Shelley's Book Nook's Reviews > Locust Lane

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This is my first book by this author and it was obvious right from the prologue that Stephen Amidon is a gifted writer. The story of unrequited love gone astray is interesting. Despite their flaws, there was an effort to make the characters seem likable and human but I found I could not stand them. The story also carries a lot of suspense and is very much character driven.

Stephen Amidon knows how to create hugely realistic characters and a finely woven plot that keeps the pages turning. Tense, tough, and powered by brilliant dialogue Amidon is a writer who sees the bigger picture so this novel isn't just a thriller, it is a psychological study of what makes people act the way that they do. His central characters are people you recognize: beset with the everyday problems and concerns that we all experience they connect directly with the reader. You feel you know them or understand the emotions that drive them.

Locust Lane does not disappoint. It transcends the thriller|crime genre to rate as great literary fiction. It succeeds not because it just tells a gripping story, which it most definitely does, but because it turns the mirror onto ourselves and our own fears. This was such a gripping, out-of-the-ordinary crime novel, powerful and bleak. It is an exquisitely written exploration of violent crime and its consequences in an upper-class Massachusetts neighbourhood. I will have to check out the author's other works.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

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