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A tantalizing LA novel fans of Michael Connelly and James Ellroy.
"More than refurbished L.A. Noir. The scenes where Farrell visits with the patients [at UCLA Children's Hospital], canny judges of character and tuning forks for emotional truth, carry devastating weight, and Nova's smooth prose brings the roiling undercurrents to the surface. He's fashioned a series character well worth revisiting. " —The New York Times
Quinn Farrell is a modern-day fixer in Los Angeles — he cleans up other people’s messes. Rich people’s messes. For a lot of money. He’s so good that he’s become indispensable to Hollywood moguls and he’s managed to construct a working moral framework so that he can live with himself. That is until a new neighbor moves next door, Rose Marie, who works with terminally ill teens. Against all his survival instincts, Farrell falls in love with Rose Marie and then her uncanny patients, who shine a spotlight into his soul. When a client steps over the line and Farrell is hired to clean up after a reprehensible crime, his carefully constructed ethical house of cards comes crashing down.
Double Solitaire is the first in a series of LA-based thrillers featuring Quinn Farrell,. As with all Nova’s deeply intuitive fiction, Farrell is an unforgettable living force in a setting that needs no fiction to be any weirder than it is: contemporary Hollywood.
Genre: Mystery
"More than refurbished L.A. Noir. The scenes where Farrell visits with the patients [at UCLA Children's Hospital], canny judges of character and tuning forks for emotional truth, carry devastating weight, and Nova's smooth prose brings the roiling undercurrents to the surface. He's fashioned a series character well worth revisiting. " —The New York Times
Quinn Farrell is a modern-day fixer in Los Angeles — he cleans up other people’s messes. Rich people’s messes. For a lot of money. He’s so good that he’s become indispensable to Hollywood moguls and he’s managed to construct a working moral framework so that he can live with himself. That is until a new neighbor moves next door, Rose Marie, who works with terminally ill teens. Against all his survival instincts, Farrell falls in love with Rose Marie and then her uncanny patients, who shine a spotlight into his soul. When a client steps over the line and Farrell is hired to clean up after a reprehensible crime, his carefully constructed ethical house of cards comes crashing down.
Double Solitaire is the first in a series of LA-based thrillers featuring Quinn Farrell,. As with all Nova’s deeply intuitive fiction, Farrell is an unforgettable living force in a setting that needs no fiction to be any weirder than it is: contemporary Hollywood.
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"Reading a new Craig Nova novel is thrilling. He’s one of our very best writers, creating characters who walk a knife blade sharpened with bleak humor as they simultaneously act out their dangerously excessive plans. The figurative language in Double Solitaire sometimes immerses us more deeply, sometimes lifts us out of a creepy, convincing nightmare; it’s up to us where we land. When Craig’s not looking at America head-on, it’s in his peripheral vision. He’s amazing." - Ann Beattie
"I wouldn't delay reading a novel Nova's, not even to complete one of my own." - John Irving
"When it comes to creating a believable, suspenseful situation, enlivened by quirky but realistic characters, few writers I know can hold a candle to Craig Nova. Long admired, by readers and writers alike, for his superb prose, Nova often doesn’t get enough credit for his deft plotting, haunting atmospherics, and unforgettable people. In Double Solitaire, he returns to Los Angeles, his native territory, and offers a story drawn from that city’s secret alcoves, a tale that perfectly blends dark intrigue and the starlight of love, the ugliness of violence and the beauty of the humane gesture. I stayed up late to finish this novel, and when I finally set it aside, it echoed in my memory for days, all its complexities and subtleties sparkling like the facets of a gem. One measure of a fine novel is an apparent simplicity beneath which all the heartbreak and decency of human interaction roils and twirls. Nova entertains, provokes, enlightens, and educates. His Double Solitaire is the work of a master at the top of his game." - Roland Merullo
"Craig Nova has really done it this time. He hooked me in the first paragraph and reeled me in on page nine. Writing with great style and economy, a master of dialogue and suspense, Nova plumbs the depths of the human psyche. Menace and heartbreak walk hand in hand through these swift pages. I'll take another trip with Quinn Farrell anytime." - Lee Smith
"I wouldn't delay reading a novel Nova's, not even to complete one of my own." - John Irving
"When it comes to creating a believable, suspenseful situation, enlivened by quirky but realistic characters, few writers I know can hold a candle to Craig Nova. Long admired, by readers and writers alike, for his superb prose, Nova often doesn’t get enough credit for his deft plotting, haunting atmospherics, and unforgettable people. In Double Solitaire, he returns to Los Angeles, his native territory, and offers a story drawn from that city’s secret alcoves, a tale that perfectly blends dark intrigue and the starlight of love, the ugliness of violence and the beauty of the humane gesture. I stayed up late to finish this novel, and when I finally set it aside, it echoed in my memory for days, all its complexities and subtleties sparkling like the facets of a gem. One measure of a fine novel is an apparent simplicity beneath which all the heartbreak and decency of human interaction roils and twirls. Nova entertains, provokes, enlightens, and educates. His Double Solitaire is the work of a master at the top of his game." - Roland Merullo
"Craig Nova has really done it this time. He hooked me in the first paragraph and reeled me in on page nine. Writing with great style and economy, a master of dialogue and suspense, Nova plumbs the depths of the human psyche. Menace and heartbreak walk hand in hand through these swift pages. I'll take another trip with Quinn Farrell anytime." - Lee Smith
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