Customer Reviews

Hard Stop (Sam Acquillo Hamptons Mystery)

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This was the best of the 4 Sam aquillo novels. I love them all and look forward to reading a new one every spring. Maybe i love the character and the setting so much that it was just so much fun to be back on the east end with sam and his lawn chairs, tumblers of vodka and the little peconic bay. I havent read short squeeze yet but i am really dissapointed that Sam is not the main character. I like jackie but only as his sidekick and i cant believe his next novel wont be set in the Hamptons and be about Sam but rather the Jersey Shore? If you like nelson demille's John Corey youll like Sam Aquillo

First Sentence: I didn't like anything about that big, dumb, ugly SUV.

Sam Acquillo is hired by his former boss, George Donovan, to find his missing girlfriend, Iku Kinjo. He tracks her to a house on Long Island, where a number of young successful Manhattan business people are living. However, it soon becomes apparent there is more than a missing girl involved in this case.

I wasn't as taken by this book as I have been by previous books in the series. I do like the character of Sam, but am getting a bit bored with the `can't-make-a-commitment' protagonist. In some ways, his secondary characters-- independent girlfriend Amanda; friend and lawyer, Jackie Swaitkowski; Joe Sullivan, the cop friend; obstructionist Officer Orlovsky and Eddie Van Halen, the mutt--are the more interesting characters. Also, in this book, the question of whether Sam would finally get what is owed him, was more suspenseful than the actual mystery.

For all that, it's not a bad book; I just felt his others were better. I did very much appreciate his homage to the late author, Philip R. Craig. The greatest evidence of this is that, two weeks after finishing this, I couldn't remember the plot where I do remember the plots of the previous books. But I'm not giving up on either Sam, or Mr. Knopf and I look forward to reading his next book.

HARD STOP (Unl. Inves-Sam Acquillo-NY-Cont) - G
Knopf, Chris - 4th in series
The Permanent Press, 2009, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9781579621834

I enjoyed the writing style as it evoked a sense of old detectives/private-eyes. I think it would be a great book to listen to as the writing seemed to be more conversationalist. The swearing got old and I felt that even though Sam was a tough guy--take no smack from anyone--that his language could have been cleaned up a bit and that of some of the other characters. I like how Sam interacts with everyone and how even though he uses everyone to help him solve the case that you still like him and laugh at his thoughts and views.