Abu-Jaber, who dealt with Arab-American themes in her earlier novels, Crescentand Arabian Jazz, shows her versatility in this gripping contemporary thriller. A spike in the number of local SIDS deaths piques the interest of Lena Dawson, a fingerprint specialist at a Syracuse, N.Y., forensics lab. Is it a statistical fluke or is there a killer at work? Determined to account for the dead infants, Lena joins the investigation, which stirs tantalizing memories from her dimly recollected early childhood. Despite her fragile mental state, Lena proves capable of surprising resolve. Her relationship with her protective ex-husband, her budding romance with a detective and her quest for her own lost past add psychological depth. Abu-Jaber's lovely nuanced prose conveys the chill of an upstate New York winter as well as it does Lena's drab existence before she was drawn into the mystery of the crib deaths. This enthralling puzzle will appeal to both crime fans and readers of literary fiction. 9-city author tour. (June)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
Origin
Narrated by Elisabeth S. Rogers
Diana Abu-JaberUnabridged — 14 hours, 34 minutes
Origin
Narrated by Elisabeth S. Rogers
Diana Abu-JaberUnabridged — 14 hours, 34 minutes
Overview
Lena is a fingerprint expert at a crime lab in the small city of Syracuse, New York, where winters are cold and deep. Suddenly, a series of crib deaths-indistinguishable from SIDS except for the fevered testimony of one distraught mother with connections in high places-draws the attention of the police and the national media and raises the possibility of the inconceivable: could there be a serial infant murderer on the loose?
Orphaned as a child, out of place as an adult, gifted with delicate and terrifying powers of intuition, Lena finds herself playing a critical role in the case. But then there is the mystery of her own childhood to solve. Could the improbable deaths of a half-dozen babies be somehow connected to her own improbable survival?
Editorial Reviews
What appears to be a series of crib deaths might actually be murder. From the author of Crescent; with a nine-city tour. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
Adult/High School
A baby is found dead in its crib. The police call it sudden infant death syndrome, but the distraught mother is convinced that it is murder. Lena, a fingerprint specialist known for solving a puzzling child-murder case a few years earlier, is drawn into the investigation. Her almost uncanny intuition-and the deaths of several more babies in short order-sends her searching for a killer. Lena has distanced herself from people, choosing to live in a sparse, cold apartment after separating from her philandering, controlling husband. In fact, life-threatening cold permeates this chilling tale, a metaphor for many elements of the eerie mystery, including Lena's childhood. She has strange, fractured memories of the time before she was three when she moved in with foster parents. As the investigation progresses, there is a sense of urgency to catch the killer as it becomes apparent that Lena's life is in danger, and that her mysterious childhood is somehow connected to the infant's. She is helped and protected by a young detective with his own past. As the weather thaws, Lena also begins to warm to the people around her as she learns the deep, dark secret of her origin. Teens fascinated by CSI will find this haunting mystery gripping, all the way to its surprising conclusion.
—Ellen BellCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
A moody thriller from Arab-American Abu-Jaber (The Language of Baklava, 2005, etc.) that transposes the author's usual questions of identity onto a young lab tech who believes she was raised by apes. Life is grim for Lena Dawson, a fingerprint examiner for the Syracuse police. Uncertain about her own origins, or her sanity, the delicately pretty technician has carved out a spare existence for herself since her philandering husband, Charlie, left, and has also lived down the brief flare of fame that followed her uncovering of crucial evidence in the murder of a child. Still, she knows her grasp on reality is tenuous, and she's content to live now primarily for her work. Her fragile solitude is disrupted when a grieving woman, unconvinced that SIDS was the cause of her baby's death, seeks her help. Lena's own acute senses tell her that something is amiss when other babies turn up dead. She's soon interacting more than she'd like with the desperate mother, her own brittle foster parents and a wounded detective named Keller, who sparks rough jealousy in her ex. Lena's sanity is challenged when she starts to think she's being stalked by the killer. But Abu-Jaber transcends formula, weaving the whodunit in prose as evocative as poetry. In winter-gray Syracuse, Lena's senses are heightened. Haunted, moving crime fiction.
"A dark, noirish literary mystery with an entirely unique detective-heroine. The characters stayed with me long after I had finished the book. I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything like it, which alone is reason to celebrate."
"From the outset, Origin makes you want to know how it all ends—and begins…Abu-Jaber certainly has her finger on the pulse of what makes a memorable thriller: smart, spare writing, strong character development and nail-nibbling suspense. Setting the story during a long, dark upstate New York winter amplifies the foreboding, elegiac tone."
"Abu-Jaber is a gifted and graceful writer, deft at evoking a scene and creating pace that almost turns the pages itself…This novel’s characters are complex and vividly drawn."
"Beautiful prose makes this one special."
"A mystery of cold beauty and dark isolation, written with crystalline precision…haunting and compelling…It’s a little film noir, a bit independent-woman-detective thriller, and winningly fresh in its approach."
"[A] gripping mystery."
"Origin is a haunting story, icy cold in its upstate New York setting but glowing with the unusual brightness of its heroine…What propels Lena’s story is the delicate, balanced, engrossing way Abu-Jaber perfectly intertwines Lena’s personal story with that of the case she’s investigating and sets both threads in a Syracuse so vivid you envision it without even trying."
"Riveting…Heartbreaking questions—of mothers and daughters, and of love withheld and given—lie at the heart of this thoughtful, multilayered novel."
"With prose as cool as a razor yet as wildly impressionistic as a fever dream, Diana Abu-Jaber takes us deeply into Lena Dawson and her search for a killer that must first begin in the lost forest of her own psyche. Origin is a gripping exploration of the elusive nature of identity and one’s own remembered past, the innocent and guilty alike. This is a superbly written and utterly compelling novel."
This impressive audiobook grabs listeners from the opening scene and never loosens its grip. Elisabeth Rogers's confident voice takes charge and allows for complete immersion in the plot and the lives of the characters. Protagonist Lena works in a crime lab and offers far more than insight into fingerprints—her intuition about the cases she encounters adds another dimension to the story entirely. Rogers provides reasonable renditions of a variety of characters and takes care not to step on the action with an overbearing performance. Listeners intrigued by both the mystery and the forensic details of crime novels will be riveted by this well-produced audiobook. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169690590 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 07/01/2011 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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