Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Aug 2013
448 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
In Line of Fire, the tantalizing prelude to this final book, Dr. Gregory found himself assailed by danger from every direction as he struggled with circumstances beyond his control. Authorities were closing in on Alan and his friend Sam Purdy for their role in a woman's death years earlier. Alan was struggling to deal with the emotional collapse of his longtime friend Diane after she discovered evidence of her husband's infidelity.
By the end, Alan's personal life and his career were in danger of complete collapse.
But Line of Fire merely set the stage. In Compound Fractures, the explosive conclusion to the decades-long saga, Alan is forced to acknowledge that the perils that may bring him to his knees are not the dangers he recognizes, nor are they orchestrated by the nemesis he has long feared. Instead he is confronted by unexpected threats from unanticipated adversaries and by intimate betrayal from those who have been closest to him. He is compelled to reconsider what he has long believed about trust and about love while he is trying to cope with overwhelming loss and grief.
To protect himself he must revisit the cruel ethical dilemma that turned his life upside down as a young psychologist. He has to judge whether the people reentering his life after long absences are friends or foes. He has to make sense of echoes of distant tragedies while he decides if there is anyone he can really trust. Mostly, as the clock ticks down, he must solve a deadly mystery in Eldorado Springs that has been brewing for more than a decade.
At times full of pathos, at other times replete with White's distinctive wry humor, Compound Fractures delivers the entrancing characters, the suspense, the intricately plotted storylines, and the unexpected twists that readers have come to expect.
Compound Fractures promises to be a jaw-dropping and satisfying last act in Stephen's beloved series.
"The shocking finale confirms White's central metaphor, drawn from the local story of tightrope walker Ivy Baldwin, who frequently crossed a half-mile canyon on a wire without a net and sometimes at night: life for the tormented psychologist is a fearful balancing act, where the only absolute is his desire to protect his children. He may survive, but at what cost to his soul?" - Publishers Weekly
"This is an excellent wrap-up to a consistently excellent series, but it may be, at least for some readers, a difficult book to read, because finishing it means saying goodbye to an old friend." - Booklist
This information about Compound Fractures 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.
Stephen White is the author of the New York Times bestselling Alan Gregory novels. In his books, he draws upon over fifteen years of clinical practice as a psychologist to create intriguing plots and complex, believable characters.
Born on Long Island, White grew up in New York, New Jersey, and Southern California and attended the University of California campuses at Irvine (where he lasted three weeks as a creative writing major) and Los Angeles before graduating from Berkeley in 1972. Along the way he learned to fly small planes, worked as a tour guide at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, cooked and waited tables at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, and tended bar at the Red Lion Inn in Boulder.
Trained as a clinical psychologist, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in ...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Stephen White's Website
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The Stone Home
by Crystal Hana Kim
A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
