| 9781681777955 |
| 1681777959 |
Available:*
Library | Material Type | Call Number | Shelf Location | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Monument Library | Book | BOYL | Mystery | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
When a young woman with a sordid past witnesses a murder, she finds herself fascinated by the killer and decides to track him down herself.
Amy lives a lonely life, helping the house-bound receive communion in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn. Oneof her regulars, Mrs. Epifanio, says she hasn't seen her usual caretaker, Diane, in a few days. Supposedly, Diane has the flu--or so Diane's son Vincent said when he first dropped by and vanished into Mrs. E's bedroom to do no-one-knows-what.
Amy's brief interaction with Vincent in the apartment that day sets off warning bells, so she assures Mrs. E that she'll find out what's really going on with both him and his mother. She tails Vincent through Brooklyn, eventually following him and a mysterious man out of a local dive bar. At first, the men are only talking as they walk, but then, almost before Amy can register what has happened, Vincent is dead.
For reasons she can't quite understand, Amy finds herself captivated by both the crime she witnessed and the murderer himself. She doesn't call the cops to report what she's seen. Instead, she collects the murder weapon from the sidewalk and soon finds herself on the trail of a killer.
Character-driven and evocative, The Lonely Witness brings Brooklyn to life in a way only a native can, and opens readers' eyes to the harsh realities of crime and punishment on the city streets.
Author Notes
William Boyle is from Brooklyn, New York. His novels include: Gravesend , which was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France; The Lonely Witness , which was nominated for the Hammett Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière; A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself , an Amazon Best Book of the Year; and, most recently, City of Margins , a Washington Post Best Thriller and Mystery Book of 2020. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Years ago, Amy Falconetti, the heroine of Boyle's poignant second novel set in Brooklyn (after Gravesend), worked as a hard-partying bartender and dated an aspiring actress named Alessandra. Now in her mid-30s and alone, Amy is volunteering as a Eucharistic minister, bringing communion to elderly shut-ins who live in her neighborhood. Her boring life is suddenly turned upside down when she witnesses a murder. Complicating matters is the sudden return of Alessandra and her alcoholic father, who left her when she was a child. Amy, who believes the killer saw her and is now stalking her, must also deal with her still strong feelings toward Alessandra and her contempt for Alessandra's father, who desperately wants to make amends for his past bad behavior. In the chaos, Amy sees high-risk avenues to escape her dead-end life-but is an unknown future better than living a safe shadow existence? Powered by brilliantly realized characters, a richly described and grittily realistic backdrop, and subtle yet powerful imagery, this is crime fiction at its best: immersive, intense, and darkly illuminating. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Assoc. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* This is a follow-up to Boyle's previous novel (Gravesend, 2013) insofar as it is set, darkly, in the same blue-collar neighborhood of Brooklyn and features a cameo from one of that novel's characters, aspiring actress Allessandra. Amy and Allesandra were once lovers. It is Amy who is the lonely witness. Once a party girl, she now lives a solitary existence, keeping her exotic tattoos well hidden while working odd jobs and doing penance by delivering Communion to the housebound. This remarkable discordance is riveting, especially after Amy witnesses a murder and becomes at once traumatized by the crime and obsessed with the murderer. She pockets the weapon and doesn't call the police. Instead, she takes up with the killer. As a girl, she had witnessed another murder, and the early death of her mother and abandonment by her father has left her in a peculiar, yet captivated, state of arrested development. Amy elicits the same dark fascination as Sara Gran's stellar neo-noir detective, Claire DeWitt (Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, 2011). Boyle won a prestigious French literary award for Gravesend and was featured in a Guardian write-up that compared him to Elmore Leonard and declared him a new name to watch. That watching continues with this outstanding thriller.--Murphy, Jane Copyright 2018 Booklist
