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The Foreigner
Meg Castaldo Book Review

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Plot Summary of The Foreigner
"

Pocket, Jun 2001, 12.95, 227 pp.
ISBN: 0743412648

    At twenty-eight, Alex Orlando feels she is living proof of inertia, as she seems to be in a state of perpetual rest. Following college, a series of depressing jobs and Europe, Alex feels parental pressure in Sacramento to get on with her life. She escapes when her Uncle Anthony Carmine Orlando asks her to house sit his Manhattan apartment while he does his annual pilgrimage to his Holy Land, Puerto Rico.

    Uncle Carmi warns his niece that being a foreigner on this crazy island is dangerous and gives her a list of taboos that the natives know to avoid. Priority one is to avoid the neighbor, Christian THE FOREIGNER. Within seventy-two hours, Alex has checked off everything on Carmi's list having been there and done it, but that has led her to her new excitement, as an amateur sleuth trying to solve the murder of THE FOREIGNER next door.

    This novel is a wild ride around Manhattan that will please the audience with its hip ironic look at “natives and foreigners”. The humorous story line focuses on the antics of Alex, a disenchanted youth, but is fun because the key players seem genuine. Everyone has a relative who has warned him or her in a Reefer Madness type of way. Everyone also learned quickly to use that relative's “list” as a fun guide. That is the premise behind the Carmi-Alex relationship that propels the California foreigner to step into one incident after another until the heroine plunges deep into a who-done-it. This fabulous mystery debut requires Meg Castaldo to provide more novels like this New York tale.

Harriet Klausner
"

Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of The Foreigner
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
How difficult to spot villain? - Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story: - 1980's-1999
Spying/Terrorism Thriller Yes
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 40%
Kind of investigator - amateur citizen investigator
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes
General Crime (including known murderer) Yes
Who's the criminal enemy here? - finding a known killer

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - unemployed
Age: - 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How much violence does he/she use? - none
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - business executive
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist - revenge
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
How many deaths? - 1
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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