Two Time [Import] [Paperback]

Chris Knopf (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2007

Sam Aquillo – ex-boxer, ex-corporate executive and accidental hero of The Last Refuge – is back in this action-packed, page-turning sequel.

All Sam wants to do is hammer a few nails into his ramshackle cottage, drink a great deal of vodka, hang out with his dog, Eddie, and stay out of trouble. But trouble seems to find him anyway. When a car bomb outside a trendy waterfront restaurant kills a prominent financial consultant and injures Sam and his lawyer friend Jackie Swaitkowski, he is drawn into the investigation. Where the police have met roadblocks, Sam makes inroads with his trademark wit, instinct and charm. Also, he just wants to know: Why would someone go to such lengths not only to kill someone, but annihilate them?

Set, once again, against the backdrop of Southhampton, Long Island, Two Time is full of moody sunsets, beachfront properties and beautiful people with an extraordinary amount of money and very dangerous secrets.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. At the start of Knopf's super second mystery starring ex-boxer and retired engineer Sam Acquillo (after 2005's The Last Refuge), Sam is enjoying a drink with a lady friend at an East Hampton restaurant when a nearby car and its driver are firebombed out of existence. In the aftermath, Sam, assisted by his old buddy, retired cop Joe Sullivan, looks into who might have had it in for the victim, wealthy consultant Jonathan Eldridge. After talking to Eldridge's agoraphobic widow and suspicious-acting lawyer, Sam continues to investigate—and the more he pokes around the more data he turns up suggesting a complex deception involving financial transfers, angry clients who may or may not be Mafia-connected, the murdered man's estranged artist brother and out-of-it mother. A sly depiction of the east end of Long Island and the Hamptons as they really are, combined with strong plotting, solid characters and hard-boiled dialogue worthy of Elmore Leonard or John D. MacDonald will make this a beach read that you won't be able to put down even under threat of sunburn. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Knopf has a touch I like – cool, careful, reflective – and a great ear for the comic eccentricities of the human voice.”
–Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times

“Two Time is delightful. We forget, with all the emphasis on Long Island money, that it used to be farmland, populated by working-class people. Knopf works the conflicts and changes into the setting, and his characters will have readers returning.”
–The Globe and Mail

“It is difficult to imagine this is only Knopf’s second novel – it is pure gold. Everything about it (characters, plotting, setting) is brilliant.”
–Library Journal

Praise for The Last Refuge:

“The characters are such original oddballs and their conversation so bracing that you want to kick off your shoes and spend some time on the porch with them, just taking in the view and enjoying the talk.”
–The New York Times

“There’s a definite whiff of Elmore Leonard here, particularly in the snappy dialogue and the colorful characters.”
–Publishers Weekly

“Though the mystery drives the plot, it’s Sam’s rediscovery of himself in middle age that is the real focus in this accomplished debut novel. He is definitely a writer to watch.”
–Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Vintage Canada (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679314512
• ISBN-13: 978-0679314516
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #810,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hamptons Noir, July 7, 2006

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Two Time (Hardcover)

In the first few pages of his second appearance (after "The Last Refuge"), Hamptons native and recent returnee Sam Acquillo nearly gets blown up while sipping Absolut on the deck of a dockside restaurant in East Hampton.

Sam's skills and powers of observation as an ex-boxer and engineer save him and his lawyer friend Jackie from the fate of the other patrons when a car bomb kills its target and five others. Alerted by the color of the roiling fire inside the car after the initial blast, he vaults the deck railing and manhandles Jackie to relative safety before a second blast - a lot stronger than the fire explosion Sam expected - all but vaporizes the fellow drinkers he'd been casually denigrating just moments before.

Sam, a bit of a brooder and misanthrope, doesn't like too many people but he's loyal to the few he calls friends. He's been back in the Hamptons for five years, licking his wounds and drinking to the sunsets over Little Peconic Bay behind the cottage his mean-drunk father built when Sam was a kid.

A couple months after the blast, with Jackie still undergoing surgeries to repair her face and Sam's hearing slowly returning, his cop friend Joe Sullivan asks Sam to help out in the stalled investigation. The dead guy was an investment analyst with a roster of fancy clients and Joe thinks Sam, with his corporate background and MIT education, might have a better idea what questions to ask than the local cops.

From the wealthy agoraphobic wife and her controlling lawyer to the unhappy mob-connected client and the flamboyant artist brother, Sam follows a few false leads and attracts a fair amount of violence before wisecracking his way to a clever conclusion.

The plotting and the dry, witty repartee evoke shades of Raymond Chandler while the glitz and grit of the Hamptons new and old provide a salty, vivid setting and Sam Acquillo is a likable fellow in his deadpan way. A must read for fans of noir and good writing.

--Portsmouth Herald

5.0 out of 5 stars Twice Pleased, October 12, 2011

By 

JJ Moir - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Two Time (Kindle Edition)

I heard about the book by word of mouth. I like it so much I wanted to come back and do a review. The telling of the story is full of detail and in hind sight gives some clues as to the outcome but you are never quite sure until the end, which is revealed very efficiently and interestingly. I have already ordered my second Knopf book and I expect good things from that one.

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent follow-up to The Last Refuge, April 6, 2009

By 

Allison M. Campbell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Two Time (Paperback)

Two Time starts off with a bang as Sam and Jackie are injured in when a car bomb outside the restaurant in which they'd met explodes. Cop Joe Sullivan asks Sam to talk to the widow of the car bomb victim. Reluctantly spurred on by his guilt over Jackie's injuries, Sam becomes embroiled in the victim's shady dealings in his financial consulting business, a performance-artist brother, an odd widow, and angry clients. In The Last Refuge, Sam starts out as completely withdrawn from the world and gradually begins to make connections with people. I was pleased to see that there is no regressing in Two Time (a pet peeve with me in series fiction is inconsistent character development), but that Sam is still very much a work in progress. He uses his engineering background in a methodical yet insightful way, approaching the murder as a problem to solve. This makes for a fascinating mystery novel, and Sam is an irresistible protagonist. Knopf's caustic wit is a fine counterpoint to the hardboiled action.