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boleary30's review
5.0
very cool book, well written with the false obit stuff, I gave it an 8 out of 10.
mariannika's review
3.0
My first library NOOK book :-)
A page-turner; it had me up 'til 1:00 am of Friday and Saturday. Finished in a day.
A page-turner; it had me up 'til 1:00 am of Friday and Saturday. Finished in a day.
wordnerdy's review
3.0
A well-known sculptor, still in love with the wife who died 15 years earlier, manages to get a copy of his pre-written obituary and reads that his wife, who he believed worked for a think tank, worked for the UN. As he investigates this bizarre anomaly, he gets in some pretty deep stuff. I actually thought it was going to turn out that he was imagining the whole thing--there are a few red herrings that made me think so, or else I just assumed there was more to the story than this silly mystery/adventure plot. But it's pretty surface-level. The ending was really abrupt and kind of dumb, but it was entertaining enough. Maybe this was more of a beach book. B/B-.
psalmcat's review
5.0
Wow. Great story. Very complicated. Starts at the end and moves backwards and forwards at the same time. I will have to find more by this author.
flogigyahoo's review
5.0
This is the 2nd time I'm reading this book. I must have read it about 10 years ago and realized that except for liking it and looking for all the books by the author, I actually remembered nothing. And I was right because reading it again seemed like a totally new experience. A good, intriguing mystery that starts on a whim when two friends, one a sculptor, checks on his own obituary and finds a mistake. When he tries to get it changed he finds that there are some people who would rather kill than allow that to happen. A real page turner and well written. Highly recommend for those who love a good mystery.
spygrl1's review
3.0
Another enjoyable Abrahams thriller, devoured in a day. It doesn't quite match "Oblivion" and "End of Story," possibly because the spy shenanigans are less plausible (although maybe that's my naivete talking).
Sculptor Roy Valois is a virile 47, still playing hockey with his buddies, skiing and snowshoeing and seriously considering proposing to his 34-year-old girlfriend. But then Roy gets some very bad news--lung cancer, the kind caused by asbestos exposure (the legacy of a long-ago summer job). Roy wonders what his obituary will say, and a friend suggests hacking The New York Times to find out. Roy succumbs to the temptation (and the presence in his life of a loser teen-anger who is adept with computers) and finds an error in his obituary. His wife, Delia, dead now for 15 years, didn't work for the U.N. as the obituary claims; she was an economist with the Hobbes Institute, a private think-tank.
He reports the error to a Times reporter who begins nosing around. And then the reporter dies in what could look like a home burglary.
Between experimental chemo treatments, Roy tenaciously pursues the few clues he can find--the widow of a man who worked with Delia, conversations he and his friends recall with Delia about her job, and the suspicious way someone gained entrance to Roy's home and studio, taking away with them only a worthless sketch ... of the Hobbes Institute building in Washington.
Sure, the resolution seems far-fetched, but the ride is fun while it lasts.
Sculptor Roy Valois is a virile 47, still playing hockey with his buddies, skiing and snowshoeing and seriously considering proposing to his 34-year-old girlfriend. But then Roy gets some very bad news--lung cancer, the kind caused by asbestos exposure (the legacy of a long-ago summer job). Roy wonders what his obituary will say, and a friend suggests hacking The New York Times to find out. Roy succumbs to the temptation (and the presence in his life of a loser teen-anger who is adept with computers) and finds an error in his obituary. His wife, Delia, dead now for 15 years, didn't work for the U.N. as the obituary claims; she was an economist with the Hobbes Institute, a private think-tank.
He reports the error to a Times reporter who begins nosing around. And then the reporter dies in what could look like a home burglary.
Between experimental chemo treatments, Roy tenaciously pursues the few clues he can find--the widow of a man who worked with Delia, conversations he and his friends recall with Delia about her job, and the suspicious way someone gained entrance to Roy's home and studio, taking away with them only a worthless sketch ... of the Hobbes Institute building in Washington.
Sure, the resolution seems far-fetched, but the ride is fun while it lasts.
agmaynard's review
4.0
Audio. Well-narrated. The doctor has given sculptor Roy Valois a terminal diagnosis, as the chickens have come home to roost from unsafe working conditions of his youth. Curious about the pre-written parts of his obit, he gets somebody to hack in and finds what looks like a certain error. His deceased wife is listed as working for an outfit unknown to him. This quickly spirals into suspense, thriller, Hitchcockian country. At the end, he will find some answers, before it's too late. Satisfying solution. Highly recommended.
karend's review
3.0
I strongly disagreed with a decision the protagonist made early on, but aside from that, I really liked this up until the ending, which I found rather abrupt with too many loose ends, but perhaps that was the point.
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