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Book Reviewed by:For fans of The Secret History and The Poison Tree, a novel about a woman whose family and identity are threatened by the secrets of her past, from the New York Times bestselling author of She's Not There.
On a warm August night in 1980, six college students sneak into the dilapidated ruins of Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, looking for a thrill. With a pianist, a painter and a teacher among them, the friends are full of potential. But it's not long before they realize they are locked in - and not alone. When the friends get lost and separated, the terrifying night ends in tragedy, and the unexpected, far-reaching consequences reverberate through the survivors' lives. As they go their separate ways, trying to move on, it becomes clear that their dark night in the prison has changed them all. Decades later, new evidence is found, and the dogged detective investigating the cold case charges one of them - celebrity chef Jon Casey - with murder. Only Casey's old friend Judith Carrigan can testify to his innocence.
But Judith is protecting long-held secrets of her own – secrets that, if brought to light, could destroy her career as a travel writer and tear her away from her fireman husband and teenage son. If she chooses to help Casey, she risks losing the life she has fought to build and the woman she has struggled to become. In any life that contains a "before" and an "after," how is it possible to live one life, not two?
Weaving deftly between 1980 and the present day, and told in an unforgettable voice, Long Black Veil is an intensely atmospheric thriller that explores the meaning of identity, loyalty, and love. Readers will hail this as Boylan's triumphant return to fiction.
Chapter 1
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
August 1980
This was a long time ago, before my first death, and none of us now are the people we were then. Instead we are ghosts: two of us dead, a third unrecognizable, a fourth suspected of murder. It would be easy enough at this hour to have contempt for those young selves, to focus instead on how much cleverer we have become here in the green pastures of the twenty-first century. But over the years I have come to believe that people are usually more deserving of forgiveness than judgment. This is not only because it's an act of grace; it's also because most men and women aren't afforded the luxury of dying more than once.
Unlike some people I could mention.
It was Rachel who got us out of our beds that hot August morning, even though our heads were still throbbing from the wedding the night before. But Rachel was a woman on a mission, and she'd decided she was going to take Quentin to see The Large Bathers by Cézanne, ...
The deftly told story doesn't fit into one specific box. It's a murder mystery, as well as an exploration of transgender identity. Told from multiple timelines and characters' point of view, as well as shifting between various geographic locations in the United States Northeast, it is also a thoughtful character study, contrasting who the characters were in their twenties against who they become thirty-five years later...continued
Full Review
(683 words)
(Reviewed by Sarah Tomp).
Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and Leaving Time
Long after the last page is turned, you will be thinking about the nature of identity, the pull of the past, and whether you can ever outrun the person you used to be. Mary Karr, New York Times bestselling author of Liar's Club, Lit and Cherry
Jennifer Finney Boylan rewards her fans with a riveting whodunit. The plot shapeshifts along with the unforgettable characters -including a woman whose family could be dismantled by her long-buried secrets. All this is rendered in Jenny's signature hilarious, wise and wise-assed prose. Bravo, Boylan, bring us another one! Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Nobody's Fool
This is Jennifer Finney Boylan's best book. It's one of the most eloquent pleas for empathy and moral imagination I've ever encountered.The catalyst for Long Black Veil takes place within the ruins of Eastern State Penitentiary, located in the heart of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Now remade into a museum and identified as a National Historic Landmark, the former prison stood unattended and in shambles from its closing in 1971 until 1994.
The author cites a visit to the Eastern State Penitentiary, "one of the most haunted locations in the world," as the inspiration for this novel.
Originally opened in 1829, the facility was conceived by a group of activists, including Benjamin Franklin, and was equipped with running water and central heat. Each cell was lit with a skylight, called an "Eye of God" window to allow the prisoners access to "light from Heaven." The ...
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