Acts of Violence (Macmillan New Writing) - Hardcover

Jahn, Ryan David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0230743595 ISBN 13: 9780230743595

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, 2009

Synopsis

Katrina Marino is about to become America’s most infamous murder victim.

This is Katrina’s story, and the story of her killer.

It is also the story of Katrina’s neighbours, those who witnessed her murder and did nothing: the terrified Vietnam draftee; the woman who thinks she’s killed a child, and her husband who will risk everything for the truth; the former soldier planning suicide and the man who saves him. And others whose lives are touched by the crime: the elderly teacher whose past is catching up with him; the amateur blackmailer who’s about to find out just what sort of people he’s been threatening; the corrupt cop who believes he is God’s ‘red right hand’.

Shocking and compassionate, angry and gripping, ACTS OF VIOLENCE is a sprawling, cinematic tour-de-force, a terrifying crime novel unlike any other.

About this title

About the Author

Ryan David Jahn grew up in Arizona, Texas and California. He left school at sixteen to work in a record store and subsequently joined the army. Since 2004 he has worked in television and film. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife Mary.

Review

"Compelling, slick, exuberant, flashy, funny, fierce, and cinematic . . . Deftly written with panache and polish . . . This remarkable novel, a lean, psychologically unsettling noir tale, will stay with you long after you put it down and regretfully say, 'I wish I wrote that.'"
-Library Journal, starred review

"One of the best books I have ever read. . . . The writing is powerful, it takes hold of you from the first page and that hold gets tighter and tighter until the heart-wrenching ending. It was impossible to put down. Good Neighbors is a book not to be missed."
-Kendall Gutierrez, Suspense Magazine

"Intensely gripping . . . A fine and memorable novel."
-Booklist, starred review

"Heart-stopping."
-Library Journal

"Darkly powerful . . . Jahn inhabits these people and their problems so completely and convincingly that they don't seem like monsters even as they ignore the woman who's dying only a few yards away."
-Kirkus Reviews

"A terrific debut . . . A wonderfully visual book-the effect is of watching, unseen, through a dozen different windows as Jahn switches from one scenario to the next. Powerful, compassionate and authentic, it works both as a mystery and as a snapshot of America in the early 1960s."
-The Guardian

"Gripping . . . Jahn takes the nub of the real Genovese case and weaves a superb series of fictional stories around it. . . . He constructs a convincing edifice of doubt, anger, jealousy, despair and a host of other emotions leading inexorably to the same conclusion: do nothing."
-The Times (London)

"A striking first novel . . . It contains genuine insights into the way people act under pressure."
-The Sunday Times (London)

"An astounding piece of fiction. It grips you like a vice from the beginning and doesn't let you go. . . . [Jahn is a] bright new star to crime fiction."
-Crimesquad

"An audacious, inventive piece of literary thriller writing . . . Jahn's novel is subtle, delicately constructed and displays a fine ear for dialogue. It also announces the arrival of a distinctive new talent."
-Daily Mail

"Brutal and immediate . . . Cleverly written, accomplished and gripping. . . . At times I had to stop reading to catch my breath."
-The Bookseller

"Without a doubt, the most outstanding novel I have read this year."
-Rhian Davies, It's a Crime!

"Jahn's violent amorality tale has . . . drawn well-earned comparisons with Bret Easton Ellis and James Ellroy. . . . Gripping, and layered with juicy, scathing insights into the relationships and politics of the era, Jahn proves himself as a promising noir talent."
-The List

"Addictive and compelling."
-BookTime

"A gripping and thoughtful psychological thriller . . . Terse, telegraphic and present-tense, Jahn's style creates a voyeuristic distance between reader and characters that perfectly matches his theme, the fearfulness and atomization of urban life that encourages each man to be an island."
-Financial Times

"A very accomplished debut, a gripping thriller based on a real event in '60s America. Moving quickly from perspective to perspective, it scoops the reader up from page one and does not let go. This is not only a crime novel, but a brilliant evocation of '60s New York in terms of its prejudices, its corruption and its humanity."
-Crime Writers Association Dagger Award judges' citation

--Various

[Audio Review] Narrator Paul Costanzo balances the multiple points of view in this compelling crossroads of characters and drives listeners to want to hear more about their lives well after the story ends. Building a fictional narrative inspired by the famous Kitty Genovese murder in New York City in 1964, Jahn explores some reasons why neighbors did not aid the young woman who was being killed outside their doors and windows. Costanzo improves the book with a voice that blends well with whatever perspective he is narrating; he can move from the psychopath to the victim clearly enough not to lose or confuse listeners. His strong command of tone, emphasis, and pacing, which varies by character, almost immediately tells the listener whose point of view it is before being identified. --AudioFile

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0230743595
• ISBN 13: 9780230743595
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280