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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good begining to an interesting series, October 23, 2005
This review is from: Denial (Mass Market Paperback)
I decided to read this book because reading about the main character, Frank Clevenger, I knew he was not going to be your average character. It was as if they took Frank right out of the Sin City world. Even when the book gets a little boring, Frank's interesting personality will get you by.
The story itself is decent. People are being murdered, and Frank must figure out if an insane man did it. Of course, things get a little deeper than that and a good ol 'Whodunit' breaks out.
Between Frank's wife, his buddy at the morgue, multiple strippers, cops who hate him, transexuals, a religious police captain, and Frank himself, you have a lot of unique characters to read about. The dialogue between some of these people is very entertaining, as you could probably imagine.
I give it 3 stars, because the ending left more to be desired, but is that intentional due to it being a series? I'll find out more when I read the other books, which I do plan on doing.
This is the author's first book, and you can tell that at times. However, with the other books almost being guaranteed to be better, this is a very good begining of a series.
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16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deliciously flawed characters, January 12, 2003
This review is from: Denial (Mass Market Paperback)
Ten pages into Denial, I hastily emailed a friend of mine who's a big fan of Hardboiled mysteries and told him, "Have I got an author for you!" This is believably seamy stuff, quickly paced, smart and scary, filled with deliciously flawed characters. Ablow doesn't even place his protagonist above the fray: Frank Clevenger is a forensic psychiatrist with severe addiction issues--including coke, women other than his partner, and twisted psyches. There is not a character in this book who is free of quirks and tics, and it is from this pallette of dark human vagary that the story draws its power and its very plot. As one who lives in Eastern Massachusetts, I was taken by Ablow's adept use of local geography. Clevenger lives in one of those big houses in coastal Marblehead that require two doctors to support a mortgage; he works and plays, if such a word can cover his particular recreations, in his rag-tag hometown of "Lynn, Lynn, City of Sin," and in equally gritty Chelsea. The duality fits the man, an abused blue-collar boy beneath a professional veneer. With its sex, blood and lines of white powder, this book is not for everyone. But for those who like their mystery dark and their humanity imperfect, it's a real find. Susan O'Neill
Author: Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Viet Nam
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Burn Out, December 4, 2002
This review is from: Denial (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a fine debut smartly paced with all the twists and turns anyone could wish. Unusual for a debut, "Denial" is not plot heavy nor does it have a cast of thousands for us to keep track of. Dr. Frank Clevenger is about as anti-hero as I have ever read; he is an all around addict: coke, sex, alcohol, and gambling. Plus, he plays the blame game on himself for every misstep in his life. I always feel when reading a mystery that the protagonist is my pilot, constant companion and must see us both successfully to the finish. After Dr. Clevenger, my next trip will be with someone more like McDonald's Travis McGee, who I can depend upon to not fold on me until the last villain is vanquished. With Frank, I was exhausted trying to get us both to the end without cracking up. Frank is given a mercy job by an ambitious sheriff to sign off on whether an accused murderer's confession is admissible. The accused insists he is General William Westmoreland among other visions and ramblings. This murder sends Frank on a quest to find the guilty party who is viciously slaughtering his victims. The story is replete with abused and emotionally crippled victims, Frank included. The author's empathy and expertise are shown in representing these people. I admired the level of professionalism Dr. Ablow displayed in his understanding of state hospitals bureaucracy and the patients treated there. "Denial" has a high level of eroticism that is in keeping with Frank's character; however, it may be too steamy for some readers. The book shows talent and promise. I will look for more works by this author.
-sweetmolly- Amazon Reviewer
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