Louise UreRecensioni

I keep saying I don't really like thrillers and then I keep reading and enjoying the ones that come my way. I enjoyed [b:The Fault Tree|2345923|The Fault Tree|Louise Ure|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gfp1cpnnL._SL75_.jpg|2352633] primarily because of the spunky protagonist, a woman auto mechanic who has been blind for several years. When she is knocked down by a car on her way home from work one night, she is drawn into a murder investigation. With changing points of view and chapters of varying lengths, Ure blends the amateur sleuth with police procedural and gives us some insights into the mind of one of the criminals as well. I stayed up far too late finishing this book; I have to note that my spouse didn't care for it quite as much, partly because of the psychological problems of the protagonist.

The relatively small number of stars for this book does not reflect the quality of the writing, the plot, the setting or the characterization, but only that I guess it was just a bit too dark for me. As in [b:The Fault Tree|1616329|The Place Will Comfort You Stories|Naama Goldstein|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1185927113s/1616329.jpg|1610204], Ure has a protagonist with a lot of issues, and as the book goes on more and more is revealed. The initial event is a very up-to-the-minute one, in which protagonist Jessie, who is an operator with a service similar to GM's OnStar, gets a call about a car accident that quickly turns into either an assault or a murder. The incident ends up taking her back from Phoenix to Tucson, where some very disturbing incidents in her past took place. If you can stand a fair amount of violence and a really messed-up protagonist, this would be a good book for you.

This was a DNF for me. I wasn't crazy about the premise and then made the mistake of reading part of a review. The review confirmed my belief that I wasn't going to enjoy this book, so I decided to just quit. Have too many other things to read to bother with ones I won't enjoy.

I read Louise Ure's first three books and enjoyed them tremendously, so I think it was the subject matter, not the writing style. In fact, I could finish this based on how she pulls people along, I just don't think I would enjoy the trip.

A blind person as a witness, not possible…or is it?

Cadence Moran felt confident in her position as an auto mechanic. She often worked after hours when the shop was quiet. It had been a long day and Cadence was ready to go home and relax. A wave of Arizona heat rose from the sidewalk as she locked the door. Cadence followed the familiar routine, while listening for traffic and footsteps. Something curious caught her attention….A voice pleading for help, running footsteps, laughter, doors slamming… Suddenly an idling engine roars to life. Cadence, in the center of the street, hears the vehicle speed in her direction. With only seconds to spare, she leaps for the curb, breaking her cane as she falls. Trembling, her world of darkness is invaded with pain and fear….would they be back?

Cadence soon learns that someone in her neighborhood had been murdered, stabbed to death, near the time she was coming home. She decides to stay out of it. Besides, what could a blind person offer? However, when she finds out it was a well known and beloved senior citizen she decides to be forth coming.

Entering the police station, accompanied by an officer, she counts the steps to the elevator. But upon exiting, there were too many turns to remember. Keenly aware, she focuses on voices, and cologne. The interview was short and sweet. Cadence new by the patronizing tone of voice, that the police officer didn’t think the information she offered could help. What was she thinking, the sound of the engine, the smell of antifreeze, running footsteps, a call for help? She felt useless.

Unawares that a perilous journey lay ahead, Cadence returns home….

The trail is difficult for the over worked detectives to follow. Pressure to get information and come up with suspects is over whelming. Just when the case is surly solved, they are back at square one. When they turn to Candace and her heightened senses for assistance, they discover more than they bargained for.

The Fault Tree is non stop action!

First Line: I got away with murder once, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen again.

Roadside assistance operator Jessie Dancing receives a call from a driver in Tucson who sounds as if he's being murdered. Not content to let the police handle the situation, Jessie takes a copy of the tape to the driver's wife who tells her that her husband is very much alive. Taking some time off from her job in Phoenix, Jessie finds that being home in Tucson is bringing her past back to haunt her-- a past that includes being acquitted for murder. During the course of her own investigation, a young woman Jessie meets near the site of the driver's phone call is blown up in her car, and Jessie is once more dealing with a world in which guilt and innocence are both slightly out of focus.

Ure is no stranger to the Sonoran Desert, as you can see from passages like this:

"The steering wheel on Bonita's car was so hot that I wished I had oven mitts. It wasn't supposed to be this hot in September. We should have been on Simmer by now, not Deep Fry. I guided the VW to the freeway with a delicate two-finger grip that would at least cut down on the number of blisters."

Two fingers, Jessie? I've learned to drive with one fingertip! (That way only one fingerprint is burned beyond recognition.)

I enjoy Ure's writing for the setting and for the convoluted plots centered around one very conflicted main character. The more I read about Jessie, the more I realized just how damaged she was. For most people, the setting, the pacing, the plot and the main character are going to be strengths leading to enjoyable reads.

In my case, I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to agree to disagree. I can see all these good things as I read, but in Ure's last two books, The Fault Tree and here in Liars Anonymous, she's created two conflicted characters that drive me crazy. The main character in The Fault Tree was raised to accept blame for everything that happened. It didn't take long for me to stop feeling compassionate and to start wanting to tell her to put on her big girl panties and deal with it. I had roughly the same reaction to Jessie in this book. Jessie's childhood somehow seemed to teach her that no one was going to listen to her, and if she saw wrong being done, she was going to have to take care of it herself. However, it's never a good idea to take the law into your own hands, no matter how much Jessie disagrees with me.

While I found Jessie to be exasperating and infuriating, that doesn't mean you will. Louise Ure is an excellent writer who is skilled at intricate plots and interesting characters. Don't be afraid to give her a try just because this curmudgeon is sometimes easily irritated!

Cadence Moran is an auto mechanic that was blinded in a car accident. The accident also killed her neice. While leaving her job one night she was "witness" to murderers leaving the scene. They see her, but don't know she is blind. After two near misses of a hit and run driver, she realizes the killers are after her. They finally successfully kidnap her and one of her neices and the hunt is on for them.

The main characters makes an interesting anti-herione and the story is fresh. The combination makes for an interesting page-turner of a novel. I just never felt connected to the main character, Jessie, however, which made it a bit difficult to care about what happened to her. Plus, the book's title is absolutely silly.

Louise Ure’s book is aptly named, Jessie Dancing the tough, tattooed, roadside assistance operator has lied to get her job, her house sitting gig, and her new life and it all comes undone when she answers a call from Darren Markson, a real estate tycoon, who was rear-ended. Not liking what she hears Jessie breaks the rules and connects back to the car where she records what sounds like the murder of Markson.

Jessie dutifully reports it to her supervisors and the local cops, she doesn’t exactly lie to them but she doesn’t play it straight either. Asked to return to Tucson, for an interview, Jessie’s estrangement from her family and her past hits her square in the face and when she’s accused of involvement in Markson’s death she isn't willing to idly sit by.

Jessie digs herself in deep by trying to track down the murderers herself, lying about who she is to uncover the truth, more bodies are the result and the biggest lies yet are the ones she’s told to herself. This is a fast paced, gritty mystery/ suspense littered with tough characters, the unforgiving harshness of the desert, and a heroine who isn’t exactly a hero.½

I received this book as a contest prize.I'm going toLeft Coast Crime 2009, and they've been giving away books by some of the authors who will be attending.

I'd never read a book by Louise Ure before, and I was absolutely mesmerized. This is actually her second novel (the first was Forcing Amaryllis). Both are stand-alones, not part of a series.

The protagonist of The Fault Tree is Cadence Moran, an auto mechanic who has been blind since she was in a car accident eight years earlier. Her 3-year-old niece was killed in the accident, and Cadence has been unable to forgive herself.

Walking home from work late one evening, Cadence is clipped by a car. Although not seriously hurt, she is bruised and shaken, and her hand-carved cane is broken. Assuming it was just an accident, she doesn't report the incident, and goes on with her routine.

The next day, she is visited by homicide detectives who are investigating the murder of one of her elderly neighbours in a presumed robbery about the same time as she was hit. Initially reluctant to get involved, Cadence changes her mind when she is attacked again, presumably by the robbers who think she was a witness to the crime.

Cadence is a strong, self-sufficient woman, and her refusal to give in to whoever is stalking her is inspiring and riveting. This is one of those books that I could have read straight through without putting it down if my eyes hadn't kept trying to close. I'm definitely going to look for Forcing Amaryllis as well as Ure's third book Liars Anonymous, to be released April 14.

dramatic good book. Wondered how accurate the description of the blind lady's behaviour was. But I only know 4-5 blind people.

A car mechanic is the only witness to the escape of a couple of killers from a small-scale robbery gone wrong. What the killers don't know is that the witness is blind. Not that it matters - she still can provide useful information to the police about their vehicle. As she dodges their attempts to silence her, she copes with long-term guilt that the accident that led to her blindness also caused her niece's death. The image of a fault tree - a form of analysis to see how failures in a system are interlinked - is a neat metaphor for the book. The hapless killers (particularly one of them) are portrayed sensitively, and the characters in general are well drawn. The "fem jep" nature of the plot is offset by the interesting character who has a strong independent streak (you'd have to, to work as a blind car mechanic) and the ending fuses those together so that it's not just over the top, it flies exuberantly right over Mount Everest.

Seven years ago Cally's younger sister, Amy (Amaryllis), was attacked and
left for dead. Seven years ago, Cally Gentry began having nightmares and
being afraid. Seven years ago, Cally Gentry stopped wearing bright colors
and started wearing hues that blended in with her desert surroundings in
Tucson.

Now Amy lies in a coma after a failed suicide attempt while Cally works as a
trial consultant to pay the medical bills. Because of her fears, Cally will
only work on civil cases--until she's forced to join the defense team for
accused rapist and murderer Raymond Cates, son of a local landowner. Cally
is sickened by the parallels between the crime Cates is being tried for and
her sister's own horrifying assault. She knows that she won't be able to go
near the case until she confirms that Cates wasn't the man who attacked her
sister.

This is Ure's first novel, and it's pretty good. She was born in Tucson and
uses that setting well. The major weakness (and it was *major*), was the
huge dose of "femjep" at the end. I hate when smart women suddenly turn
stupid in order to swing the grande finale in gear. However, Forcing
Amaryllis was good enough to interest me in her next novel.

Arizona auto mechanic Cadence Moran is no stranger to darkness. Eight years ago, she was blinded in a horrific car accident that also took the life of her three-year-old niece. When she is almost run down by a speeding car on the way home from work, Cadence at first thinks that she is the victim of road rage or a bad driver. The chilling truth is much worse: Cadence is the only witness to the murder of her elderly neighbor, and now the killer believes that she's seen the getaway car.½