Book Review: Sorrow's Anthem

Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM

Sorrow's Anthem     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Michael Koryta
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Private Investigator   Hard Boiled
Series: Lincoln Perry and Joe Pritchard
Thomas Dunne Books, $30.95 hardcover, 309 pages

Ed Gradduk was once Lincoln Perry’s best friend, back in the days when summers were long and filled with nothing. Then Perry put Gradduk away for drug dealing. He hasn’t seen Ed since then, but now Ed’s in trouble, wanted for murder and arson. Wanting to get the story, Perry seeks Ed out at one of their old hangouts. Ed starts telling his story, but he never gets to finish; a police car runs him down in the middle of the street.

Perry’s sure that Ed didn’t kill Anita Sentalar, that he didn’t burn the building in which her body was found. So he enlists the grudging assistance of his partner Joe Pritchard to investigate the claims Ed made before he died. Soon, Perry and Pritchard are moving from blue-collar bars to the offices of city officials, following a trail that leads back at least seventeen years, to those hazy summers when Ed and Lincoln were still friends.

Sorrow’s Anthem is Koryta’s follow-up to his stunning debut of last year, Tonight I Said Goodbye. I thought he had it all pinned down then, that there was no room for improvement, but I was wrong. Koryta’s gone up a level with this book. His characters are stronger, their relationships deeper, and the plot just never stops. The author has an ear for dialogue and a sense of humour, but his characters’ quips never seem forced or dropped in; they emerge naturally from who these people are.

It’s hard to believe that a young man—he’s only 22—can write like a seasoned veteran. Yet he can, and he does. I couldn’t put Sorrow’s Anthem down, and I didn’t want it to stop.

Catherine Thompson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM