Customer Reviews

The Dead Past

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

 

 

TDP is a mystery that I couldn't put down, it has rich, vibrant characters and funny dialogue and nuances that most novels can't touch. TDP opens with a 4 am phone call to Jon Kendrick from his grandmother. She tells him she found a body in her trash can. Jon then goes home to Felicity Grove to help solve the crime. See, Jon and his grandmother are a tag team of amateur sleuths who have solved a few of the crimes that have occurred in the small town of Felicity Grove. Suffice to say, I read this one in one 3 hour sitting. The characters are so flamboyant and unique that I enjoyed finding out what happened next. The dialogue pops and snaps so crisply, I found myself yelling and/or laughing out loud. And the plot is so full of surprises and twists that I didn't figure out what was really going on until the very end...and then I couldn't believe it. Highly Recommended.

Piccirilli gives us an exciting, gripping, dark but often humorous novel that makes extremely good use of the "amateur sleuth" team of Jon Kendrick and his grandmother Anna. A unique, believable, and wonderfully well-done mystery!

TDP is a mystery that I couldn't put down, it has rich, vibrant characters and funny dialogue and nuances that most novels can't touch. TDP opens with a 4 am phone call to Jon Kendrick from his grandmother. She tells him she found a body in her trash can. Jon then goes home to Felicity Grove to help solve the crime. See, Jon and his grandmother are a tag team of amateur sleuths who have solved a few of the crimes that have occurred in the small town of Felicity Grove. Suffice to say, I read this one in one 3 hour sitting. The characters are so flamboyant and unique that I enjoyed finding out what happened next. The dialogue pops and snaps so crisply, I found myself yelling and/or laughing out loud. And the plot is so full of surprises and twists that I didn't figure out what was really going on until the very end...and then I couldn't believe it. Highly Recommended.

The call came at about four in the morning, and Jonathan Kendrick knew it was one of two people: his ex-wife, complaining about some new biker-boyfriend, or his eccentric grandmother. And it was his grandmother, Anna, who called for him to come and visit... since a body was found, stuffed in a trashcan, in her front yard.

Jonathan flew to Felicity Grove (thus why this is known as a 'Felicity Grove novel'), to see if he could calm Anna down - not that she needed it, being the cool character (and mystery fan) that she was. In time, he discovers the root of a twenty year old mystery, gains a girlfriend, and solves the mystery of why Anna's yard was chosen as the final resting place of Richie Harraday... and one of Jonathan's old friends.

This book has quite a good plot, including many amusing things... such as the main character being a bookstore owner, and a mystery fan as a grandmother. Really, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this book, except for the dialogue. It was all rather stilted, and featured some completely unbelievable characters. For instance, Anna is a fan of complex talk... but how many people have ever heard a person mention the word "garish" in common place conversation? But that's all excusable, for how good a book this is. Check it out (if you can find it, of course)!

As always, Tom Piccirilli capably brings his characters to life thorugh the use of the secrets in their pasts, their complex emotional make-ups, and moral integrity. This story speeds along giving us an intensely personal view of the protagonists and some amazing action scenes. Definitely pick it up.

A delightfully told tale with some of the brightest dialogue I've read in a long while, a fast-paced and emotionally moving story-line, and several truly memorable and haunting scenes. The first in a new series, I can't wait to read future novels about these same characters Jon and Anna Kendrick.

A terrific novel that runs the gamut from nerve-wracking suspense to laugh out loud humorous scenes. Mr. Piccirilli is highly effective when it comes to creating believable characters that you'll cheer for and grow to love.

I beg to differ. The scenes in this book were repetitive and the grandmother too butch for a woman, especially this woman. The only reason I gave it 2 stars was because I liked the Doberman Pincher in the novel...

When Thomas Wolfe said you can never go home again, he obviously he had not met Jonathan Kenders, his crippled grandmother Anna, or her Doberman Anubis. Nor had Mr. Wolfe been to the small upstate New York town of Felicity Grove, population under 10,000. Jonathan might occasionally visit the town, but in the past six years with the help of Anna, he has tracked down two blackmailers, a child-napper, and three murderers, including the person who killed his own parents. When Anna asks him to come home again, Jonathan knows that trouble awaits him in Felicity Grove. ....... A body of a young thug has been found stuffed in Anna's garbage can. This has Jonathan speeding home to protect his beloved relative from any possible danger and to find the answers to their newest "case". Jonathan's theory is that the corpse in the can has nothing to do with him or his grandmother. However, that assumption is quickly destroyed when a second corpse is found in the can. Jonathan knew the second victim and is determined to discover the identity of the culprit, no matter how much dirt he has to rake up or what long buried secrets have to be exposed. ...... Tom Piccirelli is a genius at characterization. In Jonathan he has created the paradoxical mix of a heroic everyman, who wants to ignore murder, but his conscience that will not let him. His sardonic wit makes THE DEAD PAST a great read. The serpentine story line has more twists than a meandering river; thereby making it nearly impossible to predict where it will finish. This novel is simultaneously mesmerizing, frightening, and poignant, turning it into a brilliant who-done-it. .....Harriet Klausner