Helpful Score: 1
From Booklist
Schmidt can tell a good story and has a firm grasp of the suspense and violence that sometimes run away with less well plotted mysteries. Here, Laney Samms reprises from Silverlake Heat her role as reluctant sleuth. Thrown into the quest for a reappearing "ghost" rapist who stalks an aging 1960s rock star and dipsomaniac, Samms, an ex-overdrinker herself, finds her own life in jeopardy. Racing against time before a bottle of sweet cherry wine (which always shows up mysteriously to launch another binge) signals a final confrontation between the fallen star and her hunter, Samms leads the singer back to her childhood home and the secrets and hidden trauma she has clouded (with drink) in her memory. A fast-paced, scorching, grisly denouement doesn't disappoint, and a coda, so to speak, comments on life in the information age, in which today's tragedy is tomorrow's made-for-TV movie and truth gets lost in the shuffle for glamour. A good read.
Schmidt can tell a good story and has a firm grasp of the suspense and violence that sometimes run away with less well plotted mysteries. Here, Laney Samms reprises from Silverlake Heat her role as reluctant sleuth. Thrown into the quest for a reappearing "ghost" rapist who stalks an aging 1960s rock star and dipsomaniac, Samms, an ex-overdrinker herself, finds her own life in jeopardy. Racing against time before a bottle of sweet cherry wine (which always shows up mysteriously to launch another binge) signals a final confrontation between the fallen star and her hunter, Samms leads the singer back to her childhood home and the secrets and hidden trauma she has clouded (with drink) in her memory. A fast-paced, scorching, grisly denouement doesn't disappoint, and a coda, so to speak, comments on life in the information age, in which today's tragedy is tomorrow's made-for-TV movie and truth gets lost in the shuffle for glamour. A good read.
