Late Rain

Almost an exclusive non-fiction reader, I didn't expect to get caught up in a mystery novel. I'd read a review from a place called spinetinglers or something like that and decided that if a reviewer could go over the top to that degree, there must be something special about this book. There is. The characters are so well developed you feel you know them, even the worst ones. And thanks, JJ and Charlie (reviewers early on) I was also one who felt compassion for Corrine but was embarrassed to find myself cheering for an "evil" person. I, too, have not come to grips with the ending as it wasn't what I expected. I wish I could express how excited I was each time I could curl up in my chair and read into the night! When it was over I found I just liked holding the book. While I'm known for loving books, I don't normally hug them! I know that's strange, but there is a joy in reading something so well done and experiencing lives outside our own. I agree this is beyond mystery/crime. I am caught now, unable to return to partially read books stacked nearby, or dare to order another Kostoff book! You won't regret reading this book -- only that it's over.

Lynn Kostoff delivers a well-crafted novel, with complex characters expertly drawn. I heard echoes of Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone charter in tortured homicide detective Ben Decovic, who left a big-city police force to become a small-town patrolman. Kostoff's prose feels much darker to me than Parker's, though. I take issue with one of the cover blurbs which describes Late Rain as funny. Personally, I found no humor in it at all, though certainly each reader brings his or her own perspectives to a book. Late Rain is executed flawlessly. It's a noir crime novel written in rich literary prose.

It is difficult to write this review without relying on what seems to be hyperbole, but in Late Rain Lynn Kostoff has created a superlative novel that succeeds on every level. It is a compelling crime story. It depicts and develops characters who leap off the page. Its language is rich and poetic. And it is a moving story about a variety of characters caught in their own individuals prisons (for lack of a better word). Whether it is the central character Ben Decovic, a cop tormented by memories of his dead wife; or Corrine Tedros, a scheming woman for whom the reader will develop a surprising compassion; or Jack Carson, whose Alzheimer's has trapped him in a landscape where words and memories either don't come or don't accurately mesh; or even the bizarre hitman Croy Wendall, who comes across as almost infantile in terms of his corrupted and inner life--these characters, and many more, are vivid creations, unlike others you might have encountered in other "crime novels." In fact, to call this a crime novel is a disservice. It is a marvelously written, evocative, engaging literary novel that taps a series of crimes as a means of conveying a powerful and mesmerizing story. The final pages are still haunting me. Kostoff has written well before, but he far surpasses his earlier novels with this one, which I place not only in the galaxy of Lehane's Mystic River or Bruen's The Guards but among the best works of Daniel Woodrell, Cormac McCarthy, and Robert Stone, just to name three. This is a novel to buy and to read now; you will not regret it.

"Masterful writing, spot on dialogue and insight to the human condition more often associated with literary works than crime fiction, Lynn Kostoff's Late Rain is one of those rare novels that transcend genre fiction; it is writing at its very best, brilliant from start to finish." --Charlie Stella Read my full review here: [...]