- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (April 15 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312375891
- ISBN-13: 978-0312375898
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14.2 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 272 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,346,016 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
An intriguing setting and well-developed characters partially redeem the weak story line of psychotherapist Zelvin's debut. Bruce Kohler wakes up one December morning in a Bowery detox unit on Manhattan's Bowery. Bruce soon establishes a shaky friendship with fellow inmate Godfrey Brandon Kettleworth III, who introduces himself as God then adds Alcoholic. When Godfrey turns up dead, Bruce's two best friends—his former drinking buddy, Jimmy, and Jimmy's girlfriend, Barbara—encourage him to investigate the murder, not because he has any skills in that area but because they think it will distract him from drinking. The amateur sleuthing, which starts on this thin footing, turns silly; the three almost treat it like a game. In the final chapters, people are being murdered right and left and suspects pop up like gophers, all presented without drama or passion. Deft prose can't save the muddled plot from sinking into anticlimax. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Description
On Christmas Day, Bruce Kohler wakes up in detox on the Bowery in New York City. He knows it’s time to change his life, but how can he stay sober without dying of boredom?
When homeless alcoholics start to die unexpectedly, Bruce is surprised to find he cares enough to want to find out why. Most of them had been down and out for many years, but Bruce’s friend Guff was different: a cynical aristocrat with a trust fund and some secrets.
Two old friends give Bruce a second chance and agree to help him with his investigation: his best friend, Jimmy, a computer genius and history buff who’s been in AA for years, and Jimmy’s girlfriend Barbara, a counselor who sometimes crosses the line between helping and codependency.
Barbara works a night shift at the detox and confronts a counselor who might still be dealing drugs. Bruce gets a job temping for Guff’s arrogant nephew. Between the three of them, suspects start piling up. The trail leads back to the detox. Or does it?
In Death Will Get You Sober, Bruce discovers that the church basements of AA are a small world in the big city of New York. As he grapples with staying sober, he finds that not drinking is only the beginning of coming back to life---a life he finds he wants to keep when it’s threatened by a killer.
Debut author Elizabeth Zelvin has used her expertise as an addiction councilor to pen a riveting mystery filled with memorable, realistic characters who are as flawed as they are heroic.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sleuths will get you chuckling, April 24 2008
By Jaxedit - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Death Will Get You Sober (Hardcover)
Twelve-step wisdom keeps amateur sleuths on track as they investigate a string of murders. Recovering alcoholic Bruce and his best friends, computer geek Jimmy and his therapist wife Barbara, have a complex relationship in which love is thicker than blood and in which you may well recognize somebody you know. This page-turner is fun to read, spot-on in its portrayal of New York neurotics, and garnished with a twist. An auspicious debut for Elizabeth Zelvin.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Murder will cure boredom?, Aug 12 2008
By terribell - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Death Will Get You Sober (Hardcover)
This book has a beginning that will pull you in. The premise, a story being told by an alcholic who may or may not want to get sober, is a good one. The murder of the first couple homeless men almost go unnoticed. It isn't until Bruce's friend gets murdered that he gets interested, and then only because he believes that investigating a murder will keep him from getting bored, and thus, keep him sober.
The author has first hand knowledge regarding alcholism and enablers from her work and lectures. However, she needs to do a little more research on places other than New York. My mouth fell open when Bruce tried to get one of "two hundred" flights a day from New York to Dayton, Oh. And when he walks down a street that reminds him of cornfields. And, especially, when he said Dayton was a place with no water. A little research could have told the true story. Dayton has slightly more than 500 flights per WEEK, our streets are not at all flat and open. The no water was especially good, when we have 5 rivers that come together in the center of town. There is so much water that the city formed a special district and built 5 dams in the early 1900's in order not to get flooded again.
I realize that many people will not notice these glaring errors (and I can't pass them off as literary freedom), but we also have many, many readers in Dayton and we will know that the author didn't take a little bit of time to research a city that is clearly beyond her comfort zone. She lost a lot of credibility with me because of this.
Other than that, I thought the book went downhill towards the end. The 3 friends had good interaction, but the murder, and the solving of the murder, just fizzled out.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reviewed for Midwest Book Review, Dec 2 2008
By Christy Tillery French "reviewer/writer" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Death Will Get You Sober (Hardcover)
Bruce Kohler has been in and out of detox centers most of his adult life. On Christmas day, he isn't too surprised to find himself in another center, this one on the Bowery in New York City. Bruce quickly befriends fellow patient Godfrey Kettleworth, III, a man on the outs with his rich family and not too popular with the staff. While in detox, an alcoholic with terminal cancer is found dead in the laundry room and Godfrey dies right before Bruce's eyes. With the help of his lifetime friend Jimmy and Jimmy's girlfriend Barbara, a counselor who has worked at the Bowery before, Bruce begins his own investigation into these two mysterious deaths, which unravels a murderous pattern among detox centers in New York and places his own life in jeopardy.
Zelvin's debut novel provides the reader with an insightful peek into the mind and life of an alcoholic trying to stay sober, as well as AA's 12-step program. The characters are intriguing and well-developed, especially alcoholic Bruce who faces a continual battle to refrain from drinking, and Barbara, a codependent counselor with a witty sense of humor. The plot moves at a fast pace with plenty of twists and turns and suspicious characters lurking about, all set within the glorious backdrop of New York City. This entertaining mystery is sure to draw fans anxious to read future books by this talented author.
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