Book 22 0f 2012 is by Tom Piccirilli and it’s the first book I’ve read by this author and I can tell you it will not be the last! The Last Kind Words is a terrific book! But don’t just take my word for it here’s what some others think about the book:
“Mystic River set the bar for classic literary mystery, and The Last Kind Words is a novel on the same superb playing field. Compassionate, fascinating, and with an adrenaline narrative that is as gripping as it is moving, this book is pure alchemy.” —KEN BRUEN
“The Last Kind Words is a story born of the dark legacies of family violence and loss. With vivid prose and palpable urgency, it succeeds utterly as a crime tale. At the same time, it reminds us that crimes can emanate from both the darkest and lightest of places, and renders the heart of a damaged family with clear-eyed yet fervent beauty.” —MEGAN ABBOTT
The narrator of the book is one Terrier Rand, member of a family small-time thieves and grifters living on Long Island. We meet Terry five years after two tragedies changed his life forever, the first was the miscarriage of his child by the love of his life Kimmy, and the second a senseless killing spree by his brother that left eight dead, including a child and elderly woman. Terry couldn’t handle either tragedy so he ran away, from the woman he loved in her time of need, and a brother he now hated more than ever! But days before his brother’s execution, Terry receives a call that both his brother, Collie and his family need him. The call pulls him back into the life and troubles he left. Collie asks Terry to help him. He had admitted to all but one of the murders, the one he says he didn’t commit was the murder of a pretty young brunette, Rebecca Clarke. Collie is convinced that the true murderer of Rebecca is still at large and will kill again! So Terry sets out to discover the truth and what he finds may just destroy his family!
In the Rand family, Piccirilli has created a unique family, that’s criminal through and through, but they know their niche and stay in it. The whole family has their own set of problems from Terry’s father Pinsch, who has to deal with his father Shep’s Alzheimer’s, Uncles Grey and Mal, who are in trouble with mobster’s just a little heavier than the Rands, and little sister Dale who at fifteen is dating a 20 something wanna’ be mobster! So while the story is about finding the murderer of Rebecca for Collie it’s also the tale of a family that you care about Lisa Unger says:
“You don’t choose your family. And the Rand clan, a family of thieves, is bad to the bone. But it’s a testimony to Tom Piccirilli’s stellar writing that you still care about each and every one of them. The Last Kind Words is at once a dark and brooding page-turner and a heartfelt tale about the ties that bind.”
Tom Piccirilli has won two International Thriller Writers Awards and four Bram Stoker Awards, as well as having been nominated for the Edgar, the World Fantasy Award, the Macavity, and Le Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire. so check him out, as for me I have a lot of Piccirilli’s award-winning writing to catch up on!