Publishers Weekly
11/11/2013
Set in 1998, this prequel to 2009’s Bad Things Happen puts Dolan’s gifts as a storyteller on full display. Series hero David Malone (who later becomes David Loogan) finds himself sitting in the Rome, N.Y., police station, the prime suspect in the investigation into the murder of Jana Fletcher, with whom he recently began an affair. David soon learns that Jana was involved with the Innocence Project, an organization committed to freeing the wrongly accused. Believing Jana’s murder to have some connection with her investigation of Gary Dean Pruett, a man convicted of killing his wife, David searches out those involved in the Pruett case for answers. Throughout David is secretly followed by K, an elusive, homicidal deviant who wants to stop David from discovering the truth. That K doesn’t just kill David right off doesn’t really make sense—after all, he has few qualms about murder—but if you can look past this detail, you’re in for a suspenseful ride. Agent: Victoria Skurnik, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
Praise for the novels of Harry Dolan
“Harry Dolan knows how to write a book that grabs you.” —The Arizona Republic
“A neat technical achievement [and] a nuanced piece of fiction.” —Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
“A riveting crime novel…Relentless pacing, a wry sense of humor, and an engaging protagonist add up to another winner for Dolan.” —Publishers Weekly
“The rare crime novel with something for everyone who reads crime fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Unless you’re clairvoyant, you will be blindsided at least four times in this slowly unraveling story of an oddly normal, single-minded killer… Simply great storytelling.” —San Antonio Express-News
From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY
"Dolan's seemingly effortless prose sets off dialogue that surprises and delights, and his intricate plot is simply dazzling: a twisting, shifting labyrinth of events, characters, and motivations . . . every bit as good—if not better—than the first." —Booklist
The Washington Post
Dolan has a talent for ingenious, serpentine plots...Dolan is an inventive, offbeat writer who manages to provide an entertaining mystery...His David Malone novels deserve the praise they've received. Most likely, we'll keep learning more about the trouble-prone Mr. Malone for years to come."
The Wall Street Journal - Tom Nolan
"Absorbing, exciting...fast and unpredictable...Mr. Dolan's characters are human enough to catch you off-guard, and he makes the actions of even the creepiest ones believable.
Kirkus Reviews
2013-12-21
Stung by discovering his fiancee's infidelity, an upstate real estate inspector walks out on her and into a relationship with a local law student--a relationship that turns even more intense with the student's murder. As he tells Detective Frank Moretti, David Malone knew Jana Fletcher for 10 days before her death. And as Moretti tells him, they'd been lovers for 10 days as well, and there's no suspect more obvious when David finds Jana strangled to death. Except for discovering her body, he insists he had nothing to do with her murder; more likely she was killed by whoever dropped the Popsicle stick in the woods nearby. Thanks to a series of cutaways to the perp's viewpoint, the reader doesn't have to take David's word for it. The killer, identified only as K, is indeed the man who's been watching Jana from the woods, warming up for her murder by snuffing Jolene Halliwell, a hooker who attached herself to him a little too insistently. In fact, as Moretti's compulsive investigation gradually reveals, Jana's death is only the latest in a string of violence that extends back two years--a saga that melds seduction, prostitution, drug dealing and kidnapping into an unholy mess swirling around unlovely high school teacher Gary Dean Pruett, whom Jana was determined to free from prison since she was convinced that he hadn't killed his wife, Cathy, even though he'd clearly been cheating on her with his (barely) former student Angela Reese. Nor has Jana's death brought this murderous string to an end. As in his first two thrillers (Very Bad Men, 2011, etc.), Dolan plays out the complications with a spider's patience. This time, however, an unmemorable culprit makes his infernal logic seem just a tad less inevitable, scary and remorseless.
