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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Feb 2004, 352 pages
Paperback:
Jun 2005, 400 pages
'Reed presents sex, money, power, and violence in an irresistibly melancholy noir package, readers who value intelligence, fine writing and action will find it all in this outstanding novel.'
From the hot new suspense writer critics predict will have Grisham fans
"switching their allegiance in midstream" comes a thrilling tale of
love and murder set on the mean streets and in the sleek society haunts of
Atlanta. . . .
Sleeping with a client's gorgeous girlfriend may have been the gutsiest
move in Jack Hammond's formerly booming law career, but it wasn't the
smartest. Booted from his elite law firm, Jack now scrapes by as a
court-appointed attorney, his client list a revolving door of small-time drug
offenders and petty thieves.
When his friend -- a computer whiz and former addict who'd brought his life
back from the brink -- is found dead in his apartment with a syringe stuck in
his arm, Jack knows something is very wrong.
Where the cops see just another overdose, Jack sees a murder. Investigating
the case, he learns that his friend was obsessed with a beautiful singer --
who also happens to be half of the most popular power couple in Atlanta.
Talented and privileged, the spellbinding Michele Sonnieris nevertheless a
deeply troubled woman, plagued by secrets. Against his better judgment -- and
in a disturbing echo of his earlier fall from grace -- Jack is pulled further
and further into her world, where he discovers more suspicious deaths, all
pointing toward a mysterious cover-up.
A volatile tale of love, betrayal, and murder shot through with tenderness
and poignant humanity, The Last Goodbye is a riveting thriller with a
thunderously beating heart, a masterful page-turner that probes the meaning of
love and the burdens of the past.
Chapter One
SO I'LL TELL YOU. I'll tell you because confession is supposed to be good
for the soul, and when choosing between the tonics available--from religion to
Tony Robbins to the friendly late-night chemist--this unburdening seems to
present the least risk. When it comes to my soul, I have adopted a doctor's
attitude: First, do no harm.
The complete overthrow of my principles. That was what I had done. A moment in
time, and my life--previously not lived to the highest standards, but plenty
respectable--blew up. The distance between integrity and the loss of innocence
proved to be razor-thin, a handful of decisions, frictionless, greased with
desire. I thought I was choosing a woman. I thought--and I have to swallow this
back, but it's the truth, and this is the unburdening, after all--I had earned
her. And now she is my ghost, come to judge me.
This is the beginning of moral collapse: to be held captive by a woman's...
Reed Arvin was brought up on a cattle ranch in
Kansas. One day his parents brought home a
beat up, polka-dot piano they'd bought for $50.
It changed his life - from that moment on he
pursued music, 'first as a passion, and later,
as a career'.
He traveled world wide as a professional
musician before finally settling in Nashville as
a record producer. He says that contrary
to rumor the life of a working musician is a
great one and he was very content. However, he
had often noticed similarities ...
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