From Publishers Weekly
Edgar and Anthony award finalist Haddam combines two horror movie cliches the Friends Who Share a Terrible Secret and the Nasty Clique in High School with crisp character development and a roadrunner-swift plot in her latest puzzle (after 2001's True Believers) to feature her Armenian-American sleuth. Liz Tolliver author, CNN panelist, fianc‚e of a rock star returns home to Hollman, Pa., the Velveeta beginnings of her now Brie life. Known as "Betsy Wetsy" back in high school, Liz was the butt of a group of teenaged girls who make Carrie's classmates look like Rosie O'Donnell; they locked her in an outhouse with 22 snakes the same evening another high school senior had his throat slit. The toxic passions surrounding both incidents revive after three decades. Haddam's cutting between the viewpoints of Liz's six female tormentors is at times confusing, and their hatred of Liz can seem over-the-top: after 30 years, they all but spit when they see her. Demarkian takes a long time to enter the plot, but once in Hollman, his skills and celebrity shine light on the town's dark secrets. "Every school class had a target. It was just the way the world worked," one of the cool crowd believes. Demarkian muses: "The `popular' people are `popular' by virtue of being envied and hated by ninety-nine percent of the people they go to school with. Does anybody but me think that's very strange?" Haddam movingly explores what that means for our lives past, present and future and how that happens and why.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
A famous woman writer with a rock-star lover returns to the hometown where as a nerdy teenager she was traumatized by a nearby, still unsolved murder. The rock star asks FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit chief Gregor Demarkian (True Believers) to solve this case and more. Solid. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Dazzlingly ingenious, Jane Haddam's novels provide style, humor, and philosophy blended with gore galore-they're real spellbinders, sparklingly written and smashingly plotted."
--Drood Review
"Crisp character development and a roadrunner-swift plot."
-Publishers Weekly
Review
"Dazzlingly ingenious, Jane Haddam's novels provide style, humor, and philosophy blended with gore galore-they're real spellbinders, sparklingly written and smashingly plotted."
--Drood Review
"Crisp character development and a roadrunner-swift plot."
-Publishers Weekly
Review
"Dazzlingly ingenious, Jane Haddam's novels provide style, humor, and philosophy blended with gore galore-they're real spellbinders, sparklingly written and smashingly plotted."
--Drood Review
"Crisp character development and a roadrunner-swift plot."
-Publishers Weekly
Book Description
Every school class has a target. It was just the way the world worked. A long time ago, in the small town of Hollman, Pennsylvania, it was Liz Toliver, once too smart and too shy for her own good. Today, she's a popular author, and an esteemed CNN panelist engaged to a rock star. She has everything-including nightmares about the dreadful summer night when she was seventeen. It was a practical joke by six female classmates that ended with Liz in a coma, a young boy with his throat slit, and unshakeable memories that she's never forgotten. Or forgiven. Now, thirty years later, she's coming home to visit old haunts, and play catch-up with old friends. The curious homecoming has captured the attention of Gregor Demarkian, retired chief of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit. Doggedly pursuing the truth, he has his own questions about what really happened that night. But as a diabolical chain of events is triggered by Liz's return, no one will be prepared for the answers-or the final outcome...
From the Inside Flap
CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR JANE HADDAM'S
GREGOR DEMARKIAN NOVELS
"A delightful read for lovers of classic crime stories." -Romantic Times on Skeleton Key
"[A] smoothly running mystery marked by lively characters, good descriptions and enough misdirection to keep a reader's interest high." -Publishers Weekly on Skeleton Key
"A sophisticated style, excellent delivery, and riveting plot make this an excellent choice for all collections." -Library Journal on Skeleton Key
"A real winner...Sure to grab readers from the first page...A fine entry in a fine series."
-Booklist on Skeleton Key
"Bound to satisfy any reader who likes multiple murders mixed with miraculous apparitions and a perfectly damnable puzzle."-Chicago Tribune on A Great Day for the Deadly
"A rattling good puzzle, a varied and appealing cast, and a detective whose work carries a rare stamp of authority...This one is a treat." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on Bleeding Hearts
"Not A Creature Stirring will puzzle, perplex, and please the most discriminating reader."
-Murder Ad Lib
"Juicy gossip abounds, tension builds, and all present are suitably suspect as Demarkian expertly wraps up loose ends in this entertaining, satisfying mystery." -Publishers Weekly on Act of Darkness
"An absorbing, good-humored tale complete with vivid characters, multiple murders, and a couple of juicy subplots." -Orlando Sentinel on Bleeding Hearts
"Haddam's usual deft writing, skillful plotting, and gentle humor...Refreshing and entertaining." -Booklist on Bleeding Hearts
"Go ahead, have this one wrapped and waiting with your name on it."-Detroit Free Press on A Stillness in Bethlehem
"Haddam is a fine and compassionate writer, and Demarkian, the retired chief of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit who now solves crimes in his spare time, is one of the more interesting series leads in the mystery marketplace. It's a pleasure to find a solid mystery combined with engaging discussions of issues outside the genre. A guaranteed winner."--Booklist on True Believers
"Haddam's large cast pulses with petty jealousies, vanities and fears as they confront the mysteries of life and religion. This is an engrossingly complex mystery that should win further acclaim for its prolific and talented author."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) on True Believers
"Dazzlingly ingenious, Jane Haddam's novels provide style, humor, and philosophy -- they're real spellbinders, sparklingly written and smashingly plotted."-Drood Review
"Haddam plays the mystery game like a master...Bound to satisfy any reader who likes multiple murders mixed with miraculous apparitions and a perfectly damnable puzzle."-Chicago Tribune on A Great Day for the Deadly
"Readers will have lots of fun trying to guess whodunit. A fine entry in a fine series." --Booklist on Skeleton Key
From the Back Cover
"Dazzlingly ingenious, Jane Haddam's novels provide style, humor, and philosophy blended with gore galore-they're real spellbinders, sparklingly written and smashingly plotted."
--Drood Review
Every school class has a target. It was just the way the world worked. A long time ago, in the small town of Hollman, Pennsylvania, it was Liz Toliver, once too smart and too shy for her own good. Today, she's a popular author, and an esteemed CNN panelist engaged to a rock star. She has everything-including nightmares about the dreadful summer night when she was seventeen. It was a practical joke by six female classmates that ended with Liz in a coma, a young boy with his throat slit, and unshakeable memories that she's never forgotten. Or forgiven. Now, thirty years later, she's coming home to visit old haunts, and play catch-up with old friends. The curious homecoming has captured the attention of Gregor Demarkian, retired chief of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit. Doggedly pursuing the truth, he has his own questions about what really happened that night. But as a diabolical chain of events is triggered by Liz's return, no one will be prepared for the answers-or the final outcome...
"Crisp character development and a roadrunner-swift plot."
-Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Jane Haddam is the author of numerous articles and books, including eighteen previous mysteries featuring Gregor Demarkian. Her books have been finalists for both the Edgar and the Anthony awards. She lives with her two sons in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
Somebody Else's Music FROM THE PUBLISHER
Elizabeth Toliver, now an acclaimed author with a rock star lover, was a too-smart fashion-impaired teen who was the target of abuse from a circle of popular high school girls. The abuse escalated until one summer night when she was nailed inside an outhouse with over twenty snakes within, and while she beat herself into a coma trying to escape, a local teenage boy was murdered just outside. Still haunted by nightmares of that night, Toliver returns to her hometown for the first time in almost thirty years, triggering a deadly chain of events.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Edgar and Anthony award finalist Haddam combines two horror movie clich s the Friends Who Share a Terrible Secret and the Nasty Clique in High School with crisp character development and a roadrunner-swift plot in her latest puzzle (after 2001's True Believers) to feature her Armenian-American sleuth. Liz Tolliver author, CNN panelist, fianc e of a rock star returns home to Hollman, Pa., the Velveeta beginnings of her now Brie life. Known as "Betsy Wetsy" back in high school, Liz was the butt of a group of teenaged girls who make Carrie's classmates look like Rosie O'Donnell; they locked her in an outhouse with 22 snakes the same evening another high school senior had his throat slit. The toxic passions surrounding both incidents revive after three decades. Haddam's cutting between the viewpoints of Liz's six female tormentors is at times confusing, and their hatred of Liz can seem over-the-top: after 30 years, they all but spit when they see her. Demarkian takes a long time to enter the plot, but once in Hollman, his skills and celebrity shine light on the town's dark secrets. "Every school class had a target. It was just the way the world worked," one of the cool crowd believes. Demarkian muses: "The `popular' people are `popular' by virtue of being envied and hated by ninety-nine percent of the people they go to school with. Does anybody but me think that's very strange?" Haddam movingly explores what that means for our lives past, present and future and how that happens and why. Regional author tour. Agent, Don Maass. (June 17) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
A famous woman writer with a rock-star lover returns to the hometown where as a nerdy teenager she was traumatized by a nearby, still unsolved murder. The rock star asks FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit chief Gregor Demarkian (True Believers) to solve this case and more. Solid. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Although now a famous author of penetrating nonfiction books and a frequent guest on CNN, Nightline, and PBS news shows, Elizabeth Toliver cannot forget the torment of her early school years in teensy Hallman, Pennsylvania, where Belinda, Maris, Emma, Chris, Peggy, and Nancy routinely poked fun of her as "Betsy Wetsy"—and once cruelly locked her in the park outhouse along with 22 snakes and nailed it shut just before some unidentified joker outside was slitting do-gooder lifeguard Michael Houseman's throat. When Liz plans to return to Hallman to tend to the mother who also verbally abused her, both her son and her lover, rock star Jimmy Card, beg her not to, and Jimmy hires Gregor Demarkian, the Armenian-American Poirot, to shield her from trouble—which lately has been stirred up by Maris, who's been whispering to the tabloids that Liz was responsible for Michael's death. Liz has barely hit town when there's a new murder, an evisceration, and another round of jibes from her discontented former tormentors. Still another will die before Gregor, wilting from the heat and stifling from the small-town insularity, solves murders past and present and can return to his big-city home with his beloved Bennis. Haddam (True Believers) flails away at assorted targets with the agility of Lizzie Borden wielding her axe. If her resolution is not quite equal to her lengthy set-up, there are enough trenchant nuggets along the way to entertain most readers.
Art & Photography
Book Info
