Thursday, July 12, 2007

A Nail Through The Heart By Timothy Hallinan

Poke Rafferty is trying to start a new life for himself. He has fallen in love with Rose as well as a girl from the street named Miaow. Miaow has a friend who goes by the name Superman and Poke wants to help him as well. It all seems to go awry when he is contacted by Clarissa Ulrich to find her uncle Claus. Because another woman wants to find the man who is haunting her life and things can’t seem to get better even though Poke is trying to adopt Miaow. He has way too much going on that he has a difficult time handling it all. He needs to step back and look at the big picture in order to tackle anything.

Mr. Hallinan is an expressive man who knows how to get you to feel. Some of the things are horrifying to believe that it really happened. Now mind you it gets graphic but sometimes too much even for me. He did really well with such a delicate topic with pornography and children. It is not a subject that is easy to take by any means. Yet you are left to wonder who really are the criminals and who are the good guys.

Poke Rafferty is still learning to get use to where he is at. Rose is trying to get him to understand that life is not as simple as he would like it to be. The whole goal is to build a family but there are a lot of secrets and trust is not shared. Poke has to truly figure out what is important before he loses the one thing he wants to attain for his life. Miaow is a trusting girl who has been through a lot of hardships but finds solace in Poke and Rose. Superman is there too but he is a child formed by hardships even worse than what Miaow even can being to understand. It’s a struggle to get through the past but it will only be good for all involved.

This is one emotional book to be read in short amounts. Once you find out what is really going on, it will break your heart. It will also open your eyes to keep a tight rein on your children for as long as you can to keep them safe from this stuff. It is only cruelty that is expressed in a harmful way and Poke does his best to find how to gain trust in the people close to him. It is a hard lesson learned by all and detrimental if it is not learned. I found this book compelling and informative. Though a bit too descriptive, if it had gone any lighter it would not have had an impact on me at all. Please pick it up and give it a try. You will not regret it.

328 pages/ New Author/Fiction/ 4 out of 5

I finished this last night and was too tired to post. :) I finished Bungalow 2 by Danielle Steel and found I rather liked it. :) Now off to read Journey to Forever by Carol Steward. :) Have a good day!