The secrets of a group of childhood friends unravel in this haunting thriller by Edgar Award winner S. J. Rozan. Set in New York in the unforgettab...
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May 16, 2009
Teresa in Ohio
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This book was not a joy to read. I felt with the title Absent Friends and the setting post 9-11 in NYC. It would be a story that focused on the aftermath of that day and how people picked up the pieces and moved on in their lives. Instead Jimmy a NYFD is killed in the towers and we flash back and forth between 2001 and 1979. It seems a childhood friend was killed and the one who did the shooting is in jail and tradegy happens again. We then spend over 300 pages trying to make sense of a muddle
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Apr 18, 2009
Cathy
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Jun 30, 2009
Daphne
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This book, set around Sept. 11, got rave reviews from top thriller/suspense writers like it was the Second Coming. Multiple POVs of childhood friends, a murder caused by one or more of them, a scandal regarding possible mob money from fallen firefighter hero, suicide/murder of a reporter. Chapter changes insanely frequent, dragged out revelations until you didn't care any more who did what, cliched backstory childhood incidents, overwrought sentimentality.
Evocative writing, gifted st More...
Evocative writing, gifted st More...
Dec 10, 2010
Kirsty
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This tale concerns a group of friends who grew up on Staten Island in the 1970s and mostly takes place in late 2001 in New York just after the attacks on the World Trade Center. I was looking forward to reading it but in the end felt disappointed.
Despite the fact that I've loved and adored Rozan's other books I never really got into the swing of this one and the plot always felt a little clunky and culminated in an ending that seemed very so-so to me. Just didn't seem to be as well written as
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Apr 16, 2009
Ann
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Dec 13, 2011
Joanne
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I am surprised that I read this book to the end. It got good reviews from significant sources, so I kept at it.
It was very tedious through the first half of the book. Then I began to keep the characters straight and it became more interesting,, and the individuals became important to me. I kept reading to find out what happens to them all.
It was a very sad story, set against a backdrop of 9/11, and at the end I felt angry with the author, feeling "what was the point?"
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It was very tedious through the first half of the book. Then I began to keep the characters straight and it became more interesting,, and the individuals became important to me. I kept reading to find out what happens to them all.
It was a very sad story, set against a backdrop of 9/11, and at the end I felt angry with the author, feeling "what was the point?"
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Jan 05, 2009
Beth
rated it: 
haunting novel about 9/11. I think with time 9/11 has really receded into my memory banks and this book made it seem like it happened yesterday. Those of us in the rest of the country can never imagine what it must have been like during that time. I also found it interesting, in this novel at least, that there was not any love lost between the police and fire forces in NY. It just seems like they should work well together but in this book they seemed more like adversaries.
Sep 04, 2007
LJ
rated it:
ABSENT FRIENDS (Novel-NY-Cont) – G+
S.J. Rozen – Standalone
Delacorte Press, 2004 – Hardcover
James McCaffery, a NYFD captain, is one of the fallen heroes of 9/11. But reporter Harry Randell seems to believe James may not have always been so heroic and was involved with a known mobster. When Harry dies of an apparent suicide, a fellow reporter picks up Harry’s leads.
*** Not as much a mystery as a character study, it vacillates between multiple characters and two time perio More...
S.J. Rozen – Standalone
Delacorte Press, 2004 – Hardcover
James McCaffery, a NYFD captain, is one of the fallen heroes of 9/11. But reporter Harry Randell seems to believe James may not have always been so heroic and was involved with a known mobster. When Harry dies of an apparent suicide, a fellow reporter picks up Harry’s leads.
*** Not as much a mystery as a character study, it vacillates between multiple characters and two time perio More...
Jul 22, 2009
Linda
rated it:
This was a book about secrets among a group of childhood friends and the far-reaching consequences - good and bad - of keeping and/or revealing the secrets.
I found it a little confusing at first, but then I really got into it. It was like peeling away the sections of an onion. The main secret - who was providing the money to Markie's widow for 18 years, and why - was slowly revealed and kept me off guard until near the end. I felt it was a wonderfully told mystery and kept me rive More...
I found it a little confusing at first, but then I really got into it. It was like peeling away the sections of an onion. The main secret - who was providing the money to Markie's widow for 18 years, and why - was slowly revealed and kept me off guard until near the end. I felt it was a wonderfully told mystery and kept me rive More...
Aug 13, 2011
Eileen133
rated it:
It was a little hard for me to keep up with the characters and the time switches.
Jun 11, 2009
Nancy/nanckopf
rated it:
Ugh....wish I hadn't wasted my time. This book got good reviews on here, so I thought I'd take a chance. NOTHING happened in this book. The first 30 pages had promise, but it dragged and dragged forever and the ending was a big NOTHING. The conversation was hard to follow. The story went back and forth between 1979 and 2001, but if characters in 2001 were talking about a conversation they had in 1979 there weren't any quotation marks. It was annoying trying to figure out who was talking abo
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Dec 27, 2008
Kyra
rated it:
This book was very well written and with the background of NY after 9/11 but the story is sad in an unfulfilling way that made me wish it had continued or had some better resolution.
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