Chet The Dog

Posts Tagged ‘Peter Abrahams’

Beginnings (More)

On Sundays, we’ve been doing beginnings – all the Chet and Bernies (as part of Chetspeak) – and now taking on all the Peter Abrahams novels in chronological order. Here, from 2007, #18, NERVE DAMAGE. For this one the idea really did come out of the blue, complete in all essentials, including the first sentence (below). Lucky things sometimes happen in this business.

[“From the reliably marvelous Peter Abrahams comes Nerve Damage, another top-drawer psychological thriller.”
– Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly]

Sometimes the dead live on in your dreams.

 

Beginnings (More)

On Sundays, we’ve been doing beginnings – all the Chet and Bernies (as part of Chetspeak) – and now taking on all the Peter Abrahams novels in chronological order. Here, from 2007, #17, BEHIND THE CURTAIN – second in the Echo Falls trilogy. This book includes one of my two weight-lifting scenes. The other’s in LIGHTS OUT. They’re very different. (It’s also possible that there’s a third somewhere, possibly in a Chet and Bernie.)

[“… Abrahams’ exceptional overlay of detail, especially descriptions of the particular stresses and the goofy occurrences that mark Ingrid’s experience as an eighth-grader, makes the story very convincing as the action builds.”
– Booklist, Starred Review]

Ingrid Levin-Hill sat in math class, her mind wandering pleasantly.

 

Moi

Teddy RR (in yesterday’s comments) kindly posted the author photo from THEIR WILDEST DREAMS, mentioning I was starting to look the way I do now. Not sure it’s true but Teddy RR is very nice. Here I am a few days ago (on the somewhat famous wall in Woods Hole, Mass.). [photo – Lannan O’Brien]

Beginnings (More)

On Sundays, we’ve been doing beginnings – all the Chet and Bernies (as part of Chetspeak) – and now taking on all the Peter Abrahams novels in chronological order. Here, from 2003, #14, OBLIVION. My first actual private eye novel (all the Chet and Bernies are P.I. novels, but rather different from OBLIVION – although I bet you can find similarities, too).

“Exciting and out of the ordinary… full of funny, touching and alarming surprises… His funny and stout-hearted dogs (like Buster, who becomes Petrov’s assistant for a few hours) are unmatched by anyone’s, including Dashiel Hammett’s and Robert B. Parker’s… Peter Abrahams is a wonderful writer.”
– L.A. Times (Tom Nolan)

Nick Petrov, in the witness box, waited for the next question. The lawyer for the accused looked up from his yellow pad and fastened his skeptical gaze – familiar to millions of cable talk show viewers – on Petrov’s face. The lawyer had eyebrows like Einstein’s, resembled him in general, Petrov thought, but with a better haircut. Perfume from the previous witness still hung in the air.

“Been quite the career,” said the lawyer, “hasn’t it, Mr. Petrov? So far.”