Monday, May 11, 2015

Finally hooked up again and here's this:

Abbott, Patricia. Concrete Angel. Polis. Jun. 2015. 320p. ISBN 9781940610382. pap. $14.95ebk. ISBN 9781940610443. 
 
(Starred review)
 
LIBRARY JOURNAL
 
 
Abbott, a prolific Derringer Award–winning short story writer, explores an unusual and complex mother/daughter bond in her enthralling, dark debut novel. Twelve-year-old Christine adores her beautiful and charming mother, Eve, and when a shocking act of violence threatens to tear them apart, Christine takes the blame, which sets the stage in the years to follow. Eve is compulsively acquisitive and amasses thousands of items that she’s bought or stolen. After Hank, Christine’s father, finally has had enough, Eve goes through a string of men who enable and even encourage her larcenous, obsessive behavior. Things come to a head when Eve begins using Christine’s little brother in her schemes, and Christine plots to break the cycle.  
 
VERDICT Abbott alternates the narrative between Christine’s voice and a third-person point of view that follows Eve and her relationships. The author perfectly captures not only the life of a girl whose adoration of her mother morphs into mistrust and loathing but sets the story in 1970s Philadelphia when gender roles were taking on new definitions and alternative ways of treating the mentally ill were gaining traction. It’s a potent and at times poignant combination. Those who enjoy suspenseful, atmospheric family drama will find much to love here.
 
And a big thanks to S. J. Rozan, Meg Gardiner, Naomi Hirahara, Alison Gaylin, and Sandra Scoppettone for giving me the boost of a great blurb. 

20 comments:

Unknown said...

Congrats on the hook-up and the great review!

Jeff Meyerson said...

Congratulations, Patti! Glad you are getting such a great sendoff. Can't wait to read it.

Jeff M.

Gerard said...

Good on ya. I put the book on order earlier today.

Charles Gramlich said...

Excellent!

Todd Mason said...

Worse things have happened! Congatulaions on getting some chunky library dales from that, most likely,,,and for the publication, and the settling in at the relocation...

TracyK said...

A starred review is great, Patti. My copy is on order and I look forward to reading it.

Anonymous said...

Oh, this is great! Congratulations!

pattinase (abbott) said...

Thanks so much all. My Internet seems to be failing again. Can Comcast do anything right. We can only get it in one room and it's not mine. Ugh.

Anonymous said...

Trying again--can't post using Name/URL:

Congratulations Patti--a great accomplishment!

--Deb

Unknown said...

One word says it all: Bravo!

Rick Robinson said...

Yay! So excited about the book. As for Comcast, they're just awful, nothing to do about that except be a thorn in their side, I'm afraid.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Time Warner customers should be happy the merger didn't go through. Not that TWC is great either, you understand. We're much happier since we were able to switch to Verizon Fios but they are only available in certain areas.

I have the book on pre-order too.

Jeff M.

YA Sleuth said...

So cool!!! I can't wait to read it.

Al Tucher said...

Fantastic!

See you next month, BTW.

Anonymous said...

impressive! May there be many more like it.

Gerard said...

Every time Wheeler writes a comment I think, "Dang, I still need to pick up one of his westerns."

pattinase (abbott) said...

SIERRA was a great one.

Gerard said...

Found SIERRA and put it on hold.

Ed Gorman said...

Patti it's great to see your fine fine work get its due.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Thanks, Ed. Coming from you (and everyone on here) it means a lot.