Slipping into Darkness,   ISBN:9780446617475

Customer Rating: 

This one of those books, which after reading, you try to find a hardcopy version for keeps! Excellent development of complex human frailties, combined with a story that screams for a hopeful ending. My only hope now is that Hollywood treats this book with delicate care in developing a serious movie, instead of "treating" us to the endless supply of remakes being made.

Customer Rating: 

it's a turning page book. not my favorite ever but a good one. the story and characters are well built.

Customer Rating: 

Let me begin by saying this; Peter Blauner can WRITE. There are very few "mainstream" authors with as much literary talent as this man. He takes a description of a simple act and turns it into something beautiful and poetic in ways that few others can. If you like James Lee Burke, you'll be a fan of Blauner's from the start.

That being said, though, Blauner's literary flair sometimes slows down the pace of the story. Slipping into Darkness is a nice character study of two men; a convicted---and then pardoned and released---killer, and the cop who put him behind bars. We spend the entire book getting to know these two men while wondering if the "killer" really did commit the crime, and when a second victim is killed in a similar way, the stakes are raised even higher. Did the prison system release this man so he could kill again, or is he part of some huge set-up?

The story moves slowly because Blauner spends so much time letting us get to know his characters. Also, as I mentioned before, the description of something simple like a man taking out the trash or drinking a cup of coffee---acts that another author might spend one sentence on---get a long, drawn out, and very lyrical description from Blauner. The "big secret" at the end of the book was a bit too formulaic for my tastes, but I still found Slipping into Darkness to be far and away one of the best mysteries I've read in years, and I'll definitely seek out Blauner's other books.

Customer Rating: 

Peter Blauner"s "Slipping into Darkness" is a crime mystery which has a refreshing twist. The novel's two protagonists Julian Vega and Francis X. Loughlin are positioned on opposite ends of a crime committed 20 years ago. Vega, then a naive 17 year Puerto Rican old schoolboy was convicted of the brutal murder of young doctor Allison Wallis, a tenant in the apartment Vega's dad worked as the super. An aggressive interrogation without legal council, by Loughlin, a young police officer, recently reinstated after alcohol rehabiliatation helped cinch the conviction.

As the novel commences the victim, Wallis' body is being exumed. Vega had been released from prison on a technicality and was now being represented by an aggressive defense attorney. Loughlin was directed to reopen the investigation to retry Vega using DNA evidence not available then but now implicating the now hardened ex-con in the crime.

Loughlin who railroaded Vega for the murder, ignoring certain conflicting aspects of evidence is stunned when a similar crime occurs, the murder of a young doctor, once again impicating Vega. Evidence however presents a muddled picture as the DNA profile of the original murder victim is found at the scene of the new crime.

Throughout the novel both protagonists plod through their penitent existence trying to come to grips with the harsh twists of fate life presents. Vega, robbed of the most productive years of his life and lacking social experience is trying to become assimilated into a society that has no affection for a high profile criminal. Loughlin, plagued with self doubt about implicating Vega is seemingly being punished for perceived misdeeds as a progressive eye disease in slowly robbing him of sight.

Both characters come into conflict as the investigations into both crimes progresses to a mildly startling conclusion.

Customer Rating: 

I purchased this book based on the reviews by other readers, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The ending is not what I'm used to or expected, and that makes it all the more interesting.

I will be buying more books by Peter Blauner.