A Killing in the Real World

A Killing in the Real World is Bohjalian's first writing effort. It was a book I searched high & low for, and finally got a copy of. It was pretty much what I was expecting from the few comments I'd read- a mystery novel that was not spectacular, but decent. This book is about 4 college roommates who are now graduated and living on their own. One is married, others are executives and one has not been quite as successful as the others- working at a Hallmark. When the book opens we meet Lisa, the narrator, and she's reading a newspaper article to her college friend Melanie about their mutual roommate Penny who has been murdered. The shocking part is that Penny was recently married, has a high-powered job as a Brand Manager, everything seemed to be going right for her: But then why was she found dead in a Drug Dealer's apartment, with naked pictures of her taken? We watch as the cops investigate, interviewing Penny's friends & family. And we also watch the 3 roommates left behind deal with her death, all of the questions surrounding it and the scandal it's brought about. But surprisingly, the death toll does not stop with Penny, another friend will soon be murdered, which leaves more questions than ever. Overall I did enjoy this book. I am a huge fan of Bohjalian, I've loved each of his other novels. This one, is probably my least favorite, but none the less I enjoyed the characters and the story. The ending was almost predictable, but I would be lying if I didn't say it still surprised me a bit. What I most enjoyed was that there were several occasions that the scene was so tense that I was flipping through pages quickly to see what would happen next. Additionally, some scenes were so scary, that I was biting my nails. I would recommend this book, mainly to Bohjalian hard-core fans. I was glad I made the effort to find the book & read it. If you're not so into him, I'd recommend something else of his such as The Buffalo Soldier, Water Witches or Past the Bleachers. I actually read his preceeding book to this first, HangMan, which was Bohjalian's only other mystery novel- and without a doubt, if you haven't read that you need to!! It was one of the best mysteries I've ever read (and I've read a lot!), a Killing in the Real World was his practice shot.