I have just finished reading all of Jess Walter's non fiction. I do a lot of reading so unless an author impresses me, I usually do not read more than one book by that author(too many good books out there). Walter impressed me. It started with Beautiful Ruins which is his most popular book and the one that I would recommend as the first read. I have thought that this, his 2nd novel ,would be a follow up to his first because he had Caroline the detective from the that novel as a character. She was in the book but not as a major part. The book is more about childhood connections and the impact of that time on people's lives. I found it enough of a mystery and a good read to keep my interest. Walter has 7 novels of fiction and he is a very good writer. He does good character studies, has an excellent literary style and tells a good story. I strongly recommend him as an author you might like. ( )

I just read this for a book group and was underwhelmed. One of my favorite books this summer was Walter's [b:Beautiful Ruins|11447921|Beautiful Ruins|Jess Walter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1338161553s/11447921.jpg|16381755], but this riff on the police procedural (less "who dunnit" and more "what exactly is it that he dun") did not quite grab me--or rather, it grabbed me but only in that mildly icky way that an intense television cop show grabs you and then leaves you deflated with no sense of a there there. It seemed predictably unpredictable, if that makes sense. I found the long first pages about bullying depressing without really revealing much about the main characters and the "surprise surprise" final pages (and this kind of book needs to have a big payoff to make the long wait worthwhile) just fell flat for me. Walter is an excellent writer, to be sure, and you can see that here in flashes, but this particular story will not be one that I recommend of his. ( )

Discreto

An oddly structured mystery--could seem like a gimick but it works for this story

I was immediately impressed. This is my second book of Jess Walter's. It is about a man who comes in to confess to a crime. He starts writing down his story on a legal pad and is still going more than 19 hours and three pads later. The story alternates between this man, Clark Mason, and the female detective, Caroline Mabry. Clark starts his "Statement of Fact" back when he is five years old. So the story switches between present and past. Jess does so with skill, however, and as a reader I was completely entranced and not at all confused. I loved it! ( )