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sandin954's review against another edition
3.0
Published back in the early nineties, this is a reliably good PI series set in Cincinnati. Harry Stoner specializes in cases that feature very dysfunctional families and this entry, while dark, was well written with an engaging plot. Listened to the audio version which was narrated by Mark Peckham who did a fine job.
audreyintheheadphones's review
4.0
A dark and sticky little Cincinnati noir for Christmas.
I love Cincinnati, and Jonathan Valin writes the best Cincinnati, focused as he is on describing the buildings--
Valin also writes a darn good gumshoe: Harry Stoner. Stoner's dogged and dour and women are his weak spot, just like most of the PI's in the genre. But what Stoner also is, is a little bit stupid. He makes bad decisions and fails to learn from them, and then he makes more bad decisions. He has brief moments of clarity where he can recognize he's gone wrong, but he at no point even tries to understand why, so focused as he is on the who. And that makes him intensely readable.
A wonderfully twisted story that hums like a dirty neon sign, reading, "Home for the holidays."
tw:sexual assault, mental illness, child abuse.
I love Cincinnati, and Jonathan Valin writes the best Cincinnati, focused as he is on describing the buildings--
"A Prairie-style bungalow, L-shaped, parasol-roofed with dark, glistening curls of frozen ivy climbing its board-and-stone walls"and the neighborhoods--
I could smell Carthage as soon as I got to North Bend Road. The juniper scent of gin, the cooked fruit smell of brandy. The huge brick smokestacks of National Distillers, on the south side of Carthage, left liquor on its breath every afternoon.in entrancing detail.
Valin also writes a darn good gumshoe: Harry Stoner. Stoner's dogged and dour and women are his weak spot, just like most of the PI's in the genre. But what Stoner also is, is a little bit stupid. He makes bad decisions and fails to learn from them, and then he makes more bad decisions. He has brief moments of clarity where he can recognize he's gone wrong, but he at no point even tries to understand why, so focused as he is on the who. And that makes him intensely readable.
A wonderfully twisted story that hums like a dirty neon sign, reading, "Home for the holidays."
tw:
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