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AT LEAST MAKE THEM BELIEVABLE
I've read numerous books lately where there just doesn't seem to be any editing happening. No matter the illustrious past works of an author, someone should view these unnecessarily long-winded books before they reach the public. Or maybe they figure we want our money's worth, so they'll just leave in all those extraneous words.
The story could have been more suspenseful. It just dragged on and on. The main character Alice was the most changeable I've encountered in memory. I never could get a fix on her. One minute she was docile and wimpy, the next assertive and bitchy. Finding your murdered friends might well disconcert a person, but, come on, would their basic nature change every few paragraphs? Life's just too short to spend reading a 300+ page novel when I've seen better made-for-TV movies on Lifetime.

The back cover description was better than the book.

They were six friends from the Midwest who moved to New York City iwth the high hopes of making a big-time splash in the music industry. Though the dream faded, the bonds between this tight-knit group did not. Or so it seemed. For one brilliantly sunny day, Alice Ellis discovers the grisly murders of two of the group, shot dead in the apartment for which any number of friends, acquaintances, and strangers had an extra set of keys.

Great book...I look forward to reading other books by this author!

A suspenseful story about the emotional aftermath of a double murder. Written by a Pulitzer Prize winning author, this first-rate cliffhanger will keep you guessing!

Manhattan and the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens are unusual settings for Smiley, but still the characters are all Midwesterners. Murder, the music businesss, are also new, but still there is that talent for drawing real characters. A whodinit with a difference.

Unlike other Smiley books, this one is set in an urban setting and is more of a cliffhanger type. Her skill at creating complex characters makes this book a good read, but not nearly as good as 1000 ACRES which was a great book.

FROM THE PUBLISHER
Alice Ellis is a Midwestern refugee living in Manhattan. Still recovering from a painful divorce, she depends on the companionship and camaraderie of a tightly knit circle of friends. At the center of this circle is a rock band struggling to navigate New York's erratic music scene, and an apartment/practice space with approximately fifty key-holders. One sunny day, Alice enters the apartment and finds two of the band members shot dead. As the double-murder sends waves of shock through their lives, this group of friends begins to unravel, and dangerous secrets are revealed one by one. When Alice begins to notice things amiss in her own apartment, the tension breaks out as it occurs to her that she is not the only person with a key, and she may not get a chance to change the locks.