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August 2009, EDITOR'S PICK OF THE MONTH

Hard Stop by Chris Knopf

Sat, Aug 01, 2009

CHRIS KNOPF is an award-winning copywriter and principal of the Connecticut marketing communications agency Mintz & Hoke. A native of Philadelphia, educated in the United States and London, he is the author of The Last Refuge, Two Time, Head Wounds in the Sam Acquillo mystery series.

Independent, vodka-swilling Sam Acquillo is back in this fourth novel in Knopf's impeccably written, character-driven mystery series set on Long Island, New York. Hard Stop begins as Sam catches someone breaking into his small cottage in the Hamptons. The break-in apparently has something to do with the large firm that Sam worked for in his high-earning, "successful" years, back when he cared about such things, back before he was disillusioned by the phoniness of it all, back before he dumped his job and his expensive wife as well and moved into the small cottage that his father built on Little Peconic Bay. No matter how hard Sam tries to just live quietly in his cottage by the Little Peconic, do a bit of carpentry for food and expenses, and enjoy his dog Eddie and a small list of friends, he always seems to find mayhem at least, murder all too often. Sam, a smart engineer by profession, loves problems and puzzles, the more challenging the better.  And Sam tackles the puzzle behind this murder and, with the help of his attorney Jackie Swaitkowski and his rich friend Burton Lewis, even resolves some of the residual anger from his high end job and marriage. 

Stefan Rudnicki's New York accented, mature, world-weary, gravelly voiced readings of the first two Sam Aquillo's mysteries, Two Time (Blackstone Audio) and the Last Refuge (Blackstone Audio), were sublimely perfect.  The transition to narrator Richard Ferrone first in Head Wounds, and here in Hard Stop, will be easy even for Rudnicki/Knopf fans as Ferrone's deep, even paced, weary embodiment of Aquillo is equally sublime. Sam Acquillo is as heroic as Travis McGee, Lew Archer or Philip Marlowe,  equally cynical but more 21st century enlightened, and Ferrone's reading is just right. Listeners will look forward to the next Acquillo.

Knopf, Chris. Hard Stop. A Sam Acquillo Hamptons Mystery. Read by Richard Ferrone.  8 CDs. 9 hrs. Blackstone Audio. 2009.  978-1-4332-5878-7. $80.00. Vinyl binder; plot, author, reader notes. *SA

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By Jean Palmer

Jean Palmer and Francine Levitov are founding co-editors of Sound Commentary.

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