I generally put holds on books based on lists and reviews and interests. Tonight I Said Goodbye was one I just grabbed, while picking up my holds. A lucky grab--I don't read the blurb until after reading the novel, so I was happily surprised at how first rate the writing was. Set in Cleveland, a city I am pretty familiar with, the book has a lot of light humor and the drily witty main character, Lincoln Perry (first person narrator) is, as he says, a very good private eye.
He and his partner, Joe Pritchard, are hired to uncover the truth about the supposed suicide/domestic homicide of another private eye (small world), Wayne Weston, by Weston's father. John Weston is sure his son did not kill himself and sure as hell did not kill his wife and daughter. The wife and daughter are missing, so the police have come up with the scenario that Wayne Weston killed them and disposed of the bodies, then offed himself. Sounds fishy, huh?
Once I had zoomed through the book, which was a real page turner, what with the Cleveland Russian mafia going after Perry and Pritchard, I was interested in just who Michael Koryta was, anyway. I had never heard of him.
Well, it seems that he wrote the book while he was only 20, and it has won a number of prizes, such as the prize for the "Best First Private Eye Novel" from St. Martin's Press (he was the youngest to win that prize), a Great Lakes Award, and was nominated for an Edgar Award. Pretty good credentials since he was still in college when he wrote the book. Koryta works for a legal investigator, having attended IU, studying criminal justice. He already has a new book out, at 22, Sorrow's Anthem, and is at work on a third. To which I say Hurray! I love it when a good writer is also prolific!
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