Inherit the dead : a novel

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Title:

Inherit the dead : a novel

ISBN:

9781451684759

Edition:

First Touchstone hardcover edition.

Physical Description:

viii, 265 pages ; 24 cm

Subject Term:

Private investigators -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction.

Missing persons -- Fiction.

Inheritance and succession -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction.

Genre:

Noir fiction.

Mystery fiction.

Added Author:

Santlofer, Jonathan, 1946-

Summary:

Pericles "Perry" Christo is a PI with a past--a former cop, who lost his badge and his family when a corruption scandal left him broke and disgraced. When wealthy Upper East Side matron Julia Drusilla summons him one cold February night, he grabs what seems to be a straightforward (and lucrative) case. The socialite is looking for her beautiful, aimless daughter, Angelina, who is about to become a very wealthy young woman. But as Christo digs deeper, he discovers there's much more to the lovely "Angel" than meets the eye. Her father, her best friend, her boyfriends all have agendas of their own. Angel, he soon realizes, may be in grave danger. and if Christo gets too close, he just might get caught in the crossfire. This classic noir tale twists and turns down New York's mean streets and along Hamptons' beaches and back roads during a bitterly cold and gray winter where nothing is as it seems and everyone has something to hide. In an inventive storytelling approach, each writer brings his or her distinctive voice to a chapter of Inherit the Dead, building the tension to a shocking, explosive finale"--

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Oakdale Library	MYSTERY INH	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	MYSTERY INH	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Valley Library (Lakeland)	MYSTERY INH	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

TWENTY THRILLING WRITERS. ONE CHILLING MYSTERY.

More than twenty New York Times bestselling authors team up to create a first-rate serial novel--a collaboration among some of the most popular mystery and thriller writers in the English-speaking world today, producing a "well-told mystery that stands on its own two (or 40) feet" ( Booklist ).

Readers will enjoy an introduction by Lee Child, an afterword by Linda Fairstein, and chapters by bestselling authors Mary Higgins Clark, John Connolly, Charlaine Harris, CJ Box, Mark Billingham, Lawrence Block, Ken Bruen, Alafair Burke, Stephen L. Carter, Marcia Clark, Max Allan Collins, James Grady, Heather Graham, Bryan Gruley, Val McDermid, SJ Rozan, Jonathan Santlofer, Dana Stabenow, Lisa Unger, and Sarah Weinman. What's more, the editor, Jonathan Santlofer, has arranged to donate any royalties in excess of editor and contributor compensation to Safe Horizon, the leading victim assistance agency in the country--making it a worthy and winning triumph.

Pericles "Perry" Christo is a PI with a past--a former cop, who lost his badge and his family when a corruption scandal left him broke and disgraced. When wealthy Upper East Side matron Julia Drusilla summons him one cold February night, he grabs what seems to be a straightforward (and lucrative) case.

The socialite is looking for her beautiful, aimless daughter, Angelina, who is about to become a very wealthy young woman. But as Christo digs deeper, he discovers there's much more to the lovely "Angel" than meets the eye. Her father, her best friend, her boyfriends all have agendas of their own. Angel, he soon realizes, may be in grave danger...and if Christo gets too close, he just might get caught in the crossfire.

This classic noir tale twists and turns down New York's mean streets and along Hamptons' beaches and back roads during a bitterly cold and gray winter where nothing is as it seems and everyone has something to hide.

Author Notes

Lee Child is the pen name of Jim Grant, who was born in Coventry, England on October 29, 1954. He attended law school at Sheffield University, worked in the theater, and finally worked as a presentation director for Granada Television. After being laid off in 1995 because of corporate restructuring, he decided to write a book. The Killing Floor won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel and became the first book in the Jack Reacher series. In 2012, the first Jack Reacher film was released starring Tom Cruise. His book's, Worth Dying For and Past Tense, made the bestseller list in 2018.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Despite the usual serial-novel pitfalls, C.J. Box, Lawrence Block, Mary Higgins Clark, Charlaine Harris, Val McDermid, and the 15 other distinguished crime authors who each contribute a chapter to this team project succeed in fashioning an engaging and cohesive plot. Each author maintains his or her distinctive style and storytelling approach. Marcia Clark's offering is a mini-legal thriller, for example, while Heather Graham's is heavy on the romance. Wealthy Julia Drusilla hires former NYPD homicide cop Pericles "Perry" Christo to find her missing 20-year-old daughter, Angelina, who's set to inherit a fortune. The trail to Angel, as her family calls her, twists from Manhattan's Upper East Side to the Hamptons and Brooklyn. Everyone in Angel's life has an ulterior motive, including her father, boyfriend, and best friend. The chapters move seamlessly as clues and storylines set up by one author are expanded by the next. Royalties in excess of editor and contributor compensations go to Safe Horizon, America's largest provider of services for domestic violence victims. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

In a follow-up, though hardly a sequel, to the round-robin novel No Rest for the Dead (2011), 20 authors team up to track down a missing heiress and raise money for the victims' support group Safe Horizon. Angelina Loki couldn't have picked a worse time to run away from the home she shares with her father, nonpracticing lawyer Norman Loki. Little does Angel know that in two weeks, when she turns 21, she's set to split a mammoth trust fund with Norman's ex, neurotic socialite Julia Drusilla--if she signs the appropriate papers that very day. Editor Santlofer shows Julia hiring private eye Pericles Cristo, who was framed and forced out of the NYPD, in his capable opening chapter. From that point on, routine is the order of the day. The story is so familiar and the chapters so short that the star-studded roster of authors would have to struggle to endow their contributions with any originality, and most of them settle for keeping the ball in play. Some of them introduce new characters for Perry to question; some of them don't. James Grady, Dana Stabenow and C.J. Box take it upon themselves to develop the plot; Heather Graham, Marcia Clark and Val McDermid wallow in genre clichs. The episodes, interrupted periodically by anonymous snippets from the criminal's point of view, are so formulaic that even though Ken Bruen and Max Allan Collins sound just like they always do, Perry's whole skein of conversations--you can hardly call them adventures--are readily integrated into a seamless story whose only problem is that it isn't very interesting. Other contributors include Stephen L. Carter, Charlaine Harris, Sarah Weinman, Bryan Gruley, Alafair Burke, John Connolly, Lisa Unger, S.J. Rozan, Mary Higgins Clark, Mark Billingham and Lawrence Block, all of them presumably recruited for the much better work they've done elsewhere.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Although it's not a sequel to 2011's No Rest for the Dead, this novel-by-committee is a very good follow-up. Twenty writers among them such notables as Billingham, Box, Bruen, Connolly, and McDermid combine forces to tell the story of private investigator Perry Christo, a former NYPD homicide cop who's hired by a society woman to find her missing daughter, Angel, who doesn't know that she's about to become a fabulously wealthy heiress. But that will only happen if Angel signs some documents on her twenty-first birthday, which means Perry is operating on a short deadline. Adopting a conventional PI format, the book makes a few nods to classics of the genre (a character named Elisha Hook, for example, is a clear reference to actor Elisha Cook, Jr., who appeared in The Maltese Falcon). There are some stylistic variations between the 20 authors John Connolly doesn't sound like Charlaine Harris but, for the most part, the story moves as though there were a single hand on the tiller. Not merely a genre curiosity, the book is a well-told mystery that stands on its own two (or 40) feet.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal Review

A rich divorcee's estranged daughter, Angelina Loki, has gone missing, and the mother, Julia Drusilla, hires PI Pericles (Perry) Christo to find her. Ostensibly, the reason is an inheritance due on Angel's upcoming 21st birthday; Angel must sign documents on that day in order to claim her fortune. Perry can't afford to turn down the case, even though it smells fishy from the get-go. Trolling the length of Long Island and back to Manhattan, the puzzled PI meets a boatload of shady characters, almost all familiar to ardent crime fiction readers. There's the oddball father, the sleazy boyfriend, the married politician lover, the disloyal best friend, and even a shadowy character following Perry. Deducing what happened to Angel is quite the chase! VERDICT Readers can't go wrong with this juicy thriller written serial style by 20 popular authors (including Child, C.J. Box, and Val McDermid) that pays homage to classic noir fiction (Dashiell Hammett, anyone?). If Sandra Brown and others' No Rest for the Dead caught your patrons' attention, then grab this one, too. It's just right for season-in-a-box binge viewers, and all publishing profits go to a good cause, Safe Horizon. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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