From Publishers Weekly
A fatal hunting accident propels this disappointing debut set in Detroit and environs from Leonard, the son of legendary crime writer Elmore Leonard. Given that 16-year-old Luke McCall shoots an arrow that passes through a deer and kills his former race-car champion father, Owen, one might expect more focus on Luke's psychological torment than on the efforts of Owen's devastated widow, Kate, to contend with a string of unscrupulous suitors, starting with her old lover, Jack Curran, who once rescued Kate from a Peace Corps assignment in Guatemala turned ugly. Curran conceals not only his recent prison stint but also his continued association with a group of desperate and sadistic criminals, including Teddy Hicks, who assaulted Owen several years earlier. A kidnapping engineered by Hicks and company leads to a violent showdown at the McCalls' hunting lodge. A muddled plot, one-dimensional characters and a predictable ending will leave readers hoping for better things in Leonard's next novel.
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From AudioFile
Peter Leonard's debut novel is a rich palette of everything dark and ominous that exists in crime fiction. Jack is an ex-con who's got a serious problem. Now that he's out of jail, his former partners in crime want their share of the heist money. The trouble is--he lost it. Leonard's well-crafted prose is perfectly realized by narrator Scott Sowers, whose voice seems designed for this chilling story. Sowers reads with passion and a thorough understanding of this crime caper, relating the story in a natural yet understated performance. Leonard's characters are real and believable, and Sowers never fails to bring them to life with a flair for honesty in his delivery. This memorable listening experience just might have listeners coming back to the story again and again, each time experiencing it on a new level. L.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to the
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edition.
