The Last Talk with Lola Faye: An Otto Penzler Book (Otto Penzler Books) - Softcover

Cook, Thomas H.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0547520298 ISBN 13: 9780547520292

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2011

Synopsis

Middling historian Lucas Paige visits St. Louis to give a sparsely attended reading—nothing out of the ordinary. Except among the yawning attendees is someone he did not expect: Lola Faye Gilroy, the “other woman” he has long blamed for his father’s murder decades earlier.

Reluctantly, Luke joins Lola Faye for a drink. As one drink turns into several, these two battered souls relive, from their different perspectives, the most searing experience of their lives. Slowly but surely, the hotel bar dissolves around them and they are transported back to the tiny southern town where this defining moment—a violent crime of passion—is turned in the light once more to reveal flaws in the old answers. As it turns out, there is much Luke doesn’t know. And what he doesn’t know can hurt him. Trapped in an increasingly intense emotional exchange, and with no place to go save back into his own dark past, Luke struggles to gain control of an ever more threatening conversation, to discover why Lola Faye has come and what she is after—before it is too late.

A taut literary thriller in the gothic tradition of Master of the Delta.

About this title

Book Description:

HMH hardcover, 2010
Previous ISBN 978-0-15-101407-1

From the Back Cover:

A knockout. People

Magically written . . . Cook continues his work as one of the best fiction writers in America. Cleveland Plain-Dealer

Middling historian Lucas Paige visits St. Louis to give a sparsely attended reading nothing out of the ordinary. Except among the yawning attendees is someone he did not expect: Lola Faye Gilroy, the other woman he has long blamed for his father s murder decades earlier.

Reluctantly, Luke joins Lola Faye for a drink. As one drink turns into several, these two battered souls relive, from their different perspectives, the most searing experience of their lives. Slowly but surely, the hotel bar dissolves around them and they are transported back to the tiny southern town where this defining moment a violent crime of passion is turned in the light once more to reveal flaws in the old answers. As it happens, there is much Luke doesn t know. And what he doesn t know can hurt him. Trapped in an increasingly intense emotional exchange, and with no place to go save back into his own dark past, Luke struggles to gain control of an ever more threatening conversation, to discover why Lola Faye has come and what she is after before it is too late.

THOMAS H. COOK was born in Fort Payne, Alabama. He has been nominated for Edgar Awards seven times in five different categories. He received the Best Novel Edgar and the Barry for Best Novel, and has been nominated for numerous other awards.

I have long been an admirer of Thomas H. Cook s novels, and The Last Talk with Lola Faye is one of his best yet: an expertly plotted, beautifully written, compelling and suspenseful book. Harlan Coben, author of Live Wire

Engrossing . . . A page-turner . . . An eloquent articulation that the truths we won t face are the ones that never stop pumping their slow poison into our blood. It s a story about coming to terms, a thriller whose engine is regret. Minneapolis Star-Tribune"

About this edition

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0547520298
• ISBN 13: 9780547520292
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288