The Girl with a Clock for a Heart
Author: Peter Swanson
Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher
Date of Publication: January 6, 2015
Pages: 304
Go get this book and read it, mystery fans. It has everything! The characters are all well developed and engaging, the plot has a million twists and turns, the writing is crisp and entertaining and the pace is spectacular.
George Foss is an everyman: a fortyish management type at a literary magazine headquartered in Boston. He has an on-again, off-again girlfriend, a cat and a small apartment filled with books. His life is pretty much on auto-pilot when his college girlfriend shows up at his favorite bar and asks for a favor. Liana Decter was George's first love for whom he still carries a torch. She is the ultimate femme fatale: alluring, mysterious, sexy, the whole package. The story then splits in two. In flashbacks we learn of George's freshman year at Mather College, his torrid relationship with Liana and her presumed suicide at home in Florida over Christmas break. He goes to her home to investigate and finds a tangled story of swapped identities, drug use and Liana's eventual disappearance.
The contemporary story is that of Liana's return to George and enlisting him to return half a million stolen dollars for her. This leads to a string of horrible complications for George, involving more identity issues, murder and mayhem. The resolution of the two story lines is a bit of a stretch, but this entire story is a bit of a stretch: a thrilling, entertaining and well written stretch!
