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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9780399155314
ISBN number: 0399155317
Label: Putnam Adult
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: August 21, 2008
Publishing house: Putnam Adult
Sale Popularity Level: 24813
Studio: Putnam Adult
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Product Description:
In Fresh Kills, the murder of John Sanders, Sr. on a New York street corner reunites his estranged and abused children, John, Jr. and Julia. While Julia struggles to keep things together on the home front, Junior, unhinged by his father's death, searches for the killer across the bleak, haunted landscape of his Staten Island hometown. Complicating Junior's pursuit are two police detectives: one, a former childhood friend; the other, a veteran cop who might have his own reasons to wish John, Sr. dead. Junior's affair with his high school sweetheart doesn-t exactly simplify the situation either, and his emotional state crumbles under the pressure coming at him from every side. When the opportunity for revenge presents itself, Junior must decide whether he will continue the chain of violence that has nearly destroyed his life, or give in to the possibility of a new beginning.
Amazon.com Review:
'Fresh Kills quickly expands past itself, blows away its limiting genre boundaries, and becomes a story of real psychological complexity and emotional realism.' --Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love
In Fresh Kills, the murder of John Sanders, Sr. on a New York street corner reunites his estranged and abused children, John, Jr. and Julia. While Julia struggles to keep things together on the home front, Junior, unhinged by his father's death, searches for the killer across the bleak, haunted landscape of his Staten Island hometown. Complicating Junior's pursuit are two police detectives: one, a former childhood friend; the other, a veteran cop who might have his own reasons to wish John, Sr. dead. Junior's emotional state crumbles under the pressure coming at him from every side. Bedding his high school sweetheart doesn't exactly simplify the situation. When the opportunity for revenge presents itself, Junior must decide whether he will continue the chain of violence that has nearly destroyed his life, or give in to the possibility of a new beginning. With emotional intensity, crackling dialogue and a heartfelt sense of place and character, Fresh Kills delivers unexpected and profound insights that speak to the soul of its struggling hero, and heralds a breakthrough voice in fiction.
About the Author
Born in Brooklyn and raised on Staten Island, Bill Loehfelm moved to New Orleans in 1997 where he's taught high school and college, managed a pizza joint and an antique shop, and tended bar in the Quarter and the Warehouse District. Bill's fondness for his adopted city is complete: 'As long as New Orleans endures here, so too will I.'
John Sandford on Fresh Kills
John Sandford is the author of Phantom Prey, the latest addition to the bestselling Prey series featuring Lucas Davenport. In an exclusive guest review for Amazon.com, Sandford shares his praise for Bill Loehfelm’s debut novel Fresh Kills and explains why it has the hallmarks of a great thriller.
Fresh Kills is an interesting hybrid, a well-written, fine-quality literary novel wrapped in the thriller genre. The thriller drive--a noir tone, cheap apartments, leather jackets and pistols kept in handy places--pulls the reader through a search for a killer, and an examination of how an abusive father, even after death, can reach from the past and manipulate the life of a grown son.
John Sanders' father is brutally murdered on a sidewalk on Staten Island; Sanders isn't unhappy to see him go: he has nothing good to say about the old man. But the question of what happened--how this could happen--pulls him into an examination of the murder, of his father's life, the lives of his dysfunctional family and his own life.
Unlike most thrillers, where the question is whether or not--or how--the killer will be caught, in Fresh Kills, the most pressing question is whether the execution of his father will somehow bring redemption to the blighted lives of Sanders and his sister.
Fresk Kills is a fine novel, with well-developed characters and a terrific sense of place and time; it's also, in thriller terms, a great read. --John Sandford
A Conversation with Bill Loehfelm on Fresh Kills
When did you realize you wanted to be a novelist?
I never made a conscious decision to be a novelist. It's just something I always thought I would do. I wrote my very first 'novel' when I was eleven, a thirty-page handwritten manuscript that I sent to Random House. I picked them because they published Walter Farley’s 'Black Stallion' series, which I was really into at that age. At least as far as writing a novel, it was never a question of if, it was a matter of when. Naiveté can get you a long way sometimes.
Did you begin by writing mystery, or have you experimented with other genres?
Fresh Kills is my second novel and my first, if you don't count that giant octopus novel, is a mystery as well. I really enjoy reading the genre, and it seems to match my writing style. I've written a number of short stories, but they're all relationship stories, no mysteries. When I was in high school, I wrote Westerns. They were awful rip-offs of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
What about writing mystery appeals to you?
I love the idea of a character pursuing something, especially something that seems to be a lost cause or just out of reach. It's something we all go through, though maybe on a smaller, less dramatic scale. And having that drive inherent in a character makes it easier to come up with a plot. Mystery can deal with some weighty topics: death, loss, justice, revenge, betrayal, sin, redemption. There are endless opportunities for exploring a character. People can get into trouble for complex and sometimes noble reasons. There's no rule that says serious emotional and psychological subject matter is reserved for massive literary tomes. Look at No Country for Old Men or Gone Baby Gone. When you think about it, most every book is a mystery: What's gonna happen next?
Do you have favorite authors who've influenced your writing style?
When I write, I want the efficiency of Hemingway, the lyricism of Fitzgerald, and the humour of Twain. I'll never get there, but that's what I shoot for. Frank Miller, the graphic novelist who wrote Sin City and the Dark Knight Batman series has been a real influence on me. He really knows how to deliver a line, and to write with punch and grace at the same time. Great dark humor. Batman is probably my favorite character in American story-telling. I've been fascinated by the complexities of that character my whole life. I really like Dennis Lehane, James Lee Burke, and John Banville's 'Benjamin Black' novels--they're proof-positive of what I said about mysteries above. The Lovely Bones is another great example. I love Alice Sebold's work. She can't write fast enough for me. Roddy Doyle's got serious game, as well. A lot of musicians have influenced me: U2, Springsteen, Warren Zevon, and the Tragically Hip to name a few. The Gin Blossoms' album New Miserable Experience is a hell of a short story collection.
What made you leave New York for New Orleans?
February. Here we get Mardi Gras, there you get slush and sleet. Seriously though, I'd fallen in love with New Orleans while visiting as a tourist. It was like meeting someone you instantly know is on your wavelength. And I wanted an adventure. I didn't want to spend my whole life within ten miles of where I grew up. Something just told me New Orleans was where I needed to be. It was right.
Is there something about New Orleans that's helped you find and develop your voice?
Time. In New Orleans, taking your time with everything, from a career to a relationship to a cup of coffee is a way of life. And no one thinks you're weird for pursuing the arts. It's a very supportive environment. This place encourages you to take chances and do things differently. Most of the people I know are accomplished musicians, writers, painters, photographers, etc. The attitude here gave me time to write and write a lot, plus the cost of living is pretty low. You don't have to live your whole life at work.
Why did you choose to return home (imaginatively speaking) to write Fresh Kills?
For the longest time, I had Junior returning home after moving away, but the story suffered. He had too few relationships, there wasn't enough interaction with other people. Eventually I realized that his not going anywhere geographically paralleled well with his not getting anywhere emotionally. Staten Island is where this story belongs.
Continue reading our Q&A with Bill Loehfelm
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Rated by buyers 
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When this story opens, John Sanders, Jr., is hungover. He's in bed with someone else's girlfriend. He mouths off to a cop and reveals he owns an illegal handgun. He swears like a sailour and seems delighted that his own father has just been murdered. I liked this character immediately.
As this story winds along, we find out the reasons behind all of the various details of this opening scene. John is not just any cold-hearted drunk--he is a man with a difficult past, a childhood he is still struggling with into his adulthood. As I spent more time in his head, I grew to like him even more.
I really enjoyed reading this story. It is about the investigation of John's father's murder, but much more than that it is about John's psychological journey. As he consoles his sister, plans a funeral, and meets up with old friends and enemies, he is forced to confront his past. John is still very damaged by a childhood of abuse, and trying to figure out how he really feels about his father's death is enough to bring him to the breaking point.
It was great to see this character grow more aware of himself and more centered as this story progressed. Despite the fact that John would have been a rather unpleasant man to meet in real life, I found myself truly caring about him and rooting for him on paper. This was an excellent novel, and I believe the characters will stick with me for quite some time.
Rated by buyers 
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Boring, boring, boring ... nothing happened in almost the very first half of the book, just broken people crying over spilled milk. Tried to skip parts till I got to the end, to see if there was something worth the effort, and nothing. Don't waste a second on it.
Rated by buyers -
Starts out OK but by the fifth chapter I find myself thinking his father didn't beat him enough, by the ninth chapter, I am wondering if the hit man did the wrong family member and by the fourteenth I am wondering what a hit man costs these days.
The "character" whines throughout the very first fifteen chapters constantly about his abused childhood all while drinking heavily, smoking constantly and looking for (or talking about) getting into a fight. No review past the fifteenth chapter because, and this is extremely rare for me, I quit reading it. If you buy this book start reading there; it might be interesting, but I doubt it.
Rated by buyers 
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How did this very first time author do that so easily? Bill Loehfelm uses a cleverly crafted blend of slow-paced, compelling action together with some down to earth, gritty, even vulgar dialogue to introduce the seeds of the plot and his characters at the same time. His use of a very first person narrative allows us to form our own impressions of his hero's character through his own thoughts, words and perceptions of the events unfolding around him. We are allowed to form our own impressions and judge for ourself what we should believe and what we should take with a grain of salt.
If this is an example of Loehfelm's very first outing as an author, then unerring instincts are obviously going to help fill the holes of missing experience.
John Sanders is a bartender. His lover has fled the coop and he's bedding down from time to time with a childhood sweetheart. Awakened on Sunday morning with a hard knock at the door and an even harder pounding in his head, the police advise him that his father has been murdered. Far from reacting as a grieving son devastated at the untimely death of his father, Sanders is ready to give the murderer a medal. Obviously, there's no love lost between this father and son pair. The story moves on to disclose that the investigating homicide detectives are also acquaintances of both the father and the son. At least in passing, they're going through the motions of investigating Sanders as a possible suspect in his father's murder but the most important order of business seems to be breaking the news to Julia, Sanders' sister, who he knows, unlike himself, will be devastated by the news of their father's murder.
The marketing wonks and the publicity gurus chose to set "Fresh Kills" up as "noir mystery", a "thriller with a sensitive heart". No doubt about one thing at least ... "noir" is perhaps an understatement but the fact is that after you read the book you'll discover there was little enough mystery and absolutely no thriller at all. "Fresh Kills" is a deeply complex, entirely character driven, gothic novel. This is a very internal story that portrays Sanders dealing with his demons. I would have unreservedly awarded the novel five stars but the resolution to the mystery of his father's murder, such as it is, has an outlandishly unfair deus ex machina flavour that arrives entirely out of left field. For shame, Mr Loefhelm ... a one star penalty on a fine novel which, otherwise, would have received my unreserved recommendations!
Not bad at all for a very first outing! Highly recommended!
Paul Weiss
Rated by buyers 
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I had a real hard time staying with this book. I won't pass it on to friends
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