The Last Good Day [Mass Market Paperback]

Peter Blauner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2004

A riveting thriller by the author of "The Intruder.""Everything you want in a thriller--smart dialogue, a plot that draws you in and speeds you through the pages, and suspense that is as relentless as a stalker."--Linda Fairstein ("The Bone Vault").

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lynn Schulman brings her husband and children back to the peaceful New York suburb she escaped after high school to get away from the post 9/11 dangers of city life. But when the headless body of her oldest friend turns up in the river and the cop who investigates turns out to be an old boyfriend still seething at her betrayal of their adolescent romance, her safe haven turns out to be as sinister and threatening as the mean streets she left behind. Mike Fallon hasn't forgotten her--as his own life spirals down into personal failure and professional ruin, he focuses his attention on recapturing the girl who got away and the dreams that went with her. Blauner is a skillful writer who manages with a few quick brushstrokes to capture both the placidly calm exterior of a small suburban town and the dark secrets that seethe beneath it. Good plotting, nicely drawn characters, and a deft hand with the narrative drive this solid thriller to the last page.--Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

You know you're in the 'burbs when a cop's epitaph for a murdered local drug dealer is, "Man, he was an asshole, but he had a beautiful lawn." In his fifth novel, Edgar-winner Blauner (The Intruder, etc.) imagines an idyllic suburb up the Hudson River from Manhattan, full of karate moms and commuter dads; in the shadow of September 11, he peels away the affluent veneer and exposes the roiling class tensions and frustrated ambitions beneath. The decapitated corpse of a local housewife is spotted floating in the water by commuters waiting for the inbound 7:46, including Barry Schulman, counsel for a start-up pharmaceutical company now teetering on the brink. Barry's wife, Lynn, a mother who's had to relegate her passion for photography to a hobby for the kids' sake, was the victim's best friend. To her horror, the investigating officer, Michael Fallon, has had his long-dormant passion for Lynn awakened by the case. Fallon, a struggling blue-collar nth-generation Irish-American cop, has dark secrets to hide concerning his prior involvements with both Lynn and the victim, which in turn necessitates his withholding information from his "former best friend" (now the town's first black police chief) Harold Baltimore so as to keep his prying rival, "a pugnacious Puerto Rican" named Paco Ortiz, from making Fallon the prime suspect. Harold, Lynn, Michael and the victim all went to school together, and the uneasy tensions arising from their uneven rises to various stations in life fuels a dangerously explosive tinderbox of resentment. Readers who can follow Blauner's intricate plot will be well rewarded, but only at the very end-no giveaways here.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; First Edition edition (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446614270
• ISBN-13: 978-0446614276
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,575,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

When I was a kid, I quickly realized I didn't have much talent for throwing the baseball or playing a musical instrument or anything like that. What I had was a desire to write - which, of course, is not the same as having talent. That didn't stop me from focusing and honing in, practicing my writing the way other kids practiced free throws or 100-yard sprints.

Pretty early on, it occurred to me that I didn't want to run in the same race as everybody else anyway. A writer should have has her own slant on things. So I decided to go my own way. Even though I write what are classified as "crime novels," I don't have granite-jawed heroes or spunky heroines who always triumph over the bad guys. There are enough of those in the bookstores. I write about people with considerable flaws and consuming struggles, trying to make sense of their lives. I don't expect you to cuddle up to them or want to invite them to your Christmas dinner. But I think they have a lot of heart. Not in the sentimental sense. But in the raw, pulsing, heaving, still-beating-in-spite-of-everything sense.

I certainly don't mean to sound high-minded. After this many years in the game, I don't think a novel (particularly a "crime novel") can - or even should try to - cause great social change and upheaval. Most people just want a good story that can help pass the time on a plane. And that's my goal as well. But every once in a while, it can maybe also give you a slightly different way of looking at the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Characters who Really Live and Breathe, September 9, 2004

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Good Day (Mass Market Paperback)

By far Peter Brauner's best, the book compares favorably to something like Updike's RABBIT REDUX.

On every page I had to pause to remind myself that I don't actually live in Riverside, the New York suburb where the action is largely set, but far away in California. That's how convincingly he draws you into the story.

Most writers have no idea how to integrate the working lives of their characters into the give and take of a thriller. Here I was totally taken in by Barry Schulman's working world in the high concept life of a biotech company, by Lynn's photography and the way a reader could actually visualize many of her best pictures, by Mike's life as a small town detective with a big city style crime to solve.

There was a lot of class stuff too, which again most American novelists can't handle. And most of all, the suspense which got to be so overpowering I didn't want to do anything but finish the book. The 9/11 material was handled with distinction; I liked Barry falling all over the commuter who, because he wasn't seen on the train for some time, was believed to have perished at the World Trade Center.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Uncomfortable Truth, February 27, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Last Good Day (Hardcover)

With Slow Motion Riot, Blauner reinvented the urban crime novel back when the so-called New Realists were still trying to cop a puff on Elmore Leonard's cigarettes. With his newest book, he stretches into new territory and takes on suburban life in the new century with the same unsparing eye. Unlike some other readers, I felt the 9/11 references were skillfully done and heartfelt, without stooping to sentimentality. And the writing is carefully wrought and richly textured from line to line. Readers looking for phony tough guy heroes and breathless escapism should look elsewhere. This is a fine American crime writer telling uncomfortable truths.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Summer Read, May 26, 2003

By 

Gerald L. Shargel (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Good Day (Hardcover)

Peter Blauner's fifth novel salvaged an otherwise miserable and rainy Memorial Day weekend on Eastern Long Island. Put on some sweats, throw a few logs on the fire and begin turning the pages of an enormously readable murder mystery--probably one of the best I've read in years. Set in a bucolic Westchester bedroom community in the wake of 9/11 (a skillfully employed subtext), murder interrupts and ultimately destroys the lives of several well developed characters. With Blauner's brilliant dialogue and crystal clear images, you can almost feel the characters' pain. If the sun ever does come out, it will be a great beach read.