The Halo Effect: A Novel

A total snooze fest. My goodness how it just dragged out, the end was so anticlimactic. Two stars is all this one can muster. My review is not a mini-synopsis, all I can offer is that it was a dud and feel that your time may be better spent elsewhere.The author does the internal dialogue of a teenage girl so badly I cringed.Entire chapters that added nothing of value to the story but were some attempt at building the non-suspense. I literally went back and read all the editorial reviews for this and laughed at how absolutely off mark they are. Page turner- yeah I started turning pages quickly when I realized that taking my time to absorb this was a serious waste of hours of my life.Intolerably suspensful ? No way, when I read the end I was just glad to have it over and done.The author decided to have the undercurrent of secrets and teenage angst play out through the act of self mutilation (cutting), but just botched it. She introduces this terrible pent up anxiety and then just plays it off as blah blah blah my parents are so lame, DE- NI- AL, they just don't "get me". Its bad.The main character mentions his RAGE that you never ever see. The books just goes on about rage and anger but it's not simmering or white hot, maybe lukewarm. And then randomly switches the point of storytelling to have the father question the reader (me/you) about how we would feel.Language: F-bombs, c*ck, b*tch. And not really for any good effect.The sex, while very abbreviated was so so not needed just because it was laughable. "We held each other like young lovers, but lovers whose bones held marrow-deep sorrow. We moved slowly as we explored, touched, tasted, as if not only our bodies but the air itself was fragile and a misstep would shatter all. I entered her, went deep, and knew that joy could be pain too".

A family is torn apart when their daughter is murdered. This book travels the journey of the father from hate and revenge to the discovery of the murderer and the healing he finds as let's go of the anger. A really engaging story, every detail fitting perfectly into the puzzle that is the story. I could not put it down. Perfect editing, found not a single grammatical error. (Those things drive me nuts) A beautiful lesson in the healing process that we all go through after a significant loss in our lives. Very real. Very well done. So good it could make you think it was a true story. Read it. You will not be disappointed.

The summary of this novel is very misleading. The "climax" of the book was the last two or so pages.. the book was so long and drawn out, I was actually really surprised by how the ending lacked much detail. If you want to read a book about how some people might potentially feel in the aftermath of a tragic loss, this is the book for you. If you want to read a murder mystery, like the synopsis seemed to imply it would be, don't read this. There was maybe one sentence that said anything about the narrator being suspicious of the people he was painting. The book was 96% over (according to my Kindle) by the time it took to actually get interesting, and it wasn't given the chance to be interesting because the climax was seriously lacking. "That happened, then that happened, and there was a trial in there somewhere but (narrator) doesn't remember much of that, and then this didn't happen. The end." The entire book was so incredibly detailed that it actually got boring and I was repeatedly tempted to stop reading it, then the ending held no detail at all. Really disappointed. Could have been so much better if the ending was written consistent to the rest of the book. Did she run out of time or funding or what?

The main protagonist of this story is the deeply flawed, Will Light. Will Light is a formerly renowned artist whose daughter was found murdered. This story primary follows Will as he struggles to both deal with his grief, and reconcile with his wife.When I first started this book, I thought I was going to hate it, and especially hate Will. But as the novel progressed I found myself falling in love with all the characters, they are all deeply flawed, but end up all the better for it. The writing in this book was simply fantastic, it was full of rich detail and imagery. Though the novel did move a little slow at times, it always was able to pick back up and get the action going again.Though I'm not normally fond of books with changing POV's, I really enjoyed Rains perspective as well. It was interesting to see how she grieved vs. how Will did, and how her own family impacted how she viewed her friends murder.I will say I wasn't entirely fond of the ending. I thought the discovery of the killer was superfluous almost, especially given the many hints on who it could be- and it being none of them. I would have almost preferred to not find out who the murderer was, and instead end on the note of Sainthood and redemption for Will, rather then his eventual trial and such.Overall, I highly recommend this novel. It took me forever to read and it's been awhile now- so this review really doesn't give justice to this book.

A story about the murder of a 15 year old, to a family in the rural area of Boston.The family family and friends go through their own responses to the loss and the grief process affects all of them differently.The story ends with a twist as the murderer is exposed and arrested,The author has captured the essence of what extreme stress (grief loss) causes from different behavior patterns to withdrawal of some to channeling to something related to the loss.Overall an excellent written novel.

Will Light is an artist whose daughter has been murdered and is finding it so difficult to come to terms with it his wife has moved out. Unexpected redemption comes in the form of Father Gervase, a local Catholic priest who has been tasked to persuade him to paint large pictures of saints for the Cathedral. The author captures not only the devastating loss of a child's death, but the different ways this affects people. She also creates what appear to me to be very authentic characters of the child's school-friends and their difficulties relating to adults and the way they too can find redemption with the right help. I hadn't really expected to enjoy this book from the synopsisbut was very pleasantly surprised how it drew me in.

This is an unusual novel in that it is hard to categorise. It has so many elements subtly blended; grief and loss and how we react to these, a crime thriller, a love story, a psychological aspect and great understanding of human nature. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was gripped right to the end.

I'm very glad that I chose this for my March "Kindle First" book. It's beautifully written, much more Anne Tyler than James Patterson. More a suspense story than a thriller. The characters are vibrant, lifelike. It's a pleasure to read.Sophie and Will are grieving the death of their fifteen-year old daughter Lucy, who was murdered seven months ago. Sophie had been almost catatonic with grief at first, but then became an activist for reducing violence in society. Will has become isolated, very angry, and is drinking heavily. Their different ways of handling the tragedy has caused them to separate. Lucy's best friend Rain (conceived during a wet holiday), a stroppy teenager, is now terrified of intruders and has started to cut herself. Rain's brother Duane has a terrible secret. The media are being a pain. The author paints a vivid picture of the grieving process.The story is told from two points of view. Third person is used for everyone except Will, who uses the first person; so really it's Will's story. He's a portrait painter, finally persuaded by Father Gervase to paint pictures of the saints for the new cathedral in Boston. This helps Will to recover from his isolation. Father Gervase is a wonderful character, easily my favourite of the story.This is a great story, well written. We do get to find out who murdered Lucy, and why. But the story is really all about people and how they interact. It's more literary fiction than genre fiction. This is one of the best books I've read for a long time. I'll be reading more books from Anne LeClaire.

What a moving story. Beautifully written with a deep understanding of grief and how a husband and wife both react so differently to the murder of their daughter. I am not a religious person but loved the part the priest played in this story. It held me right to the end. would strongly recommend it.

...how rare is that?Yes, there's been a murder.No, the murderer has not been caught.But this is not about the investigation. The police are a part of the story-line, but not the main characters. Who are? The father of the victim. The mother of the victim. The best friend. The priest. All trying to deal with the dreadful reality and emotional trauma of being alive, when their daughter/friend ...is not. That's what this story is about: how different people react in different ways to an unthinkably awful situation... and survive.A beautiful book. Many thanks to the author.