North of Boston

I received this book in a Goodreads First reads giveaway

I understand this is Elisabeth Elo's first book, but this novel could have been written by a seasoned author.

North of Boston is a slowly unraveling mystery, with loving detail paid to the characters and to the city of Boston and the seas around it, which at times become characters in their own right.

The main character, Pirio Kasparov, is well rounded and complex. A smart, grounded, savvy, loyal woman, but also conflicted and more than a little damaged by her past.

The plot begins simply enough, but soon the threads Pirio chases weave into a broader, more complex mystery than could have been conceived at the beginning of the story. The author does well weaving her story together, show more the complexities and twists are unexpected but masterfully done, the sudden revelations and dawning certainties feel organic.

This was a wonderful read set in a city dear to my heart. Elisabeth Elo is clearly a talented craftswoman, and I eagerly await her future books.[b:North of Boston|18079779|North of Boston|Elisabeth Elo|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1375062409s/18079779.jpg|25387075] show less

This is such a sharply written mystery, with more disparate elements than I can ever remember, combining for a riveting thrill ride. The heroine, Pirio, comes from a family of luxury perfumers, so there's lots of fascinating facts about scents. She is a swimmer who defies the standard logic of cold water survival, so there's tons about that. Pirio finds herself on a lobster boat, on a yacht, in Labrador, and with her alcoholic best friend and her trying-to-cope son. She encounters an ex-lover who is now married with four sons, and a potential new lover who disguises himself as an insurance investigator. It all comes together and adds up to a terrific novel, with a character who will hopefully have many more adventures. The author, show more Elisabeth Elo, reveals very little in her bio on the book flap. I'm really looking forward to meeting her when she appears at the Wilmington Memorial Library on Tuesday August 12 at 7 PM. show less

Pirio Kasparov has miraculously survived a boating accident and was rescued by the Coast Guard after four hours in freezing cold water. The owner of the boat and Pirio’s friend, Ned, did not survive. She clearly saw the boat that struck them and does not believe it was an accident.

Pirio is not the type to take no for an answer and wants to find out who is responsible for Ned’s death. She begins asking questions and conducting research on her own, eventually uncovering a complex and devious plot. In the last third of the book the story begins to come together and the action accelerates. Like most strong heroines, Pirio engages in risky behavior and even while she admits that what she is doing is dangerous and she shouldn’t do it, show more she does it anyway.

I liked Pirio. She’s a strong female protagonist who is smart, tough and persistent while retaining compassion and kindness which can be seen in her concern for Noah, Ned’s son, who is being raised by an often negligent alcoholic mother. Not that Pirio doesn’t have her own problems from the past, a mother who spent her time on her perfume business and a father who considered her a problem child, which continue to haunt her.

This fast-paced thriller is also a compelling mystery with an interesting cast of well-developed characters and a story-line that held my attention even though it often moved in several different directions. Family dynamics, whaling, the environment, and the perfume business are just a few of the topics. I would like to read more about Pirio, and in the end there were enough unanswered questions about her past and her family to continue the story with another adventure.

Audio Production:
Marguerite Gavin was a new narrator for me and an enjoyable experience. There are many characters in this book and she did a wonderful job altering tone, accent and inflection for the different speakers. The alcoholic Thomasina immediately comes to mind! The complex plot and large number of characters makes this an audio that requires staying attuned, but the compelling plot should keep most minds from wandering. Overall, a well-paced and excellent production. show less

Este es el primer thriller de subgenero ambientalista que leo, la verdad es que me ha gustado a pesar de los pesares.

El thriller me ha gustado, no ha sido nada convencional y mas bien ha resultado en una tipo aventura personal en la que se ha enbarcado la protagonista, más por curiosa que por cualquier otra circunstancia, esto la lleva inevitablemente a ir detrás de un grupo de millonarios que se dedica a la cacería furtiva, así pues, nuestra protagonista no es precisamente una ambientalista que busca justicia o que este realmente muy precupada por los animales o la caza furtiva, es casi por casualidad.

La verdad es que yo esperaba que al menos alguno de los involucrados sería algún activista de Greenpeace o algo parecido, pero no show more ha sido el caso, aún así, en cuanto al tema ambientalista el libro cumple a la perfección con respecto a una denuncia social no solo sobre el hecho, si no también en poner en relieve la falta de interés que hay en general sobre el tema, lo poco que le importa a la sociedad en general y mucho menos a la politica que hace la vista gorda por no meterse con grandes fortunas.

Por otro lado, estando este libro contado en primera persona, la protagonista nos va contando no solo como se ve involucrada en esta aventura si no en su vida diaria, su estilo de vida, la vida de su mejor amiga, el hijo de ésta, su padre, sus recuerdos con su madre, en fin, que básicamente es casi como un diario de vida donde además de todo se ve involucrada en un complot de asesinato.

Tal vez hay momentos que podrían resultar nada importantes con relación al tema principal, pero con todo y eso a mí en lo personal me ha gustado la lectura, será tal vez porque Pirio me ha caído bien y me ha gustado su manera de ser y de pensar.

En general ha sido una buena lectura, entretenida show less

North of Boston is a debut novel by Elisabeth Elo. Although a few elements were a little simplistic (i.e., the escape), this is a good first novel in what I hope will be a series. What grabs you right away is the main character, Pirio Kasparov, heir to a prominent perfume company, who is cynical, caring, tough yet sensitive, rebellious.

Pirio decides to do her friend Ned Rizzo a favor and help out on his lobster boat one Saturday. It’s a dark, foggy day. You can barely see from one end of the boat to the other. All of the sudden a ship is looming, not in the distance, but close by. It literally cuts the tiny lobster boat in half. In the seconds before impact, Ned tells Pirio to jump, thereby saving her life and losing his.

Everyone show more initially seems to think it was an accident. But as events begin to play out, it looks more and more like a deliberate act.

Elo combines an action packed, smartly written story with memorable characters, Pirio, Parnell, a journalist, Thomasina who was Pirio’s roommate and best friend starting in boarding school, and Noah, Thomasina’s ten year old son by Ned. Every character, including the ancillary ones, such as Milosa, Pirio’s father and Maureen, Milosa’s wife are important, given depth and personality.

Elo’s subject, illegal whaling, is something new for mystery buffs. The secondary subplot, perfuming, is also a new aspect to mysteries and Pirio’s enhanced olfactory senses come in handy in catching a killer.

Elo’s got stiff competition in the Boston based mystery genre: Robert Parker, Dennis Lehane, Linda Barnes, Jeremiah Healy. But she holds her own quite nicely.

I’ll admit that I skimmed a page or two when I wanted to move ahead and skipped a page or two related to killing whales or beating up Pirio (my sensitive nature couldn’t handle it), but on the whole, Pirio Kasparov and Parnell could develop into a really good mystery series. Give this one a try. show less

Two word review: Refreshingly different.
Why this book? An intriguing story—a crime novel—that mixes the fishing industry with the perfume industry, and with a tough, screwed up, 2nd generation Russian female protagonist (and rich) How is that not intriguing? Additionally, a friend/former co-worker handed me a reader copy.

I wasn't sure I was going to warm up to Pirio Kasparov, the protagonist in this debut novel, but I did. Both the story and Pirio are complicated things. In the end I found it to be a very satisfying read and a refreshingly different crime novel (first written & posted 13 Jul 2014 elsewhere on LT)

I won NORTH OF BOSTON from MauriceonBooks.com two years before I finally read it. I didn't know what I was missing.

The book begins after Pirio is in a boating accident. She, alone, survives after floating for four hours in water temperatures that would have killed most people . She learns that a much larger boat collided with the one she was on and then left the scene – – it was a hit-and-run accident. Even worse, she later realizes that this was a case of murder; someone was trying to get rid of the captain of the boat Pirio was on.

Who was responsible, and what were they trying to cover up? Pirio wants to get to the bottom of it. Most of NORTH OF BOSTON is about her endeavor to do that.

What a great story, with such creative show more characterization! If you haven't read this yet, please don't put it off any longer. show less