Until the End of Time [Hardcover]

Polly Whitney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1995

Divorced partners Ike and Abby become involved in a bizarre series of murders whose victims are New York's homeless men after Abby is mugged by a huge inhabitant of the streets. From the author of Until Death.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Whitney (Until Death) brings back the divorced team of TV producer and rollerblader Abby Abagnarro and his former wife, news director Ike Tygart, in a witty and provocative look at TV news. The city's latest serial killer, called the Yellow Man for his trademark painting of his victims' faces, doesn't garner lots of coverage because his targets are vagrants. But then Abby is mugged by a homeless man who says he has a story to tell; and, soon after, a doctor who recently appeared on Ike and Abby's show to promote a book opposing long FDA testing of new drugs is found murdered, with his face painted. Following their journalists' instincts, Ike and Abby discover that the dead doctor had been feuding with his co-authors, who are also his relatives, and they begin to wonder whether, and how, the doctor's death may be related to the other serial killings. Whitney skates deftly through the maze of deadlines, backbiting and fragile relationships at the TV station while untangling the meaning of the murders on the streets in this briskly paced, absorbing mystery.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 279 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (August 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312131992
• ISBN-13: 978-0312131999
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,505,826 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Satisfying and finely crafted. A must for mystery lovers., April 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Until The End Of Time (Paperback)

Until the End of Time and Ms. Whitney's previous book, Until Death, are rich and flavorful, as satisfying as a well-planned meal cooked by a master chef. Ike and Abby, the detecting duo, are thoroughly creatures of the late 1990s, and their New York City is realistically gritty and menacing. Yet, the books manage to evoke the great mysteries of the 1930s and 40s. Comparisons to Nick and Nora Charles are inevitable and on-target, but don't do justice to these endearing characters.

Like a well-executed meal, all the ingredients are finely balanced and delicately seasoned. There is just the right amount of action, of character development, of humor, of "insider" information. The plot is complex but clear, devious but fair. I was carried along on the momentum of the plot and the action -- but by the end, I had come to know Ike and Abby. And, I had (painlessly) learned a little about television news production, homelessness in New York (including the potter's field where indigents are laid to rest), roller-blading, glass-blowing and other subjects I never knew were so interesting.

This is mystery writing at its best, an important series by a talented and exciting writer.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Until the End of Time, February 16, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Until the End of Time (Hardcover)

Ten victims, one doctor and an innocent man killed over a simple, yet tragic, experiment with glaucoma medicine. At about three o' clock in the morning Abby was on his way to work when a mugger named Tex came up and approached him and tried to tell Abby his story. Abby wouldn't listen so Tex mugged him and took four of his dollars and his I.D. Abby works for NTB news station so that morning on the news was his mugger pictured as the Yellow-Man serial killer. So he and his ex wife, Ike, decided to find him and ask him why so that their newscast would be the first to air the story. When they found him he said that he hadn't done it and that he was painting the victims faces yellow so that they would get noticed and not, just because they were homeless, taken off to Potter's Field and that a doctor was testing glaucoma medicine on them. Then they put everything together and figured out that a doctor named Hektor, who was on their show, had glaucoma and that he was the one testing out medicine on them for his own personal use. Then Hilda, a guest on the show, killed Hektor because her father was one of the victims and she was mad so she gave him a taste of his own medicine, literally, and killed him. She also killed Tex because Tex knew her secret and she didn't want it to get out. In the end, Hilda is framed for murder and he and his ex-wife get back together. I would recommend this book to those who like books that lead you off track and keep you wondering who the killer really is.

Until the End of Time by Polly Whitney was a book that always made you wonder who the killer really was. The killings suspect changes many times throughout the book. At first the suspect was Tex because he was in the videotape. Then it switched to Hektor because he was the doctor who was giving them the actual medicine. Lastly, out of nowhere, an unexpected suspect, Hilda was framed as the killer because she killed Hektor and Tex.

This book was also shocking in many aspects. It was shocking when you found out that a suspected serial killer had just mugged Abby. Then when the author told you that the homeless would just sit on the ship and didn't have any proper burial when they died and were just thrown in Potter's Filed to rot. The most shocking part of the novel was when Hilda Murray had been behind it all, because she was supposedly the nice one and she had been on the show with Hektor just before he died and it wasn't at all expected.

The book had a lot of added details so that you would sway away from the actual murderer. It added the things about Abby getting mugged to add some meanness to Tex's character to make him seem as if he would do it. The fact that Hilda was such a nice character in the book and that Abby even took her out to lunch made her seem like she wouldn't kill anyone. When Hektor was on the show he didn't have much detail to him so he wasn't played up to be a type of person who would test out drugs on the homeless.

In conclusion, I can say that this is an excellent book because of its elaborate and in-depth details. It is a book that I would defiantly read again to see if now that I know who the killers were if there were more clues in the book that I didn't pick up because they weren't suspects. If you are the type of person who likes books that lead you of track and make you wonder this is the book for you!

- N. Brooks

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ike and Abby are at it again., September 30, 1997

By 

Harold L. Laroff - See all my reviews

This review is from: Until The End Of Time (Paperback)

Until the End of time is Polly Whitney's second of three "Until" books. Once again Ike (female) and Abby (male) are the detective team bent on solving a crime. The detecting pair, TV news producer and director for a TV network, are this time looking for the killer of nine homeless men. Why are each found dead with their faces painted yellow and a tag labeled "U.S.S.R. stuck into thier clothing? Ike and Abby are unique. They are ex husband and wife who zip around New York City streets on rollar-blades. The book is well researched and written. When I read this one and first novel "Until Death" I couldn't wait for the her next novel in the works. This books deserves the attention of mystery fans.