Publisher: Ballantine
Books
Publication Date: February 26, 2013
Publication Date: February 26, 2013
Review: The sanctity of a local Buffalo, NY church is forever compromised when
the maimed corpse of Jimmy Ryan is discovered in the basement. Tied to a chair,
eyelids cut off as if he were made to look at something, the sight of Ryan's
body sends a shock through the town. Author Stephan Talty describes the
southern part of Buffalo, the County, as having a "small-town
feeling". Its best days behind it, the County is a place where news
travels fast and nothing stays secret for long.
Enter Absolam "Abbie" Kearny. Despite
growing up in the County, she has always been a kind of outsider. Adopted at a
young age by John Kearny, a local police legend, she has now returned to follow
in her father's infamous footsteps. Tasked with the Ryan case, she is quickly
met with resistance from the local townspeople and police.
The County is mostly made up of Irish
immigrants. As Abbie digs deeper into the murder, connections, both historical
and personal, begin to reveal themselves. As further murders occur, Abbie
struggles to stay ahead of the killer. The Buffalo police run an investigation
parallel to hers, and Abbie soon finds herself a suspect in the case. As the
tension rises Abbie is forced to question her sanity and family history, all
culminating in a shocking twist that is sure to leave readers riveted.
With his debut work of fiction, Stephan Talty
instantly places himself among the great modern thriller authors such as Dennis
Lehane and Tana French. Like Lehane and French, Talty manages to maintain
exceptional characters, setting and suspense without ever sacrificing the
integrity of his writing. This novel could have easily become a standard
thriller, but Talty daftly takes his time to build each character, allowing the
suspense to stay at a constant boil. In Abbie, Talty has imagined a believable
protagonist, whose flaws and vulnerability allows readers to connect with her
emotions and desire to succeed. I was hooked on this novel from beginning to
end. Fascinated by the serial killer who tells, "his autobiography through
corpses", I was shocked at the final turn that the events took. This
exceptional novel has everything thriller fans have come to expect and gives
them more than they could ever have hoped for.
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