Sandra Nichols Found Dead [Audio Cassette]

George V. Higgins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

A Jerry Kennedy novel. Kennedy has been handling the Nichols case for 30 years, after socialite Sandra Nichols disappeared for five months and then turned up dead. Is her husband, Peter Wade, guilty of killing her with a sockful of sand, or did he pay someone else to do it?

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Much-respected criminal defense attorney Jerry Kennedy is coerced into becoming the legal guardian of the three surviving children of Sandra Nichols, the murdered wife of the wealthy, unscrupulous Peter Wade. Kennedy has been living the life of a recluse, allowing nothing to touch him since his divorce. Now, on behalf of the children, he goes after Wade, who may have had his wife killed for the sake of convenience. As lawyers go, Kennedy is one smart mensch. He cleverly manages to tie all the facts of the case into a neat little legal bundle that Wade cannot undo. Higgins (Swan Boats at Four, LJ 7/95) is a grandmaster of the written word. Through Kennedy's running dialog with those around him, he creates an intimacy between the reader and his characters and offers great insight into the way an attorney works for a client. This nugget of legal machination should be purchased by all public libraries.
Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., Ohio Hill, David. Sacred Dust.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

George V. Higgins keeps upping the ante. He's proved again and again that he can write novels driven solely by dialogue--not snappy exchanges between people who are engaged in doing something (like the characters in Pulp Fiction, for example) but conversations between individuals reporting on events that have already happened. It's no easy trick to make such reportorial talk compelling, but Higgins has mastered it. Here he goes one step further. He's written a novel in which the lion's share of the "action" comprises lawyer Jerry Kennedy reading the transcripts of a cop's testimony at an inquest. We read over Jerry's shoulder, and suddenly this veteran Boston cop's monologue unlocks a multifaceted family drama about a white-trash woman with guts and dignity who endures a series of bad relationships before parlaying her sexual gusto into marriage with a genuine New England blue blood. Unfortunately, the blue blood is also a lout who eventually chooses to have his wife killed rather than pay off on a prenuptial contract. His alibi is airtight, but Kennedy is enlisted to put together a wrongful-death civil suit (shades of O. J.). The most amazing thing about this novel is that it works at all. It's as if Andre didn't show up for dinner, and his friend simply read the paper while he ate. Face it: Higgins isn't a novelist, he's a magician. Bill Ott --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786110104
• ISBN-13: 978-0786110100
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,384,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointment, February 7, 2000

By 

Jerry D. Rhoades (Carthage, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sandra Nichols Found Dead: A Jerry Kennedy Novel (Paperback)

I've been a fan of the late George V. Higgins for years. His "Kennedy for the Defense" features one of the best lawyer protagonists I've ever read in a mystery. I also thoroughly enjoyed his other stuff, both Kennedy and non-Kennedy. So I was really thrilled to pick up "Sandra Nichols Found Dead" in the bargain bin last time I was in Barnes and Noble.

In this one, Kennedy is pressured by an old friend who's a judge into taking on a civil case, which Kennedy is quick to tell us he doesn't usually do. Kennedy is supposed to represent the children of the much-married decedent Sandra Nichols, who everyone knows was knocked off by her rich playboy husband, but no one can prove it. Pretty classic mystery plot and I expected to have the usual fun watching Kennedy work. I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed.

For one thing, the book is talky. VERY talky. One of the jacket blurbs describes Higgins as "a master of dialogue." Here he seems to be a master of monologue. An awful lot of the first 150 pages of the book is exposition. Worse, it's told in the form of Kennedy telling us about reading a transcript of the investigating officer's testimony of what other people told the officer about the victim's background. So what you see is somebody reading somebody else talking about what a third person told them about what happened to a fourth person. In addition, everybody in the book has a tendency to ramble, veering off on one tangent after another, until the reader is about to scream "will you GET ON WITH IT, for Chrissakes?"

In addition, Kennedy himself seems old and tired. There's none of the flash and wit that made "Kennedy for the Defense" such a classic. Because he spends the bulk of his time listening to people, he seems mostly passive. He only really seems to come alive towards the end, when he begins developing a relationship with a woman he meets during the investigation, but by then it's just too little, too late.

The only thing that makes the book readable at all is Higgin's mastery of characterization. The characters are believably complex and interesting and the reader does end up caring what happens to them. But, in the long run, not a heck of a lot does happen in this book. No real surprises, no real deduction, and in the end, no real satisfaction. I had to force myself to finish this one, and since Higgins won't be writing anymore, it makes me sad that this is the last one of his I read.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite authors...rediscovered...thanks GVH!, August 31, 2002

By 

hawthorne wood "hawthorne wood" (santa fe, new mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sandra Nichols Found Dead: A Jerry Kennedy Novel (Paperback)

When I read "The Friends of Eddy Coyle" years ago, it had a huge impact on my writing...I thought it was one of the most exciting books I'd read in years. Being from Boston, too, I was thrilled, because so few novels coming out of my town really capture its gritty quality...and the dialogue...primo!!!
The I read "The Verdict" and saw the movie...wow.

And then I wandered away and didn't read anything else by George V. Higgins for years. I just picked up the Recorded Books, Inc. book on tape of "Sandra Nichols" at the library, as read by the incomparable George Guidall and I was blown away by how great Higgins is with characterization and dialogue. I note that a previous reviewer found the book too "talky," but I am a reader who LOVES dialogue...good dialogue...it's so rare. I could riff on GVH's characters ad infinitum.

For all those writers who need a lesson in writing great dialogue, and readers who adore fun, juicy, quirky characters, and for all those literary people who believe that CHARACTER IS FATE, then this novel is for you.

Thank you, again, Mr. Higgins, for being there.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Strangled By His "Black Belt in Dialogue" (Newsweek), November 17, 2009

By 

Mike Brecher (London & New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sandra Nichols Found Dead: A Jerry Kennedy Novel (Paperback)

Sadly, George V. Higgins's writing career was an object lesson in the perils of believing your own press. "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," his first, is an indisputable neo-noir champ. But it was also his undoing. Reviewers and peers fell over one another to praise his ear for the language of the street, and all his subsequent novels trip over their excessive flexing of that particular muscle. The underlying story of "Sandra Nichols Found Dead," featuring attorney Jerry Kennedy, has great potential, but it is buried within the first few pages under an avalanche of rambling, tedious dialogue from which it never digs itself out.