Second Chance, Jonathan Valin
Second Chance, Jonathan Valin
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Second Chance

Author: Jonathan Valin

Narrator: Mark Peckham

Unabridged: 8 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/01/2013

Synopsis

Clients never tell the whole story. Harry Stoner had taken a snowy drive to Cincinnati psychiatrist Phil Pearson's mansion to hear the tale of daughter Kirsten—emotionally disturbed and missing. But the doctor left out the parts about his first wife's suicide and his second wife's bedroom eyes that were already chasing the winter cold from Stoner's blood. That's why Stoner suspected the search for Kirsten could take a kinky turn. He'd seen teens driven by desperation before—the dark things hidden deep in troubled minds become too much for flesh and blood to bear. And Kirsten's secrets were tied to an act so chilling that its reemergence could tear lives apart, unleashing passions so violent that even the hard heart of a seasoned PI could break or be stopped forever.

About Jonathan Valin

Jonathan Valin is a mystery author best known for the Harry Stoner detective series. He won the Shamus Award for best mystery novel of 1989. After writing eleven Harry Stoner novels over a fourteen-year period, he took a break from mystery writing to help found Fi, a magazine of music criticism. He now works as an editor and reviewer for magazines.

About Mark Peckham

Mark Peckham is an actor and director based in Rhode Island. In addition to working with Trinity Rep, Virginia Stage Co., and many Boston-area theaters, he was the voice of Joseph Smith in the award-winning PBS documentary American Prophet with Gregory Peck.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill on November 05, 2019

Perhaps I’m too hard on Jonathan Valin. His book before this one—Extenuating Circumstances (1989) didn’t thrill me, and it won the “Shamus.” This one Second Chance (1991) was a “Shamus” runner-up, and it didn’t exactly thrill me either. Yet both are well-written mysteries, superior to most of what y......more

Goodreads review by Elly on November 21, 2017

3* Intriguing, complicated.......more

Goodreads review by Sandi on March 02, 2021

Published back in the early nineties, this is a reliably good PI series set in Cincinnati. Harry Stoner specializes in cases that feature very dysfunctional families and this entry, while dark, was well written with an engaging plot. Listened to the audio version which was narrated by Mark Peckham w......more

Goodreads review by Roger on November 14, 2019

The plot was good. The story seemed to wander off now and them. Abundant profanity was a turnoff......more

Goodreads review by Richard on September 27, 2020

An excellent mystery, with echoes of Ross Macdonald.......more

Quotes

“Tough and compassionate…may be the best book yet done by one of the most consistently interesting novelists in the mystery and suspense field.” Wall Street Journal

“Series detective Harry Stoner tackles an apparently easy missing persons case…This efficient narrative with a hard-boiled edge has a sometimes predictable but always interesting and increasingly baroque plot. A likely choice for most collections.” Library Journal

“Crisscrossing Ohio with unusual somberness, Harry uncovers a truly hair-raising trail of nasty sex, child abuse, blackmail, and multiple murder…You’ll see the solution coming fifty pages before Harry does, but that won’t stop the shivers when it finally arrives. More, much more, than a restaging of The Chill and The Far Side of the Dollar: what Valin lacks in originality this time he makes up in genuinely tragic power.” Kirkus Reviews

Awards

  • Shamus Award
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