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Overview
Danny Cassidy couldn't remember if he'd killed the cop. So begins one man's journey through his fifty-year-old history and conscience in Long Time Gone, Denis Hamill's gripping novel set in the back streets and alleyways of Brooklyn, U.S.A.It's the year 2001 when Danny, a divorced journalist, returns to his old neighborhood for his father's funeral. He's spent all of his adult life trying to leave Brooklyn behind him -- along with all the drugs, music, and other psychedelic memories from the sixties spent on Hippie Hill. But now that the box of rain has been opened there's no turning back, and Danny must face some painful truths about the woman he used to love -- and her father, a police officer, whom he may or may not have killed.
By turns a thriller, a detective story, and a coming-of-age tale, Long Time Gone is a bittersweet love letter to a lost New York that no reader will soon forget.
Synopsis
Danny Cassidy couldn't remember if he'd killed the cop. So begins one man's journey through his fifty-year-old history and conscience in Long Time Gone, Denis Hamill's gripping novel set in the back streets and alleyways of Brooklyn, U.S.A.
It's the year 2001 when Danny, a divorced journalist, returns to his old neighborhood for his father's funeral. He's spent all of his adult life trying to leave Brooklyn behind him -- along with all the drugs, music, and other psychedelic memories from the sixties spent on Hippie Hill. But now that the box of rain has been opened there's no turning back, and Danny must face some painful truths about the woman he used to love -- and her father, a police officer, whom he may or may not have killed.
By turns a thriller, a detective story, and a coming-of-age tale, Long Time Gone is a bittersweet love letter to a lost New York that no reader will soon forget.
Publishers Weekly
The latest novel by journalist Hamill (Fork in the Road) opens in 1969, when Brooklynite Danny Cassidy becomes a suspect for a murder he can't remember whether he committed or not; furthermore, the victim was his girlfriend's father and a police officer. The case never comes to trial for lack of evidence. Thirty-three years later, Danny now an aging journalist, divorced and a lousy father receives word that his own father has died. Over the course of one long weekend, Danny must return to Brooklyn to bury his father, reunite with his brother and daughter, and, most importantly, figure out who committed the murder. He must also face erstwhile sweetheart Erika Malone, throw some punches and settle some scores. While the murder mystery is captivating, with a serpentine plot that keeps the reader guessing, Hamill's cultural forays into past and present are less successful. The present-day Brooklyn he portrays is populated by affluent yuppies who say things like "Don't mind me, I have work on liquidating a dot-com to do," while the Brooklyn of 1969 is a panorama of generic, clich d burnouts with names like Hippie Helen and Dirty Jim. While not entirely chiseled, Hamill's prose does succeed in fusing the brevity of newspaper writing and the machismo of traditional detective stories, allowing for a staccato-paced plot teeming with sex and violence. Like Danny himself, the novel is mostly shrouded in a haze of nostalgia and profanity that disperses now and then to reveal an entertaining whodunit with some poignant observations about life, love and loss. Agent, Esther Newberg. (Sept.) Forecast: Not to be confused with Pete Hamill, his brother and fellow New York Daily News columnist, Denis Hamill mines a narrower vein. Major advertising for his latest (including outdoor advertising in Times Square) may help raise his profile. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.