Phillip Margolin - Sleeping Beauty

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Sleeping Beauty: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

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Library Journal
Ashley Spencer's life is shattered when a killer enters her home one night, brutally stabs her father to death, and rapes and murders her best friend. In an attempt to help her regain some stability, her mother enrolls Ashley in the prestigious Oregon Academy. Ashley's mother seeks diversion by taking a creative writing class from former best-selling author Joshua Maxfield, who startles her by reading a chapter from a work in progress that mirrors the murder of her husband. The twists and turns of the plot keep the suspense ratcheted up to an excruciating level. Using the law and an insider's knowledge of the writer's life, Margolin has created another sure winner. His first novel, Gone but Not Forgotten, has long been one of the hallmark novels dealing with serial killers and their motivation. In this work, Margolin has brought new life to that subgenre. This is for jaded readers who believe that there is nothing new and fresh in the mystery field. For all fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/04.]-Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights -University Heights P.L., OH Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A pulse-lowering thriller about writers who write about what they know. The prolific Margolin (Ties That Bind, 2003, etc.) devotes his latest to a subject he knows well: author tours. Writer Miles van Meter is out promoting Sleeping Beauty, his true-crime bestseller about convicted serial killer Joshua Maxfield. According to van Meter's account, Maxfield broke into the Portland, Oregon, home of Norman Spencer, murdering Spencer, then raping and murdering Tanya Jones, a high-school student spending the night with Spencer's daughter Ashley, who escapes harm. Also spared is Ashley's mother, Terri, away on assignment as a news reporter. To rebuild Ashley's life, Terri suggests that the girl accept a soccer scholarship that Oregon Academy has offered. Terri also signs up at the Academy for the creative writing workshop taught by Joshua Maxfield. Maxfield alarms Terri when he reads to the class a story of murder that parallels the crime committed in her home. Certain that Maxfield wrote the piece from personal experience, Terri alerts Academy dean Casey van Meter (Miles's sister). Jogging across campus one night, Ashley hears two screams. Drawing up to a shed, she discovers Maxfield holding a bloody knife and standing over the body of her mother. A comatose Casey lies nearby. Maxfield escapes, is caught, then escapes again just as he faces trial. Fearing that Maxwell will track her, Ashley flees to Europe but is persuaded to return when a lawyer reveals that Casey, not Terri, was Ashley's mother. Ashley, the lawyer implores, must come home to claim her due as Casey's daughter. She returns; Casey awakens from a five-year coma; and Maxfield, caught, tried, and convicted, becomes the subject ofSleeping Beauty. But Ashley thinks something about the case is wrong, and most readers will see early on that she's right. Flimsy plotting, thin characters, hoary cliches, grade-school prose: a "by the numbers" thriller.

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“This isn’t helping anyone,” Maxfield said, still calm and completely in control of the situation. He stood and forced Randy to his feet.

“I’ll get you, you fuck,” Coleman gasped, obviously in pain.

“Now, now. I’m the last guy you want to threaten, Randy. I had demolition training in the Rangers. Make me nervous and you’ll be even more nervous every time you start your car or open your apartment door. Do you want that? I don’t think so. So why don’t you calm down and leave while the only aches you have to nurse are a sore wrist and injured pride.”

Coleman looked unsure of himself. Maxfield inched up Randy’s arm until he was forced to stand on his toes.

“What do you say, old chap?” Maxfield asked. “I’ve got nothing against you but there are kids around here. It’s not good for them to see this.”

Coleman grimaced with pain and nodded.

“I’m going to let go. Okay? No sneaky punches, promise?”

“Let loose, damn it,” Coleman gasped. Maxfield released his hold. Randy cast a furious look at Casey.

“We’re not through,” he threatened before stomping off.

“Thanks, Joshua,” Casey said as she watched her attacker walk toward the parking lot.

“No problemo. These marriage things drive people crazy.”

Casey studied Joshua. She didn’t look angry anymore, just curious.

“Do you really know how to rig a car?”

Joshua threw his head back and laughed. “Hell no. Remember, I’m a novelist. I lie for a living.”

Suddenly, Maxfield and the dean noticed the gawking teenagers. Maxfield held up his hands.

“Everything’s cool. You can return to your regularly scheduled programming.” He turned to Casey. “Let’s go.”

“Did you see that?” Sally Castle said, awestruck. “I didn’t know Mr. Maxfield knew that Jackie Chan stuff. That was so cool.”

Suddenly, Sally noticed her friend’s ashen complexion. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Ashley answered, but she was lying. The violence had made her flash back to the attack in her house. And there was something else, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Was it Coleman’s voice? She’d thought that it sounded familiar when she first heard him speak, but now she wasn’t so certain she’d heard it before. But Coleman was about the same height as her father’s murderer. No, that was ridiculous. A lot of men were the same size as the killer. Mr. Maxfield was the same size, too, and he didn’t make her nervous.

Chapter Five

Terri Spencer rushed up the stairs to the second floor of the liberal arts building, then walked down the hall slowly so she could catch her breath. It was the first day of the writing group, and she was late. When she entered the schoolroom, Joshua Maxfield waved her onto a chair next to a heavyset, bearded man who was seated on the side of a conference table nearest the door. Next to him was an older woman with long gray hair. Across the table were two middle-aged women and a young man.

“Sorry I’m late,” Terri apologized. “The traffic was horrendous.”

“It’s not a problem,” Maxfield assured her from his position at the head of the table. “We just got settled. All you missed was a chance to get some coffee and doughnuts and I think we’ll still let you do that. What do you say, group?”

Everyone laughed, including Terri. “I’m fine, thanks,” she told Maxfield.

“Then we’ll get started by introducing ourselves. And I’ll begin by telling you a little about myself. I went to community college in Boston after I was expelled from high school. I began A Tourist in Babylon in my English class as an essay. My professor encouraged me to turn it into a novel. I thought he was crazy-I honestly didn’t think I had any talent-but I decided to give it a try. I transferred to the University of Massachusetts and finished the novel while getting my BA.

“Tourist was rejected by several houses before an editor at Pegasus Press was wise enough to discern its merits. The rest, as they say, is history. My first novel was nominated for all of the major literary prizes and was a bestseller. So I know a little about crass commercialism as well as literature.

“The Wishing Well was published a year or so later. I taught creative writing at a college in New England for a while but I decided to come west a few years ago and dedicate myself to working with younger students. I’ve enjoyed my two years at the Oregon Academy tremendously but I like to work with older writers for balance, which is why I conduct these seminars.

“But enough about me. Terri, why don’t you tell everyone who you are, where you work, and why you’re here?”

“I’m Terri Spencer, I’m a reporter at The Oregonian. I know all reporters are supposed to be writing the Great American Novel in their spare time. It’s a terrible cliché but it’s true in my case. I don’t know about the ‘great’ part but I am halfway through a book and I thought it was time to get some professional help.”

“ Harvey,” Maxfield said, nodding to the bearded man sitting to Terri’s left.

Harvey Cox told the group that he was a biotech researcher who had published one science fiction short story and was looking for help with a science fiction novel he was writing. Lois Dean, the older woman, had run across a set of diaries written by an ancestor who had followed the Oregon Trail in the 1800s. She wanted to turn them into a historical novel. Mindy Krauss and Lori Ryan were housewives and bridge partners who were trying their hand at a mystery, and Brad Dorrigan was a computer programmer who had majored in English Lit and spoke earnestly about the coming-of-age story he had been working on for several years.

“Okay, great,” Maxfield said. “Well, we certainly have a diverse group. That’s good. It means that we’re going to get different opinions when we critique each other’s work. And that is one of the things we are going to do here.

“Now let me talk about criticism for a moment. Each week I’m going to read something that someone in the group has submitted and each of you is going to be painfully honest with your opinions. That doesn’t mean that you are going to be mean or spiteful. The only type of criticism I expect here is constructive criticism. It’s perfectly all right to dislike something, but I want you to tell the writer why you don’t like what he or she has written and I want you to suggest how the work can be changed for the better. So think before you speak.

“My job will be to moderate these proceedings but I’m also going to give you tips that I hope will improve your writing. When we start each class I’ll spend some time talking about character development, outlining, and other aspects of the writer’s craft. Now, I don’t like talking to hear myself speak. I assume you’re here because you are motivated to improve your craft. So, ask questions. Remember, in this group there is no such thing as a stupid question.

“And with that introduction, unless there are questions, I’m going to start our first session with a brief discussion of the method I use to develop story ideas.”

They took a break after the first hour, and Terri talked to the other members of Maxfield’s class. Except for Brad Dorrigan, who took himself a little too seriously, the other aspiring writers were a pleasant group.

“Okay, back to the grind,” Joshua Maxfield said when fifteen minutes had passed. Terri carried a cup of coffee to her place. While everyone got settled, she checked the notes she’d taken about developing story ideas.

“I said that we’re going to spend a portion of each meeting critiquing each other’s writing,” Maxfield said. “Tonight, I’m going to read a chapter from a work in progress and everyone will comment.”

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