Four years ago Lew Fonesca's wife was struck and killed in a hit-and-run within sight of their apartment. He fled Chicago, driving mindlessly until his car gave up the ghost in Sarasota, FL. Working from a cheap office behind the Dairy Queen on Highway 301, he makes a threadbare living as a process server and savors his clinical depression like a fine wine. Then his therapist, who alternately acts as his conscience and his sparring partner, tells him it's time he goes back to Chicago and closes the door to the past so that he can finally get on with the rest of his life. Lew hates to admit it, but he's beginning to see her point.
So Lew returns to his home town, to friends and family—and to a grief that threatens to engulf him. He's resolved to dig until he finds out who killed his wife. In doing so, he'll uncover both sweet and painful memories of his past. He'll also confront a murderer who'll not hesitate to kill again to make sure hidden secrets stay buried.
Download and start listening now!
"finally he gets solve his wife's death-was she murdered, or was it an accident. Hopefully the answer will help him get his life together. And along the way he meets and interacts with some ruthless characters and others who are like him, just trying to survive. Language some places."
— Carol (4 out of 5 stars)
“[Michael McConnohie] positively shines in the way he breathes life into Kaminsky’s characters [which] help transform this story of tragedy and redemption into a work that is profound and entertaining but never maudlin. Kaminsky’s characters are multidimensional and textured, and McConnohie seamlessly gives them color and movement.”
— AudioFile“Kaminsky has a knack for creating oddball characters in rollicking plots.”
— Booklist“Several expertly handled little mysteries.”
— Kirkus Reviews" Best of the Lew F series! "
— Gilbert, 9/4/2013" I only finished this book because it was on tape and I listened while working. Not well written, not a particularly interesting story. "
— Wanda, 8/28/2012" Good book, well written, plots a little weird. "
— Gay, 5/18/2012" Doesn't hang together, which is what I guess his fans mean when they say "unpredictable plot." "
— Linda, 2/1/2010" So So, worth finishing but not that great. "
— Margaret, 10/14/2008" Kaminsky has much of the same ease and wit as Elmore Leonard and creates great two-bit crooks. But he goes deeper, I think, especially in his Russian books. But this is a good one and I look forward to reading the last of the series. "
— Sheila, 12/12/2007" Still depressing, but in this book he goes back to Chicago to search for his wife's killer. Very good, but I'll be very disappointed if, based on how this book ended, this was the last book in the Lew Fonesca series. "
— Miss, 11/16/2007Stuart Kaminsky (1934–2009) was one of the most prolific crime fiction authors of the last four decades. He wrote sixty books in all and penned twenty-four novels starring the detective Toby Peters, whom he described as “the anti–Philip Marlowe.” In 1981’s Death of a Dissident, he debuted Moscow police detective Porfiry Rostnikov, whose stories were praised for their accurate depiction of Soviet life. His other two series starred Abe Lieberman, a hardened Chicago cop, and Lew Fonseca, a process server. Born in Chicago, he spent his youth immersed in pulp fiction and classic cinema—two forms of popular entertainment which he would make his life’s work. After college and a stint in the army, he wrote film criticism and biographies of the great actors and directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age. In 1977, when a planned biography of Charlton Heston fell through, he wrote Bullet for a Star, his first Toby Peters novel, beginning a fiction career that would last the rest of his life.
Michael McConnohie has appeared in soap operas, cartoons, prime-time television, and on stage. His audiobook readings have ranged from true crime to history, biography, science, self-help, and poetry. He has seen much of the world as a supervisor of foreign versions of major American films and has written and directed English versions of many prominent foreign films. He believes that a good book is a friend you can visit over and over again and always enjoy the conversation.