Still Life with Devils

by Deborah Grabien

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0979808103
• ISBN13: 9780979808104
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Drollerie Press
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 9.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Enjoy a thoughtful suspense

Set in San Francisco, a serial killer is on the loose. While I've read a few too many serial killer novels, this is where the similarity ends. Still Life with Devils is refreshingly different while retaining what makes a mystery fun. Grabien writes with style and depth. In this suspense with an artistic bent, her characters are richly drawn. I enjoyed the interplay between brother and sister, daughter and niece. Family certainly plays an important role in both character development and plot. Grabien presents a very strong female cast. Most of all, however, I enjoyed her use of description. I found it apt and the prose suggested a writer at ease with the page, in control. Nothing seemed forced. And little pieces of information delivered in the context of description came into play throughout, suggesting a well constructed novel. The climax is masterfully written. I can't say why without a spoiler, but let me say Grabien took a risk and it paid off. The language of it had a wonderful poetry. This being my first Grabien novel, I'll look forward to my next.

This Is No Ordinary Supernatural Thriller

This is no ordinary thriller: It is steeped in the deepest meanings of connection and family, minding and mining it's own connections to classics of detective novels. Yet like the workaday world made alien in a San Francisco fog, it takes the lessons learned at the knees of the Grand Dames of British Mysteries, and makes them startlingly new. Where Sayers' mysteries seemed velvet-genteel over the steel of justice, this is the steel with the velvet tied back out of the way for a fight.