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Title details for Long Black Veil by Jennifer Finney Boylan - Available

Long Black Veil

A Novel

by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Jennifer Finney Boylan
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2017
For fans of Donna Tartt and Megan Abbott, a novel about a woman whose family and identity are threatened by the secrets of her past, from the New York Times bestselling author of She's Not There
On a warm August night in 1980, six college students sneak into the dilapidated ruins of Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary, looking for a thrill. With a pianist, a painter and a teacher among them, the friends are full of potential. But it’s not long before they realize they are locked in—and not alone. When the friends get lost and separated, the terrifying night ends in tragedy, and the unexpected, far-reaching consequences reverberate through the survivors’ lives. As they go their separate ways, trying to move on, it becomes clear that their dark night in the prison has changed them all. Decades later, new evidence is found, and the dogged detective investigating the cold case charges one of them—celebrity chef Jon Casey— with murder. Only Casey’s old friend Judith Carrigan can testify to his innocence.
But Judith is protecting long-held secrets of her own – secrets that, if brought to light, could destroy her career as a travel writer and tear her away from her fireman husband and teenage son. If she chooses to help Casey, she risks losing the life she has fought to build and the woman she has struggled to become. In any life that contains a “before” and an “after,” how is it possible to live one life, not two?
Weaving deftly between 1980 and the present day, and told in an unforgettable voice, Long Black Veil is an intensely atmospheric thriller that explores the meaning of identity, loyalty, and love. Readers will hail this as Boylan’s triumphant return to fiction.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 11, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781524722937
      • File size: 335842 KB
      • Duration: 11:39:40

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 6, 2017
      At the start of this madcap thriller full of hidden identities from Boylan (She’s Not There), a night of goofy postcollege mischief goes horribly amiss in Philadelphia’s shut-down Eastern State Penitentiary in 1980. When human remains surface at the site decades after the party, one of the six revelers, Jon Casey—now a top chef in Philadelphia—is charged, although the gumshoe assigned to review the cold case files senses more than a possible crime of passion has been covered up. In the interim, it appears that another party participant, a friend of Casey’s, may have faked his own death. In rural Maine, freelance writer Judith Carrigan, who knew both the victim and Casey back when, knows the latter to be innocent. But to help Casey would put her family and happiness on the line. Boylan’s bluff, witty prose (“my actual innocence got on his nerves”) charms away any impatience with more far-fetched aspects of her loopy plot. And embedded in the whodunit is a heartwarming midlife love story, in which hard-won candor, tenacity, and a generous sense of humor are the most saving of graces. Agent: Kris Dahl, ICM.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Jennifer Finney Boylan performs her mystery novel, infusing each of the characters with his or her own rhythm, pace, and pitch. In doing so, she makes it easier for listeners to distinguish between the six main characters, their present worlds, and the flashbacks to the day in 1980 on which they experienced a life-altering tragedy. In particular, the story features a travel writer, wife, and mother named Judith and the dilemmas she faces. Boylan is a deft storyteller who displays a range of talent worthy of a professional narrator as she recounts the complex way that one day from the past can undo everything in one's present. Listeners will hang on her every word to see who will protect the innocent. M.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      September 1, 2017

      "This was a long time ago," Boylan (She's Not There) begins--August 1980, more specifically. "[N]one of us now are the people we were then." Thirty-five years later, the college friends who trespassed into the boarded-up Eastern State Penitentiary are now "ghosts: two...dead, a third unrecognizable, a fourth suspected of murder." Telling the story of what happened then and what's happening now is the same person--albeit a rather chimerical character who was once a lonely lost soul, who's now an adored wife, mother, and successful travel writer in small-town Maine. Despite lies, betrayal, and murder, Boylan's novel is actually quite an entertaining romp, not least because she narrates in her unique, immediately recognizable staccato voice. Her initial breathiness between phrases adds an effective sense of urgency--we're listening to a murder mystery, after all--and eventually dissipates as she settles into a rhythmic cadence as the intriguing plot unfolds. VERDICT For savvy listeners ready for a twisty-turny thriller with a narrator sure to induce both laughter and tears. ["Boylan's entertaining thriller takes a hard look at questions of identity, love, and trust": LJ 2/1/17 review of the Crown hc.]--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

      Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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