I really love the author, Douglas Kennedy. As of now, he is my most favorite and best novel writer that could invoke such wonderful feelings in me as a reader, and make me feel the emotions in most of his novels. Personally, I have read now around 4 of his books, and number 5 in the running too. I have started reading a few pages now the title of "A Special Relationship", and this is still new for me to analyze. But for the remaining titles that I have read and that I certainly felt to give a 10 thumbs up would be "The Lady in The Fifth", "Temptation", "The Dead Heart" and also "The Job". Now, these 4 other books are way much interesting and I really love everything about it.
Douglas Kennedy has really caught my eyes, and the first novel of his that I read would be the Lady in The Fifth, about a broken-hearted man who is on the way to find something in his life to look forward to, when he came across a woman, known as the Lady in The Fifth, and this woman gave him life and zest. This is not really a book review, but more so that I would like to give the great credibility to this author whom I don't even know in real life. But then, his books have caught me fascinated, and I suddenly found myself not being able to sleep unless I finish reading his books. I think the title "The Dead Heart" is his first novel, and it really is a story about a man on a journey that turns out to be a disastrous one for him. IN this story, Mr Douglas has really concocted a story that made me so scared to even think about traveling for the next couple of weeks after I have finished reading. I think that he has encompass to be a very superb writer and it could be detected in his novels, "The Job" and "Temptation".
All of his characters in the different stories portray a different set of problems in life that you and me could probably face. And his characters are diverse too. Some start out poor, some are average and others are extremely rich persons that could afford golf club memberships and also other forms of luxuries. But when the characters fall, I could really feel their demise and their sufferings. It shows a lot how Douglas Kennedy put a lot to his characters, and I dare to say, done a huge amount of character study. And he is also not gender-biased. Some of his fictitious characters are made up of heroes, and a few, heroines. Although the hero could be in the form of a woman, he really protrays the characters' feelings and emotions well, and that could in turn be a very good formula for Mr Douglas in the long run. I hope that I could write novels like him one day, and be a good author like him too.
If you don't believe me, just try and invest on reading "The Job", at least and you will know what I mean. He has this ability to put his characters in a rut, and you as a reader feel really down as to what the characters are going through and you hope that somehow, or rather, the characters see the light of day and manage to pull through. Give it a try, you won't regret it, trust me.
Best wishes.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.