Cari Mora

By Thomas Harris

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Goodreads Synopsis

“Twenty-five million dollars in cartel gold lies hidden beneath a mansion on the Miami Beach waterfront. Ruthless men have tracked it for years. Leading the pack is Hans-Peter Schneider. Driven by unspeakable appetites, he makes a living fleshing out the violent fantasies of other, richer men.

Cari Mora, caretaker of the house, has escaped from the violence in her native country. She stays in Miami on a wobbly Temporary Protected Status, subject to the iron whim of ICE. She works at many jobs to survive. Beautiful, marked by war, Cari catches the eye of Hans-Peter as he closes in on the treasure. But Cari Mora has surprising skills, and her will to survive has been tested before.

Monsters lurk in the crevices between male desire and female survival.” (Goodreads)

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My Take

Character Connection

When a book title is literally a character’s name… Let’s just say I needed more.  Thomas Harris is the creator of one of the best fictional characters of our time (Hannibal Lecter) – so I came in with HIGH expectations. Cari Mora (the title character) probably had the most development and I enjoyed the flashbacks that occurred throughout the story.  Our “Big Bad” was lacking development – I needed to know why he was the way he was (he is brutal…*cue Backstreet Boys*….TELL ME WHHYYYY). Other characters…well, they were present but usually didn’t live long enough for any sort of connection to be made 😉

Twisty-Turns

Ummmm…it was predictable. While the gruesome killings happened quickly – they weren’t altogether unexpected.  I also felt that there was not enough interaction between Cari Mora and Hans-Peter Schneider (our two main characters) – they interacted with the other 100 characters separately but very rarely together which (if it had happened) would have brought more depth and excitement to the story line.

Psych-Links

This book is certainly a thriller – fast-paced and full of action.  It doesn’t require much deep thinking.  I would have rated psych-links higher if the character connection was more involved.  Action for the sake of action is fine – but again, I think my expectations were at a certain level and this book just couldn’t measure up.

Cine-ability

This story would be extremely easy to bill as the next favorite fast-paced action film.  It’s full of gang violence, buried treasure, and a cast of characters that can’t seem to hold on to their heads.  There were actually several scenes I had to re-read because the character died so quickly and seemingly out of nowhere.  It is much easier to translate that type of killing on screen than on a page (or so I imagine) 🙂 There are SO many characters introduced (and killed) that I’ve focused my casting choices on our main title character, Cari Mora and on our “Big Bad” Hans-Peter Schneider.

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The Merry Murderino’s Overall Rating

Average Goodreads rating is 2.82. Overall, while I enjoy a good thrill-ride as much as the next murderino, I was left wanting more. The writing style was basic and felt over-simplified. There were also parts written in Spanish and German that were left untranslated (for us single-language ‘mericans) – this would be fine but many times I felt like I had to go back once I had context to try to determine the phrasing.  Again, I believe this could translate on-screen better than on a page (because subtitles). Overall, it just felt – ok. Like, if it was a movie I’d see it but I wouldn’t feel like I had to see it in a theater – I’d wait for it to land on one of my streaming services. It’s not that you shouldn’t read it…I would just personally recommend some of Thomas Harris’s other books first!

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