cornelia's Full Review: Louise Ure - Forcing Amaryllis
Forcing Amaryllis is so accomplished, the fact that it is Louise Ure's first novel defies comprehension. Her characters are uncannily well-drawn, her imagery is splendid, and her narrative proves as haunting as the Arizona conjured forth--deftly, richly--on every page.
Calla Gentry is a jury consultant who lives in Tucson, Arizona. Pressured into working on a criminal case for the first time, Gentry realizes her client may well be the man who raped and nearly killed her sister Amaryllis seven years earlier. When Amaryllis attempted suicide shortly after that brutal attack, she was found in time to cheat death, but only in the narrowest sense. She remains comatose, requiring round-the-clock care so expensive that Calla can't risk losing her job.
This is one of those rare books that wasn't finished with me after I'd read its closing lines. My thoughts kept returning to the Gentry sisters and Tucson for days afterwards--scenes and passages and bits of dialogue snaked through my head while I was waiting at stoplights or in line at the grocery store.
Booklist has it exactly right: "Ure's debut so compellingly evokes the hot, dry Southwest, readers may want to have an icy-cold glass of water nearby while reading it."
Whether your taste runs to crime fiction specifically or to fine writing in general, this is an author you'll want to keep tabs on. Expect to see Louise Ure's name featured prominently on this year's "best first novel" lists.
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