Customer Reviews

The Violet Hour

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Just as I predicted in a previous review, after receiving Dan Judson's new book, I'm tired and bleary-eyed, having been up half the night reading. I picked it up again first thing after getting my son on the school bus this morning, time fled, and now I'm [very] late for work. I'm half-tempted to call in sick so I can finish it off. I've got the last section to go, so I know what I'll be doing this evening, no doubt before I've even made myself dinner. If you're familiar with Dan's work, this will not disappoint, not by a long shot. If you're familiar with his work and haven't ordered The Violet Hour yet, smack yourself in the head and order it right now. If you're not familiar, this is a great book to start with and, not being "the further adventures of" any of his previous characters, doesn't require any prior knowledge. Dan just keeps getting better.

The action of The Violet Hour takes place over a week, beginning on Mischief Night, October 30th, though the fact that Halloween falls within the week isn't particularly relevant. What does matter in terms of setting the tone for the book is that it is fall, and coldish, and bleak. One usually hears of the Hamptons, on the east end of Long Island, in connection with wealth--all sunshine and beaches. But the world that Cal Rakowski inhabits is dark, and he lives an ascetic life, by choice, designed to ward off surprises and loss. In late October, though, his careful world is interrupted when troubles that have been brewing around the people close to him come to a head--Carver, the man he works for; his friend Lebell; a woman he's been sheltering from her abusive husband. Cal is a natural mechanic, and events prove that he's good at figuring out more than just machines. He also discovers that without knowing it he absorbed lessons about suspicion and survival from his late father, a criminal whose vocation meant he always carried a gun to answer the door. It's a good thing Cal's clever, because what he's up against is a complex of interrelated troubles--bad guys and bad cops and false identities and so on. My one complaint about the book is that it's a little too complicated: when the details are revealed to us it's all a bit too much to take in. I couldn't give you a decent summary of all that was going on, having just finished the read. But apart from that, I really enjoyed this one, in particular because the author has created a tense, brooding atmosphere that keeps you constantly worried for his very likable protagonist.

-- Debra Hamel

This tale of murder and mayhem in the Hampton's is fueled by a jealous husband and a powerful criminal seeking to erase all connections with his past activities. Twenty-two-year old Cal Rakowski shelters Heather Pamona, the runaway wife of a wealthy, but abusive man with unsavory business associates and a penchant for brutality. At the same time, Cal's coworker at an off-the-books garage becomes the target of an assassin dressed to kill. Lebell's friendship has smoothed Cal's assimilation in a new place, the demons of Rakowski's family history in the past as he channels his talent into restoring the pricey vehicles that arrive at the garage. Frequently high and often in debt, Cal's boss may be a dilettante, but Rakowski doesn't worry as long as the paychecks keep on coming. Cal and Lebell have forged a comfortable routine between work and play, hitting the local bars on Friday nights.

As Halloween looms, the Grim Reaper appears with an urgent message for Cal's guest, while the bar-hopping Lebell falls willingly into the waiting arms of a single-minded killer. The hounds of hell are unleashed: one scheme draws Heather Pamona out of hiding and into imminent danger, while another eliminates Lebell as a threat. Lebell is seriously wounded, but still alive, both Ronnie Pamona and another soulless killer moving in for the kill with brutal efficiency. The false security of his garage breached, the quiet existence Cal has worked so carefully to sustain becomes an abattoir in a matter of hours, the beleaguered protagonist losing the advantage to a criminal network with ties to law enforcement.

There are no half-measures in this thriller, Cal faced with tough choices in a series of deadly confrontations, unwilling to abandon the friend who came to him in desperation. Tied in a chair in a damp basement with a beautiful woman plying the tools of torture, it's hard to imagine how Cal can escape his circumstances, but Judson's tale is full of surprises, the twists of warped minds no match for a young man desperate to protect a lady in distress. Luan Gaines/2010.

Cal Rakowski is a twenty-two-year-old mechanic who lives in an apartment above a garage in Bridgehampton Village on Long Island. It is Halloween and he finds himself involved with four beautiful women. Heather is a pregnant friend; Cal is hiding her from her wealthy, abusive husband, Ronnie Pamona. Amanda is Heather's wayward half sister; Cal picks her up from Shelter Island, unaware that Ronnie is using her to track Heather. Eve is a hired assassin who wants to torture Cal in hopes of learning some invaluable information about one of his coworkers, a former "body man" who disposed of corpses for the mob. Angelica is a wealthy socialite who helps Cal protect this former body man from detectives, FBI agents, mobsters and Eve. Needless to say, Cal may not live to see another Halloween.

Daniel Judson's "The Violet Hour" is a relentless, sadistic thriller that is perfect for late night reading, especially during Halloween. The setting and season are perfect. The Hamptons of Long Island is a frolicking resort during the Summer, however, come late Fall, it is cold, dreary and desolate. Halloween adds a touch of spookiness. The deserted streets provide a superb background for criminal activity.

An orphan, Cal never feels so alone, especially when he learns his friends aren't who they pretend to be. I kept thinking that he needed to be more careful in choosing them. Your friends can get you killed. Cal is a likeable young man who truly endeavors to protect his friends. I couldn't help but feel sympathy for this scrawny, but tough, underdog. He is a young David who must battle some evil Goliaths. This novel has some of the most despicable, evil characters I've ever read. Eve tops the list; she highly enjoys and is very good at performing a "torture and kill."

Certain scenes of brutal, graphic violence made me squeamish and reminded me of the screenplays written by Quentin Tarantino. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading "The Violet Hour" because it is an incredible action adventure with plenty of surprises. Fast paced, the story takes place during three days which become a living nightmare for Cal. The body count is relatively high, especially towards the end when nearly all the characters are slaughtered. Someone wants to make sure there are no loose ends.

Famous for his dark, violent mysteries set on Long Island, Daniel Judson has also written "The Water's Edge," "The Darkest Place," "The Bone Orchard" and "The Poisoned Rose." If you enjoy reading violent crime dramas, you may want to read Jim Kelly`s "Death Wore White," Stuart Neville's "The Ghosts of Belfast" and Roy Chaney's "The Ragged End of Nowhere."


Joseph B. Hoyos

Daniel Judson continues his series of standalone cerebral thrillers set in the Hamptons with The Violet Hour, a tense yet thoughtful tale of murder, betrayal, and sacrificial love.

Caleb ("Cal") Rakowski is an auto mechanic working for cash at a friend's illegal but lucrative garage in Bridgehampton. He lives inexpensively in a sparse apartment on the garage's second floor, drives an unregistered motorcycle, and does his best to stay under the radar and out of people's way. The problem is, his beautiful and pregnant older cousin Heather, recently estranged from her powerful and abusive husband, is secretly staying with him. When Heather gets word that her missing half-sister has been spotted at a party on nearby Shelter Island, Cal volunteers to go pick her up, little realizing that his simple act of charity will prove to be the undoing of his previously simple existence. Because Heather's husband isn't the only dangerous man in the Hamptons--and Cal is about to be caught up in a plot so twisted, he won't know where to turn or whom to trust. And he'll be lucky to escape with his life.

The Violet Hour is a location thriller, but it's much more than the stereotypical story set in the author's hometown. For one thing, Judson doesn't live in the Hamptons (though he used to). For another thing, the book's dark, gothic feel coupled with unexpectedly rich characterizations, intensely realistic dialog, and eerie, suspenseful scenes set in wonderfully creepy locations render it a literary triumph that easily transcends so-called "local fiction." Judson is an author to take seriously.

The action takes place over three days--Mischief Night, Halloween, and the Day of the Dead--and unfolds almost in real time, adding a sense of urgency to the drama. Some of the villains might be a tad overdone (a codependent assassin who derives her self-worth from her handler, for example), but in the end whatever minor negatives exist are easily and decisively marginalized by the book's strengths. Be prepared for a few descriptions of rather gruesome violence, but mostly be prepared to see a side of the Hamptons you never imagined existed.

It has not taken long for Daniel Judson to shoulder his way onto my list of must-read authors. His novels, of which THE VIOLET HOUR is the fifth, are set in the Hamptons, an area of New York's Long Island. The term conjures up the image of a high-end playground and seasonal resort for the rich and famous, a place where a different set of rules applies. Indeed, Judson's books are populated with shadowy figures who are above the law and a sharply defined underclass caught within machinations above and beyond their control, causing forces to collide. And there are collisions aplenty in THE VIOLET HOUR as it is played out over three significant days and evenings as October gives way to November on the rural backroads of Bridgehampton Village.

The unlikely protagonist is a 22-year-old auto mechanic named Caleb Rakowski, the sole survivor of a family of minor league criminals. Rakowski, trying not to follow in the footsteps of his late --- and notorious --- father and brother, has been spending his days working at an anonymous auto repair and body shop run by his high-rolling friend, Eric Carver, his nights living in an off-the-books apartment above the shop, and his weekends on an occasional drinking and wenching expedition with his co-worker, Lebell. However, things start to change when Rakowski provides shelter to his friend Heather, who is pregnant and on the run from her powerful and extremely abusive husband.

Meanwhile, Lebell's past begins to catch up with him in the form of an incredibly dangerous and deadly woman named Evangeline Amendora. Schooled in the arts of torture and murder, Amendora is the single-minded tool of an organized crime figure who has been tracking Lebell with revenge on his mind. Rakowski finds himself unexpectedly caught between Lebell and Amendora, even as Heather's half-sister Amanda reappears. Amanda has taken several wrong turns, but her sudden reentrance into Heather's life is no accident as Rakowski discovers when he goes to a high-end Halloween party to retrieve her.

As a result of his loyalty to his friends, Rakowski soon finds that he is caught between not one but two major conflicts, both of which threaten to destroy the quiet, below-the-radar existence he has fashioned for himself. Outclassed in every way imaginable, his few assets include an uncanny ability to visualize the manner in which things fit together --- mechanically and otherwise --- and the streetwise advice of his deceased father, which is valuable on both sides of the law. In the short course of a few days, a major bloodbath will be set loose in the Hamptons, and Rakowski will be in the middle of it as a group of powerful figures discovers the danger of pushing a good man too far.

While familiar themes weave into and through all of Judson's novels, he has continued to find and present new ways of exploring them so that surprises abound from page to page. This is especially true in THE VIOLET HOUR, which features a number of plot and character twists, both major and minor, that leave the reader unsettled and uncertain of preconceptions formed during the course of the book. And if that is not enough for you, included is an ending that is as haunting as anything you will read this year. Judson, already critically acclaimed, may well find the commercial success he deserves with THE VIOLET HOUR.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

In the Hamptons, twenty-two years old auto mechanic Caleb Rakowski is all alone as his criminal bent parents and brother are dead. He lives in a dumpy apartment above the garage where he works, but is overall contented with his life as he loves working on cars and his appreciative boss Eric Carver knows the young man is a guru when it comes to auto repair.

Cal does have one friend Lebell, who is in hiding from mobsters; professional killers are aware that Cal is their target's buddy so there is guilt by association. Also unable to mind his own business when an underdog is abused, Cal gives shelter to Heather who treated him nice when he worked as a teen at the restaurant owned by her and her abusive spouse former NFL thug Ronnie Pamona. Soon seemingly everyone on Long Island will converge on Cal to play a special version of survivor; as he wears a bulls-eye being the protector of those victimized by figuratively demons from both sides of the law, but will need to pull a rabbit preferably not a dead one out of the ball cap.

This is a zany entertaining Long Island thriller starring a likable seemingly helpless young man who becomes the defender of the downtrodden against a wave of killers. Blood will flow more often than oil does at the garage over a few days as Cal learns what happens to Good Samaritans. He can be thankful for being a chip off the old block as his DNA oozes suspicion of cops and robbers. He makes for a fun over the top of Suffolk County South Fork lighthouses tale

Harriet Klausner