Late Rain [Kindle Edition]

Lynn Kostoff (Author)

Book Description

Corrine Tedros is a Lady Macbeth wannabe who sets in motion the murder of her uncle-in-law (a soft-drink mogul), and things go awry when the murder is witnessed by a senior citizen in the late stages of Alzheimers.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Corrine Tedros decides her elderly uncle-in-law, Stanley, is standing in her way when he refuses to sell his successful South Carolina company to the highest bidder; working through a shady lawyer, she hires a killer to take care of the problem. Jack Carson, a man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, witnesses the murder but can’t describe the killer. Meanwhile, Ben Decovic, formerly a homicide detective in Ryland, Ohio, is now a patrolman for the Magnolia Beach Police Department in South Carolina, where he is attempting to recover from a personal tragedy. Although Corrine has made sure she has an alibi, Decovic is suspicious of her reactions and delves into her past, which she has gone to great lengths to conceal. Then Decovic becomes romantically involved with Jack’s daughter, Anne, and events begin to spiral out of control. Kostoff, author of the well-received The Long Fall (2003), returns to crime fiction with a promising series debut starring a principled cop who is beginning to heal himself. --Sue OBrien

About the Author

Lynn Kostoff is a professor of English at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina. He has also taught at the University of Alabama, Indiana State University, and Bowling Green State University in Ohio where he received his MFA in fiction. He is the author of two crime novels, A Choice of Nightmares and The Long Fall.

Product Details

• File Size: 460 KB
• Print Length: 389 pages
• Publisher: Tyrus Books (June 1, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005307M30
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #348,326 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 72 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterful work that transcends genre August 22, 2010

By JJ

Format:Paperback

It is difficult to write this review without relying on what seems to be hyperbole, but in Late Rain Lynn Kostoff has created a superlative novel that succeeds on every level. It is a compelling crime story. It depicts and develops characters who leap off the page. Its language is rich and poetic. And it is a moving story about a variety of characters caught in their own individuals prisons (for lack of a better word). Whether it is the central character Ben Decovic, a cop tormented by memories of his dead wife; or Corrine Tedros, a scheming woman for whom the reader will develop a surprising compassion; or Jack Carson, whose Alzheimer's has trapped him in a landscape where words and memories either don't come or don't accurately mesh; or even the bizarre hitman Croy Wendall, who comes across as almost infantile in terms of his corrupted and inner life--these characters, and many more, are vivid creations, unlike others you might have encountered in other "crime novels." In fact, to call this a crime novel is a disservice. It is a marvelously written, evocative, engaging literary novel that taps a series of crimes as a means of conveying a powerful and mesmerizing story. The final pages are still haunting me. Kostoff has written well before, but he far surpasses his earlier novels with this one, which I place not only in the galaxy of Lehane's Mystic River or Bruen's The Guards but among the best works of Daniel Woodrell, Cormac McCarthy, and Robert Stone, just to name three. This is a novel to buy and to read now; you will not regret it.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars It had potential but never quite made it February 27, 2011

By madscientist_13

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As an avid reader I am often put into the position of being forced out of my comfortable box of writers I love like Greg Iles, Karen Slaughter, etc,etc because of the pacing of their writing vs. the speed of my reading so I go in search of books that seem promising and I came across this one. The characters were nicely drawn and developed with well fleshed out stories that developed naturally. Corrine, Buddy's conniving wife simply want she feels she has always deserved, which is everything, and Uncle Stanley lives his life a different way. The story itself could have been good but it always felt like it was trying to overreach and go somewhere that it never quite made it to with it's elements of noir.I really did want to like it because each character, spineless Buddy, stubborn Uncle Stanley, Corrine and Ben are all so well drawn that it's a shame that there is no resolution and this novel just left me as the reader wanting.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool, Brooding, Thoughtful And Full of Sucker-Punch Surprises January 5, 2011

By Jim Thomsen

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Gorgeously written, quietly controlled, coolly brooding and as sneaky as a sucker punch with its surprises, "Late Rain" is quite possibly my favorite crime novel published in 2010. And I've read 40 to 50 new releases in 2010.

In a year clogged by self-conscious genre stylists screaming and steaming overheated prose from every paragraph, Lynn Kostoff's third novel is a soft breeze on a warm beach, quite possibly in the slightly seedy South Carolina resort town that offers a backdrop to this drawling tale of greed, murder, manipulation and redemption. The crimes aren't original, but many of the characters are, thanks to sketches of surprising depth seamlessly supplied side-by-side with the action.

There's a beautiful woman who's used to making a living any way she can with her looks, who thinks she's more streetwise than she probably is. There's the contract criminal, an Asperger-ish assassin who doesn't "sex" and deals with stress by concocting convoluted rhymes in his head. There's the patrol cop, a former detective on another force, who constantly gets into political hot water by playing detective on the job.

And my favorite character of all is the cheerfully amoral lawyer of the kind one suspects can be found in any town -- an information broker who makes clear that you're expendable even as he's taking your money, and who you know probably won't wind up being any good for you, and who you can't help getting in bed with anyway because you can't think of any other way to go. Raychard Balen is the kind of sharp-eyed sociopath who soothes and unsettles you with every single syllable he speaks.

These characters, and a number of others are wrapped in an intricate but never impossibly complicated web of murder that goes sideways in several different directions, due to the undue diligence and unreliable character of several schemers. Who did what to who is never really a mystery; the delight here is in wondering who will be left standing at the end, and who will ensure that the others will be lying down for good. Or otherwise.

Along the way, Kostoff lets his characters give a number of uncliched, startlingly lucid speeches -- internal and otherwise. They're about life's hard truths, and about the hope, foolish and otherwise, that springs eternal in spite of the spite that fills just about every thin-soiled heart in this richly layered tale. That rare quality makes "Late Rain" the rare sort of novel that stands up to repeated readings, and makes you wish that each time you read it was the first time.

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