Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published May 2009
272 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
Sam Acquillo is getting to be a lot more sociable. People are constantly dropping by, including guys in black outfits with .45 automatics breaking into his cottage in the middle of the night.Though on doctor's orders to stay clear of violence and mayhem, Sam does what's needed to encourage a candid conversation with the home invader, with surprising results.
Suddenly Sam's past reaches out to pull him back into the world of big money and even bigger egos, where the term "corporate intrigue" is redundant and ambition the only virtue. It seems a person important to the private life of a very important person has gone missing in the Hamptons. And it looks like the best way to get her back is to extort Sam's cooperation.
After finally achieving some measure of peace and contentment on the tip of Oak Point, overlooking the Little Peconic Bay, Sam is yet again an accidental player in other people's dramas. It takes him into the world of private security goons, predatory financiers and lifestyles of young hedonists, some brave, some beautiful, all a bit lost. But this time there's some added incentive. An opportunity Sam thought he'd never see again. The chance to get a bit of his old life back. The only piece he might actually want.
With lawyer Jackie Swaitkowski and cop friend Joe Sullivan reluctantly in tow, and the beautiful Amanda Anselma, fisherman Paul Hodges and mutt Eddie Van Halen eager to lend a hand, Sam is back on the quest.This time with a few ambitions of his own, which lead him into something all his battles in the ring and corporate boardroom could never have prepared him for.
"His penchant for intriguing predicaments bodes well for a long and successful series." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. For readers who enjoy hard-boiled mysteries in the tradition of Raymond Chandler and Robert Parker." - Library Journal
"An appealing hero, who might be even more appealing if he cut back on the one-liners next time ... a lively and entertaining mix." - Kirkus Reviews
This information about Hard Stop was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Chris Knopf's Sam Acquillo Hamptons Mystery series, including The Last Refuge, Two Time and Head Wounds, have received international critical acclaim. A copywriter by trade, Chris is a principal of Mintz & Hoke Communications Group. He lives with his wife Mary and dog Samuel Beckett in Avon, CT and Southampton, NY, where he sets sail on the sacred Little Peconic Bay.
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