Customer Reviews

Criminal Conversation

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a fantastic book! One thing I've noticed about Evan Hunter's novels is that he is able to write about female characters in a way that is utterly convincing to me, a female reader. I still have a little difficulty getting to grips with the fact that Sarah could have been written by a male author!

The novel is more 'adult' than Ed McBain novels generally are, and this is worth remembering if you don't like that kind of thing, but this is a great book, and a very good read. Very highly recommended.

Three things stand out in this novel - wonderful characterization, sure knowledge of crime syndicates and an eroticism that threatens to approach soft porn. The story is simple - a mobster falls for a married lady whose husband, a district attorney, happens to be in the midst of an investigation of said Mafia guy. After Andrew rescued her daughter from drowning, straight-laced Sarah falls for and plunges into a dark, forbidden affair with a man 6 years younger.

She is consumed by the passion even as her marriage to her hard working, dull, good husband & father drifts slowly apart. She is suddenly desired & wanted & all her pent-up lust is released. At the same time, hubby is moving in for the kill by planting wire taps around the place and sure enough, one night, he hears his wife with another man - the one he wants. The ending is bitter sweet but faithful to the book - in fact, it is quite logical.

Sarah steals the show with her wistful longings, motherly concerns, spousal obligations and deep needs. The happy go lucky character of the criminal is well described as well as the day to day grunt work of the law enforcement team. Altogether, a great read.

This was my first Evan Hunter read...and now I'm hooked. A friend passed it along and I couldn't put it down! That was two years ago, and I'm still talking/raving about it! It's exciting, but easy to read!

Reading this book was like eaves dropping on other persons conversations. At times I felt guilty for listening (I heard it through an unabridged audio book), but I couldn't put it down. Although I had to commend the DA for his determination in nailing the mob leader -- who had been involved in murder, I also liked the mob leader. The story was strong and involving, and the plot very plausible. The main characters are developed well enough to allow the reader to actually care what happens to them. Towards the end of the book I didn't know whose side I should be on! This book gets a thumbs up from me and a coworker who listened after I did--although I must admit, while he loved the ending, I would have preferred another. Anyway, out of my inventory of audio books -- of which he's heard around 30 -- he found this book to be the best so far. No small feat--he's VERY picky. (The book gets a 9 only because I wanted a different ending!)

the two main characters, sarah and andrew, are awesome. i was sad when the book ended. i will miss them.

Forget the background of the mob story, although it is interesting, and realize that this is just a thrilling book about a woman having an affair. I couldn't wait to find out what happened and read the last 250 pages in one day.

I enjoyed this book so much because you could look at it from so many different angles. First of all, since I am a married male, I looked at it from Michael's point of view. His wife is cheating on him and I wanted to see what he would do when he found out. Then you could be Andrew, the man who seduces Sarah, Michael's wife. What are his motivations? Then you want to know what motivates women cheat on her husband (or a man on his wife). Thinking about that can be both chilling and thrilling.

While I liked this book a lot, I think it had a few weaknesses. Hunter does not do enough at the beginning to establish that Michael and Sarah have a great marriage or even a good marriage. I think if he had spent more time convincing the reader that these two shared a strong bond, then what had followed would be that more devasting. We know Sarah has an affair, but to be able to know exactly what she was betraying would have made her betrayal that much worse.

Also, it seems that Sarah gave herself to Andrew rather easily (not a spoiler). I guess that Andrew was charming and handsome, and that was all it took for Sarah to give away her life. Again, it would have been better to know specifics in her life with her husband that she was very unhappy with. Instead, we just get veiled references to the fact that he was working a lot.

This book has a good ending I guess. Sarah was a frustrating character because I was never truly sure why she totally abandoned Michael and surrendered to Andrew. I guess it was nothing Michael ever did, it was just that Sarah was a bad person.

I plan on checking out some more books by Hunter/Mcbain to see if they are as good as this one.

This is a crime novel about a wife cheating with a mob figure whom her prosecutor husband is pursuing. It is spiced with a number of erotic moments and interesting characters that make it a fun read. Hunter excels at using minor characters to add sparkle to the story. This is the most interesting crime story that I've ever read, and I'm keeping the book to read again later.

Well crafted entertaining novel thatkeeps you interested the entire tim

The title of Evan Hunter's "Criminal Conversation" comes from an outdated tort. Under the common law, "criminal conversation" essentially meant adultery, giving the cuckolded husband the right to sue his wife's lover. The term has a second meaning in the context of the story as Sarah Welles, the wife of an assistant district attorney, begins an affair with her husband's quarry, mobster Andrew Faviola. That, in a nutshell, is the story.

"Criminal Conversation" relies on coincidence to a degree reminiscent of Hardy's "Return of the Native," and these compounding coincidences at times make the story too implausible. However, Hunter (a.k.a. Ed McBain) delves so deeply into the relationship that the coincidences pass from memory under the intensity of the relationship. And it is an intense relationship that Sarah and Andrew have, perhaps more intense than is necessary. Hunter's attention to the salacious details of the parties seems unnecessarily rapt, and the more sensitive reader might well be put off by the graphic sexual descriptions, particularly in a pointless scene involving young children.

"Criminal Conversation" is an uncomfortable novel in many ways beyond the graphic sexual content. The denouement is too long in developing and leaves at least one major plot thread unresolved. Still, Hunter's novels under his pseudonym are ample evidence that he can write well, and it would be unfair to dismiss this novel out of hand. There is a realism that infuses the novel, from the realistic characters (including the far-from-glorified mobsters) to the pain and complications of the affair. But the novel clearly left me with the opinion that it would have been far better 100 pages shorter.

Let's get down to brass tacks, for want of a better cliche. This book has the best sex scene in years! Best, as in HOT. Ms. Nin and Mr. De Maupassant are beginners compared to this carefullly crafted ten-or-so pages. So, if that's what you're looking for, throw away your Penthouse Letters and get ready for something 100 times better. Oh yeah, the rest of the book was pretty cool, too.