Discount Price: $7.99
Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780553582529
ISBN number: 0553582526
Label: Bantam
Manufacturer: Bantam
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 512
Printing Date: March 26, 2002
Publishing house: Bantam
Release Date: March 26, 2002
Sale Popularity Level: 206647
Studio: Bantam
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Sorry. The single word was written on a mirror. In front of it hung the Minneapolis Internal Affairs cop. Was it suicide? Or a kinky act turned tragic?
Either way, it wasn’t murder. At least not according to the powers that be. But veteran homicide detective Sam Kovac and his wisecracking, ambitious partner Nikki Liska think differently. Together they begin to dig at the too-neat edges of the young cop’s death, uncovering one motive and one suspect after another. The shadows of suspicion fall not only on the city’s elite, but into the very heart of the police department.
Someone wants the case closed–quickly and forever. But neither Kovac nor Liska will give up. Now both their careers and their lives are on the line. From a murder case two months old to another case closed for twenty years, Kovac and Liska must unearth a connection the killer wants dead and buried. A killer who will stop at absolutely nothing to keep a dark and shattering secret . . .
Amazon.com:
Minneapolis has more than its share of interesting cops (Lucas Davenport of the John Sandford thrillers, for one), and Tami Hoag's homicide dicks, Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska, join the club in this thoughtful and surprisingly moving novel of dirty cops and cover-ups. Internal Affairs investigator Andy Fallon is a suicide--or is he? The word around the department is that Andy, son of Iron Mike Fallon, an old hero of Sam's, killed himself because Mike turned his back on him when Andy told him he was gay. Or maybe it was because a lover dumped him, or even (snicker, snicker) a perverted sexual practice gone wrong. That's the gossip, but Sam feels he owes it to Mike to investigate.
Sam is a familiar type in this genre, and his self-awareness is almost painful at times. 'You're a stereotype. The tragic hero,' he's told by Amanda Savard, the strong-but-vulnerable Internal Affairs lieutenant whose determination to keep the Fallon case closed foreshadows her personal history. 'The twice-divorced, smoking, drinking workaholic,' Sam agrees. 'I don't know what's heroic about that. It reeks of failure to me, but maybe I have unrealistic standards.' But Sam's droll sense of humour is matched by his deeply ingrained crap detector. When Iron Mike apparently kills himself too, you can almost feel its needle vibrate. Then Sam and Nikki open another closed case, this one almost two decades old, and find the connections that threaten to unravel past crimes and future promises. Hoag is a writer very much in command of her craft: the pacing excels, the characters are complex and interesting, and the details well worked out. Readers will look forward to another Kovac and Liska adventure. --Jane Adams
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
Enjoyed Kill the Messenger so I read this. Good, twisty story, but dark. For those who read mysteries/thrillers for fun, as I do, too dark. For others, interesting plot lines. Kovak was very "poor me" but that was consistent with his realization of the emptiness of his non-work life and his wise-cracking nature.
Rated by buyers -
IMO this bk. wasn't as suspenseful as some of her other books. There just wasn't much suspense & if there would have been more, I would have liked it more. The characters, plot & mystery, however were good.
Some people might not like the ending (it isn't happy). What bothered me about this bk. was the side plot/assault investigation. I kept waiting for the assault case to somehow be connected to the murder cases, however it never was.
Rated by buyers 
-
As opposed to Michael Connely's ECHO PARK ** (the last murder mystery I read), Tami Hoag's DUST TO DUST exhibits the writing of a woman's human touch. Hoag fleshes out her protagonists' personal lives (Kovac and Liska), the history and lives of those characters involved with the crimes all interconnect (Savard, Wyatt, Andy & Mike Fallon, Thorne), and an element of love factors into the crimes. Hoag demonstrates a knack for setting the scene in Minnesota surpassing Connelly's ECHO PARK and her prose also seems to follow at a higher level. Although Hoag seems comfortable writing 44 year-old Detective Sam Kovac and he bears many similarities to Connelly's Harry Bosch (married to the job, old, lonely, bulldog-like after a mystery), I liked Connelly's Bosch much better. Connelly spares us the repeated reminders of his protagonist's loneliness -- quit whining and do something about it already if you want someone in your life, Kovac! I can't say I enjoyed DUST TO DUST as the human element here stunts the mystery and suspense (Connely built the suspense and mystery much better). With the exception of bailing out Kovac in near-death situations more than once, Liska's character and angle in this book with the Curtis case seemed extraneous. Kovac's partner 32 year-old single mom Nikki "Tinks" Liska resembled the token kick-butt chick archetype who simply doesn't need anyone's help like Kovac needs her constant help. Liska even disposes of an iron-pumped 200-pound-plus baddie at the end mostly by herself. The final chapter shifts between Kovac and Liska in short passages and it was a little melodramatic, trying to inappropriately add tension and action to a book mostly about tortured characters disbelievingly all interconnected by circumstance and tragedy. The book never really grips until we read a tortured Amanda Savard's perspective more than 120 pages into this 354-page hardcover. And then of course we don't really hear much from Savard afterwards as the book prepares for a very sad denouement. Although I have to admire Hoag for the markedly sad ending, I don't have to like it. The lack of an engaging suspense and mystery confounds my problems with the novel.
Hoag lingers on her characters' loneliness quite a bit, and I found it tiring. A humour which clearly aims to shroud hidden vulnerabilities -- especially tough-chick humour from Liska -- didn't help the reading experience. Thirty-two year-old single mom Nikki Liska obviously finds herself still attracted to her cheating ex-husband. Despite her tough-chick demeanor, ASHES TO ASHES repeatedly mentions Liska's vulnerability and of course she dons an insensate exterior around her gorgeous ex-husband Speed to discourage him. The book reminds us again and again that Liska's 44 year-old partner Sam Kovac is lonely, only having an estranged daughter to show for his two failed marriages. An older, retired cop's desolate solitude (Mike Fallon) magnifies Kovac's loneliness and he sees himself in the bitter, lonely Mike Fallon down the line: alone at home, sitting in front of a tv and eating a tv dinner. Kovac wallows in self-pity and loneliness quite a bit, even after his involvement with Savard. Okay we get it, they're lonely, even though both Liska and Kovac are more than capable of doing something about their lonely condition, they mope around about it tirelessly. Even though Hiaasen's Mick Stranahan in SKIN TIGHT (**) was divorced 5 times, he's content living out in a stilt house off the coasts of South Florida by himself. That was much more believable than Sam Kovac's feminine moping around.
Anyhow, the Hoag fails to build the suspense and I lost my interest numerous times during the novel (beginning 100 pages and the final 250 pages or so). The constant reminders of Kovac's loneliness crowned by the sad ending really clinched my overall dissatisfaction with the novel. I really didn't care who was the killer...
Rated by buyers 
-
In search of a new author, I ordered Dust to Dust. I was only able to make it to page 7. There was more unacceptable language in the very first 6 pages than any other 3 books combined that I have ever read.
This book is in my wastebasket, not to be passed on. Sorry.
Rated by buyers -
Tami Hoag has evolved into a writer that doesn't feel obligated to give you a a fuzzy warm ending. She writes for the sake of the story.
The characters in Dust to Dust are believable and likeable whether they're the good or bad guys. In fact, some of her bad guys are so well crafted that becomes the hook to keep the pages turning. This book delivers smart detectives that don't go doing stupid things that frustrates readers. These characters behave consistent to how they are developed and overall the story unfolds logically, piece by piece. Since many have synopsized the story before me I'll just add that the book built nicely to its end.
Find other books like this one:
