Ian Bone trained and worked for many years as a television scriptwriter. In 1993 he left his TV career behind to try his hand at writing books. He has won many awards in Australia, and this is his first novel to be published in Britain. He lives in Adelaide.
Gr 10 Up-Freda, 19, was held hostage ten years ago during a gunman's siege of a restaurant in this psychological novel by Ian Bone (Dutton, 2004). When Freda agrees to be interviewed about the incident, the reporter stirs up memories that she had long suppressed. The story is told in alternating sections and from different points of view: Freda today, Freda at the time of the siege, the gunman, and sections titled "Napkin" that were written by another hostage. The tangled plot and multiple viewpoints as well as the shift back and forth between first and third person make for a confusing, yet compelling listen. The story spirals more and more out of control during Freda's meeting with the reporter. Who is the reporter and how does he know so much about the incident? What is on the napkins? What exactly happened during the siege? Caroline Lee reads with pitch perfect emotion as she captures the young Freda's precarious situation and feelings, as well as the teen's apathy that slowly turns to growing rage. Lee's rendition of gunman John Wayne O'Grady's increasingly unstable behavior is also spot on. Teens who like slowly paced, complicated, involved plots will probably enjoy this novel.-Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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