1. True Crime
2. Michael Mewshaw, who has written seven critically acclaimed novels, as well as three
volumes of awardwinning investigative journalisms. His articles and reviews have
appeared in The New Yotk Times, The Washington Post, London Magazine, and The New
Statesman.
3. 1992
4. A novel
5. In the nineties.
6. The story takes place in several places across the United States; Maryland, Syms Island,
New York and Connecticut.
7. Somewhere between one and two months.
8. Tom Heller is a true-crime writer. He is married to Marisa and they live in Italy together
with their two children Matt and Kevin.
Tom is a tough guy, who won?t give up very quickly. In high school he had a relationship with Elaine, but that didn?t last. When he meets her again, although he is married, he still sleeps with her. So I guess his week spot lies in his maleness.
Elaine Yost is a very rich lady who has a lot of mysteries. Apparantly she seems to have had an illegitamate son. When you feel you are getting to know her, she always surprises you. Externally she is very pretty; thin, dark hair, tall.
Curtis Koontz is Doreen?s lawyer, who is pregnant with Clay?s child. Clay is Elaine?s
brother. Koontz appears to be a nice guy,
Buck is Tom?s brother and he is married to Peggy. They live in the States. Buck is very fond of Tom but he is also a bit jealous of his career.
9. Yes, Tom Heller, the true-crime writer and main character is the I-person in this book.
Though he is not Michael Mewshaw, the author.
10. There is a lot of action. Four people get killed and two get shot. Every killing and shooting
is described in detail in this book.
11. Buck and his brother have a few conflicts on how to handle the death of their father. Tom
and Marisa have conflicts about Elaine.
12. He wants us to think about the police system. How crimes are solved and how hard it is to
proove certain facts.
13. The author uses a lot of flashbacks so you get a good idea of Tom?s life.
14. The moment Right at the beginning when Tom decides to go to America and write a book
about his father?s shooting. If he hadn?t done that, there wouldn?t have been a book.
15. I felt both. I found it stupid he slept with Elaine, but at other times I felt a lot of sympathy
for Tom.
16. The book was great fun to read, although it does have 344 pages with very small letters
and very long sentences. The story was very mysterious and well-written.
17. Death, love and deceit between all the main charcters.
18. I was in the library and couldn?t decide which book to read. This title reminded me of a
film, although I?ve never seen it, so I?m not quite sure it exists, nevertheless I decided to
read it.
19. Yes, it was a really good book to read, with the plot right at the end, so it kept you busy
trying to figure things out for yourself.
20. Tom Heller lives in Italy with his wife Marisa, and his children Matt (6) and Kevin (11).
One day he gets a message from his brother, that his father was shot. Tom flies over straight away leaving the rest behind. In america Tom dies very quickly and both Buck and himself are convinced to find the killer.
In another town two other people get shot; Andrew and Clay Yost. Teir deaths are all over the papers known as the ?Yost family murder?. They were very wealthy people and Tom knows the only surviver, Elaine, from highschool.
It doesn?t really surprise him when several days later he receives a call from Elaine and her lawyer who request a talk.
Tom who has decided to write a book about the killings, sees it as an opportunity to take some interviews, so he flies over to Syms island where Elaine lives.
When he gets there Elaine wants him to sign an afidavit which reads that Tom knew she was pregnant. What had been happening? Elaine was having a relationship with Tom, but her father didn?t approve. When she got pregnant of another guy, her father wanted he to stop seeing Tom and let the child get adopted. She was in several private clincs and Tom always managed to find out where she was staying. Before the murders on her father and brother Elaine received a few letters with threats im then. She claims the letters are of her illegitemate child, but there are no records that say she ever had a son. So Tom is the only one who saw her pregnant and can proove that this part of the story is true. He doesn?t sign, for he finds her story a bit odd.
Elaine and Tom get to know each other better and they sleep with each other. Tom regrets what he has done, and goes back to Buck. Buck tells him that the prints on the gun used to kill Andrew and Clay Yost are of both Andrew, Clay, Elaine and a third person.
After some time Tom decides to find the nurse who treated Elaine with her pregnancy. There he finds out Elaine kept her son as her brother, Clay. And so there never was an adoption. The threatening letters came from this nurse, beacuase she and her son are very poor and she knew Elaine was rich and sensitive for blackmail. Because she is in a wheelchair she never could have killed them herself.
Tom finds out that the same gun was used on his father and the Yosts. He also knows that Elaine is the connection between both murders. So he accuses her. Then he finds out who really did it.
Elaine was at home when she found Clay shot and her father drunk behind his desk. She had always hated him, but killing Clay had been too much, so she shot her father.
Now he wonders who killed his faher. He receives a call from Curtis Koontz telling him Doreen?s been beaten. When Tom sees her she is almost dead, but Curtis won?t take her to a hospital, because he is afraid of the police. Darryl Doreen?s brother did this to her, because she appeared to know too much, according to Curtis. Tom goes to his father?s place and calls an ambulance. A few minutes later Darryl appears at his front door, telling him that Koontz killed evryone. He had overheard Doreen and Koontz talking about it and he had beaten Doreen beacause he was angry with her. Then Koonts enters the house and shoots Darryl. So Tom knows Darryl is tellling the truth. Then Buck comes to the rescue and kills Koontz, who shot Tom in his arm.
What actually happened is this; Koontz wanted money and so did Clay. Clay knew that Tom was the person who knew about Elaine?s pregnancy so he decided to kill him. Not knowing he lived in Italy, he found the name Heller in a phone book and killed the man, who was Tom?s father. Then Koontz wanted the inheritance Doreen?s child would get if Andrew and Clay died, so he shot Clay. His father saw his sons body, but was drunk, so he couldn?t do anything but cry. Then Elaine entered and killed her father. Doreen and Curtis tried to set Darryl up with the murders, but then Darryl attacked is sister and the end you already know.