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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... West Salem Branch Library | LP MYSTERY De Jonge, P. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"A killer of a thriller with a wonderfully human, perfectly rendered heroine at its center....A terrific read."
--Dennis Lehane, author of Shutter Island and The Given Day
"First-rate crime fiction."
--Washington Post (a Best Book of the Year)
The raves keep pouring in for #1 New York Times bestselling author Peter De Jong's Shadows Still Remain. James Patterson calls it, "An absolute knockout and a half," and praises De Jong's fascinating, endearing, but seriously flawed heroine, NYPD Detective Darlene O'Hara, as, "One of the freshest, hippest detective creations in many a year." Every fan of serious crime fiction will agree that this author is a major find.
Author Notes
Peter de Jonge lives in New York.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
De Jonge, a James Patterson coauthor (Beach Road), delivers his first solo effort, a routine crime thriller set in New York City. NYPD Det. Darlene O'Hara, "beautiful and thirty-four, with wavy red hair and the kind of freckles men try to lick off shoulders," is looking for missing NYU student Francesca Pena, "a very pretty teenage girl with long jet-black hair and bottomless brown eyes," when she learns that Pena's brutally beaten body has been found in East River Park. While her professional colleagues soon focus on David McLain, Pena's hometown friend who initially reported her missing, O'Hara doubts McLain is guilty. As the evidence against McLain mounts, she persists in her search for the real killer, a quest that leads her to cross lines, risk her job and become a wanted person herself. Predictably, O'Hara's digging reveals Pena had a secret life. Few readers will be surprised that the detective manages to crack the case in the nick of time. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
In his first solo effort, James Patterson co-author de Jonge (Beach Road, 2006, etc.) introduces NYPD Det. Darlene O'Hara, charged with solving a grisly murder that's getting scads of publicity. The Monday after Thanksgiving, the mutilated body of Francesca Pena is discovered in lower Manhattan. An autopsy reveals she was horribly tortured before her death, and the newspapers are all over this grim story. The victim was a golden girl from an unsavory, unpromising urban environment, a high-school track star who got a full ride to NYU and was being touted as a future Rhodes Scholar. The case falls to O'Hara, a no-nonsense woman who also surmounted a tough past. The 34-year-old detective has an 18-year-old son and a hard-earned GED; she's street smart, tenacious and psychologically shrewd. The main suspect is Pena's erstwhile boyfriend, David McLain, who still pined for her even after she dumped him. Patrick Lawry, a corpulent master detective with plenty of experience in homicide, is ready to haul in McLain and add another award to his stellar rsum, but O'Hara's not so sure. It turns out Pena was not as golden as she led the world to believe. She worked for a seedy escort service and a strip club. She may have been the lover of NYU's assistant provost for admissions. Even her community service, tutoring the pubescent daughters of a now-clean crack addict, wasn't quite what it seemed. O'Hara has tracked down the design of a tattoo the killer carved into Pena's lower back, and one of the girls has the same tattoo; their mother is not forthcoming with a plausible explanation. While "all she has to generate new leads is her memory, a six-pack, [and] the rapidly diminishing effects oftwo large coffees," O'Hara finds this is enoughalthough she gets in deep trouble with publicity hound Lawry. An abhorrent crime, a slimy perp and a noirish prose styleall good but all derivative. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After coauthoring three books with James Patterson, De Jonge attempts a solo effort in this gritty look at New York City from the perspective of a female detective, Darlene O'Hara, in the year 2005. A young woman disappears in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving; at first, it appears that her ex-boyfriend killed her in a jealous rage. As O'Hara investigates, however, she encounters roadblocks and is finally removed from the case, prompting her to carry on without formal authority. The curious placing of the action in the recent past confuses matters, and the twists and turns in the plot are obvious. Readers may remember O'Hara, who is a promising lead character, but they will forget the rest.--Ayers, Jeff Copyright 2009 Booklist
Library Journal Review
The first solo effort by James Patterson's coauthor (Beach Road) delivers enough twists and turns for any thriller reader. New York detective Darlene O'Hara shares her hard-drinking ways and renegade streak with many a fictional cop, but there are some things that set her apart. She has yet to make it to Homicide, so she's forced to investigate the murder of Francesca Pena, a 19-year-old NYU student, off the clock and under the radar. Once a teenage mother, O'Hara feels a connection to both Francesca, who survived a troubled childhood, and suspect David McClain, Pena's erstwhile beau. David reminds her too much of her own son for her to believe him capable of the rape, torture, and murder. Instead, she worries at each scrap of evidence until it leads her further. O'Hara comes to some disturbing conclusions, but even after she and her partner make their arrests some questions remain. De Jonge conveys enough texture that it isn't hard to imagine this on the big screen. Here's hoping that we see O'Hara again.-Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Lib., Wisconsin Rapids (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.