The secrets of a group of childhood friends unravel in this haunting thriller by Edgar Award winner S. J. Rozan. Set in New York in the unforgettable aftermath of September 11, Absent Friends brilliantly captures the mood of a singular time and place, winding through the wounded streets of New York and Staten Island and into a maze of old crimes, damaged lives, and heartbreaking revelations. The result is not only an electrifying mystery and a riveting piece of storytelling but an elegiac novel that powerfully explores a world changed forever on a clear September morning. Absent Friends is guaranteed to become a classic, a masterful tale about the bonds of friendship, the meaning of truth, and the stuff of heroism.
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"It took me a couple of chapters to get used to the set up of the book-but once I got used to it, I tore through this engrossing story." — Jason (4 out of 5 stars)
"It took me a couple of chapters to get used to the set up of the book-but once I got used to it, I tore through this engrossing story."
“The novel is elaborately structured, with multiple points of view and frequent flashbacks…Rozan’s story…coalesces into a harrowing elegy that lingers.”
“A dense, ambitious novel…an eloquent and profoundly sad story about the heroes who are flawed in a world that needs all the heroes it can get.”
“A rich, sophisticated view of New Yorkers whose lives, like so many others, were so vastly changed on that September morning.”
“Absent Friends is a love song to a city stubbornly insisting on moving forward, and is without question one of the year’s standout novels.”
“Rozan shifts among several narrators and between present and past in this riveting offering…An unforgettable elegy to the clear September morning that forever changed our lives.”
" I was so disappointed with this book and I love all the others that I read. Someone needed to do some serious editing it just went on and on repeating itself. "
" It was a little hard for me to keep up with the characters and the time switches. "
" Interesting characters. I plan to read more Rozan. "
" Reviewed for PW; one of the first novels to deal with 9-11 explicitly (at least that I'd read). "
" Much better than average. I enjoyed the development of the characters through time. "
" This book was very well written and with the background of NY after 9/11 but the story is sad in an unfulfilling way that made me wish it had continued or had some better resolution. "
S. J. Rozan is the author of the popular Lydia Chin and Bill Smith mystery series, as well as several stand-alone novels and novellas. She has won multiple awards for her fiction, including the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, and Macavity awards, the Japanese Maltese Falcon, and the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award.
Barbara McCulloh has appeared on Broadway as Mrs. Darling in Peter Pan and as Anna in The King and I. Her film and television credits include Law & Order: SVU, Another World, and Peter Pan. She has also done extensive work in regional theater and recorded dozens of audiobooks.
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