I recently finished "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult. I go back and forth on her writing -- her style of alternating narrative points of view between chapters is sometimes annoying to me, though she didn't do that in this one. Also, her endings are often vaguely dissatisfying. Best example of this is "My Sister's Keeper" -- I won't spoil it, but the ending of that one was a total cop-out in my opinion. Still, something keeps me coming back, and I've now read 4 of her books.
"Nineteen Minutes" was, I think, the best Picoult book I've read to date. It's about a school shooting, and does a pretty good job of exploring both the aftermath and the events leading up to the fatal day (the present and past are interspersed in alternating chapters, which sometimes confused me if I put the book down in the middle of a chapter) from the points of view several characters (including the shooter). Points off for the ending, though: it wasn't as disappointing as some of Picoult's other endings, but I predicted it about halfway through, and I'm usually really bad at anticipating plot twists.
Right now I'm reading "Fear No Evil" by Allison Brennan. It's a thriller -- I like them as long as I know they have a reasonably happy ending (I have to peek ahead to make sure...no "artistic" sad endings for me, thanks -- if I want depression I can just read the news). It's also the third book in a trilogy, which I didn't know until I started reading, but its story stands alone pretty well, I think. I'll pick up the first two once I'm done with this one. Anyway, it's about a renegade FBI agent tracking a pervert who tortures and kills young girls on camera and sells the feeds to anyone willing to pay big bucks. I really hope it's a made-up premise, because I don't like to think such sickos might really exist. My view of human nature is dark enough already.
