I have read the last half of No Second Chance and the beginning of another book so I'm only going to review the most important parts of the novels.
After a hectic investigation in Kasselton Marc finally gets information that his daughter is in Missouri. Him and Lenny immediately fly out to Missouri and find his daughter living with Abe and Lorraine Tansmore. They discuss what should happen with Tara. The next morning Seidman continues to think and begins to talk to Lenny again about the day he was shot. Lenny said what he think happened and Marc then realizes that the only other person besides himself that knew the combination to the gun locker was Lenny. He then questions Lenny, who breaks under the pressure and tells him the real story.


The morning of the shooting Lenny went over to Seidman’s house, saw Marc on the floor, and he thought he was dead. He went inside to see more, when he found Marc’s wife Monica with a gun, angry and emotionally distressed. Monica had killed Marc. He ran upstairs and she shot at him; he then ran to the gun locker and took the missing gun. He walked down the stairs and shot her when he was startled. Lenny thought the whole thing would make him look guilty of everything that had happened, so he took off Monica’s close because of gunpowder residue, washed her hands, broke the window to make it look like a break in, and since Marc hadn’t made a will he took Tara to the Tansmores. He later set up fake ransoms and paid off Stacey, Marc’s sister; who had walked in on the crime scene and black mailed him. Marc and his mother move out to Missouri and after his daughter slowly gets used to him Marc finally has his daughter back and a second chance at a relationship with Rachel. This book plays with your mind and makes you think. Its not just another CSI book, you actually get to know Marc and develop empathy for him and his position.
The next book I’ve started reading is Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. This is the third book in the Hunger Game Trilogy. I have already read both the Hunger Games and Catching Fire over the summer and they are now probably my two favorite books. At the end of the book Catching Fire Katniss is rescued from the Quarter Quell Hunger Games, from rebels both inside and outside of the games. Katniss is considered to be the spark of revolution on Panem, from her act of defiance against the Capital displayed during her first Hunger Game. The Mockingjay is a genetically modified bird that has come to be the symbol of resistance for the rebels. After Katniss was rescued she spent a month in recovery and psychiatric therapy, her partner, Petre was not rescued and was captured by the Capital. During Katniss’s recovery things become clearer; she realizes that she is in the lost District 13. District 13 was supposedly destroyed half a century earlier, but is now the center of the rebellion. The entire district is underground due to the imminent threat of bombings and attacks from the Capital. When she is finally deemed healthy and sane Katniss is able to walk around and see what’s happening in the war. Katniss is pressured to be the rebels’ “Mockingjay” and to fight with them and higher morale. She agrees to be the Mockingjay after a long list of demands are met and then she is sent to training and to be equipped…

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