Nemesis
by Rosamond Smith
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This "mesmerizing" novel about a crime at an elite music school "calls to mind a David Lynch film" (TheNew York Times). Shy piano teacher Maggie Blackburn has selflessly devoted her life and career to her students at the Forest Park Conservatory of Music in an affluent Connecticut suburb. Then a rape shakes the school's refined grounds. The violated young student, Brendan Bauer, is a timid ex-seminarian. The perpetrator, Rolfe Christensen, is the newly appointed and celebrated show more composer-in-residence who has dazzled the faculty in ways Maggie could never have dreamed of. But when the conservatory's conspiracy to conceal the crime results in Christensen's murder, Bauer is suspected-and Maggie vows to find the real killer. What Maggie soon discovers is that Christensen's reputation-as genius, manipulator, and sexual predator-had preceded him, giving many people a reason to want him dead. But when the murder of another colleague casts additional doubt on Bauer's innocence, Maggie's labyrinthine hunt for a killer turns into more than an investigation. Now it's a liberating obsession with secrets-hers included-as dark and twisted as the crimes themselves. One of today's most prolific and acclaimed literary talents, Joyce Carol Oates is a National Book Award winner, a four-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and a #1 New York Times-bestselling author. As Elmore Leonard said, with her psychological suspense novels written under the name Rosamond Smith, "[she] could become the world's Number One mystery writer easily.". show lessTags
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Member Reviews
For a book that was set from September 88-December 89, the writing style was more old fashioned than I expected. The Forest Park Conservatory is a very elite music school with staff & students that are above reproach, or so we think. When young Brendan is raped by the composer in residence, Rolfe Christensen, the entire campus & surrounding community is completely shaken up. Brendan's greatest champion is Maggie Blackburn, a piano instructor. After Rolfe's death by poisoning, the community tries to pin the murder on poor Brendan. A while later, Brendan is implicated in the knife slashing death of one of Rolfe's friends, Nicky Reickmann, also a staff member, & the executor of Rolfe's literary estate.
In the end, Maggie discovers who the show more true murderer is, & it's quite a sordid tale of mental disturbance, seduction, & intrigue that will leave Maggie & Brendan forever changed as they search for a way to put their lives back in some semblance of normality.
All in all, it was quite interesting, although not riveting show less
In the end, Maggie discovers who the show more true murderer is, & it's quite a sordid tale of mental disturbance, seduction, & intrigue that will leave Maggie & Brendan forever changed as they search for a way to put their lives back in some semblance of normality.
All in all, it was quite interesting, although not riveting show less
Oates skriver som alltid bra och denna psykologiska triller under pseudonymen Rosamondh Smith är klart läsvärd.
Oct 31, 2015Swedish
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476+ Works 62,282 Members
Joyce Carol Oates was born on June 16, 1938 in Lockport, New York. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Syracuse University and a master's degree in English from the University of Wisconsin. She is the author of numerous novels and collections of short stories. Her works include We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde, Bellefleur, You Must show more Remember This, Because It Is Bitter, Because It Is My Heart, Solstice, Marya : A Life, and Give Me Your Heart. She has received numerous awards including the National Book Award for Them, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Lifetime Achievement in American Literature. She was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with her title Lovely, Dark, Deep. She also wrote a series of suspense novels under the pseudonym Rosamond Smith. In 2015, her novel The Accursed became listed as a bestseller on the iBooks chart. She worked as a professor of English at the University of Windsor, before becoming the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Princeton University. She and her late husband Raymond J. Smith operated a small press and published a literary magazine, The Ontario Review. (Bowker Author Biography) Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most eminent and prolific literary figures and social critics of our times. She has won the National Book Award and several O. Henry and Pushcart prizes. Among her other awards are an NEA grant, a Guggenheim fellowship, the PEN/Malamud Lifetime Achievement Award, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Lifetime Achievement in American Literature. (Publisher Provided) show less
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Nemesis
- Original publication date
- 1990
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 124
- Popularity
- 262,159
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.75)
- Languages
- English, French, German, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 14
- ASINs
- 3
