I am going to make this review fairly short and sweet. Suffice it to say that after the first several paragraphs I will never ever look at a cellist the same. The opening paragraphs are so evocative and creepy that the reader, in this case moi, is totally unable to put the book down.
The Killing Song is what they call in the business a "Stand Alone" which has become quite popular with mystery novelists as of late. There are authors that can write "stand alone's" and those that cannot. The team of two very talented sisters that comprise the nom de plume of P.J. Parrish most definitely can and did pen a very exciting novel. As a huge fan of their main protagonist, Louis Kinkaid, the African-American P.I. living in Florida after a stint as a police officer in Michigan, I was somewhat hesitant to read this book. I mean, you get to know an author/s and develop an empathy and relationship with their central characters and then they send their readers a curve ball and write a "stand alone". This book was definitely a "home run" using the vernacular of baseball once again. I read this book in one sitting; staying up late into the night to finish it. While there are few missteps in character development and what I thought was an unnecessary desire to imbue a monster with a sense of pathos (my only complaint) the story moves along with a deftness, a soupcon of the Gothic tradition , i.e. Wilke Collins and Daphne DuMaurier, and absolutely riveting descriptions of a Paris most people never will encounter. As one who has spent time in Paris, and it's never enough time, this made me wish so very much I could just hop on a plane and return to the Most Beautiful City in the World.
If you are a reader who appreciates well-researched books with a sense of place and an unerring ear for detail along with a crackerjack plot this book needs to be on your list of "Must Reads".
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