Too Little, Too Late

A Kate Stanton Hollywood Mystery #1

by Marta Tandori

A young runaway takes refuge in a makeshift shack under the Hollywood Freeway, forcing the autistic woman in it to find milk for her sickly newborn – a search that ultimately ends in tragedy when the woman is run down by a hit-and-run driver after a violent confrontation with several teenagers. When one of those teenagers, seventeen-year-old Karen Devane, is implicated in the woman’s homicide, the tabloids are quick to exploit the tragedy, thanks to Karen’s recent antics as a spoiled Tinseltown “celebrat” riding on the coattails of her famous grandmother, the legendary Kate Stanton. Complicating matters is the dead woman’s daughter, who’s determined that Karen be held accountable for her mother’s death, even after the charges against Karen are dropped. With tensions between Karen and her family near breaking point and the paparazzi relentlessly hounding her every move, Karen makes a startling discovery which finally puts her on the road to redemption – and links the dead woman to her beloved grandmother.

Karen’s discovery raises a host of troubling questions for Kate, forcing her to revisit the horrors of her past in search of answers. But Kate soon realizes that some questions are better left unasked after a seemingly random shooting leaves her granddaughter fighting for her life and Kate scrambling to stay one step ahead of a killer who’s determined to end her life in order to save his own.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller

317 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 23, 2012

About the author

Marta Tandori had always been an avid reader but it wasn’t until she began studying acting in her early twenties at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York that she realized acting wasn’t really her passion – writing fiction was. Thanks to an overly zealous addiction in her youth to all things Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden, Marta fell in love with mysteries and it’s hardly a surprise that she chose to write in the same genre! Marta’s books feature strong female protagonists who have closets full of nasty skeletons and the odd murder or two to complicate their already complex lives. She’s the author of the Kate Stanton Hollywood Mystery Series as well as several other standalone mysteries. To learn more about Marta, please visit her website at http://martatandori.com or her Facebook Author Page at www.facebook.com/MartaTandoriAuthor or connect with her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MartaTandori (@MartaTandori).

Reviews

[Sandysbookaday (taking a step back for a while) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book free in exchange for an honest review.
Spanning the years between the end of WWII and current times, and taking us between Nazi Germany, Norway and Hollywood, this intriguing thriller tells the story of Kate Stanton and her family.
Who is the homeless woman who is run down by a hit-and-run driver after a violent confrontation with several teenagers, one of them Kate's grand-daughter?
What was she trying to put in Kate's letter-box?
And why?
And where is it now?
Kate soon realizes that some questions are better left unasked after she is left scrambling to stay one step ahead of a killer who’s determined to end her life in order to save his own.
In this sweeping murder mystery based on the novella FORBIDDEN, past mistakes are pitted against bittersweet revenge and family secrets as old as Hollywood and Hitler threaten to destroy one family tainted by a poisonous legacy none of them can ever hope to escape.
I really enjoyed this book. Every time I thought I had it all figured out, there would be a clever twist in the plot, and I would have to begin again.
I will definitely be reading the rest of the Kate Stanton series!

[Raven Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my GOD. Right from the first few chapters, this book nauseated me, horrified me, filled my head with graphic images that I'm sure I won't be able to erase for a few months, and made me want to throw my Kindle every time a new plot twist clicked in my head, which seemed to be every few pages. And yet, I couldn't bring myself to stop reading, I just had to keep going to see what happened next! All the characters with seemingly unrelated lives, that seemed as though they'd be brought together so loosely, merged together in a way I could have never imagined! If that last line turns out to be a cliffhanger for a sequel, I'm going to hide in my closet for a week and think carefully about if I'm really ready to experience that kind of emotional roller-coaster a second time just because this book was so beautifully written!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tough one to rate ... difficult subject matter. Not for the faint of heart. Couldn't "not" read it but it was also frustrating. Characters and time elements all over the map and challenging to follow at times; thus, the reason for 3 vs 4 stars.

[Ferne (Enthusiastic Reader) · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, a little background as to how I came to read “Too Little, Too Late”…
I read “No Hard Feelings” as my first introduction to a novel by Marta Tandori. I thoroughly enjoyed it as a page-turning, suspense-filled independent mystery. The novel captivated me as a reader. It also reminded me that there are moments in life when you meet individuals that are new acquaintances to you but you can immediately tell that these same individuals have known each other for a long time when you see them exchange a meaningful glance or hear part of their shared conversation that almost seems as though it is spoken in a code only they can understand. You can tell that they share history and have deep respect and love for one another. As I was reading the conversations between Kate and her daughter Eve, Eve and the detective, Eve and daughter Karen and niece Liz, Kate with Karen and Liz, I found myself wishing that I had read “Too Little, Too Late” first but it didn’t detract my appreciation of the sequel. It only intrigued me all the more in wishing to spend more time with all of the characters as introduced by the author.

Reading “Too Little, Too Late” answered so many questions. But beyond that I have to remind you again that I thought “No Hard Feelings” was a page-turner. So to now describe the experience of reading “Too Little, Too Late”, I either have to create a brand new term for the phrase ‘page-turner’ or at the very least I should totally spell out the entire definition of a ‘page-turner’. The definition absolutely must equal the adjectives of gripping, exciting, thriller, rapid-fire action, the power of suspense, add in some HCM – Heart-Clutching Moments (and I can’t take credit for this term), and compelling plot. The whole of that definition becomes the extraordinary “Too Little, Too Late”.

As part of the description for Writer’s Digest “Boot Camp”, it is shared that…
“Today’s best novels make readers so desperate to know what happens next that they’ll stay up reading well past midnight, blistering thumbs and all, until THE END. Then and only then will they be able to relax, their souls flooded with satisfaction, relief and peace. Only to be followed—ideally!—by a gnawing sense of unfulfillment, anxiety and a compulsion to read more books by you.”

The Writer’s Digest description fully describes the novel “Too Little, Too Late.” A review of “Too Little, Too Late” would be incomplete without mention of the explicit language and graphic sexual content. It is not shared to label the novel or to prevent a reader from the discovery and exploration of this novel and series but to contribute to the understanding that the use is not for the purposes of eroticism but to contribute to the reader’s true experience and empathy of the characters within this absorbing and unforgettable plot that encompasses history of old Hollywood and family history back to Hitler’s desire to create the ‘ultimate race’.

I am a former librarian and I do not believe in censorship. “Too Little, Too Late” is the opening of a series that I would highly recommend to adult readers. One of the reasons I love to read is because novels have the capacity to take me beyond my own life experiences, to present history in contemporary settings, to widen my understanding of human nature and of human sacrifice, to listen to voices beyond my family, my friends, my coworkers, to challenge my thoughts and expressions, to broaden my world. “Too Little, Too Late” is a novel that immersed my concentration in a time in history that is difficult to comprehend and then brings me forward to contemporary days. It is not a delicate walk but it is a meaningful walk and I am richer in thought, in empathy, in compassion, in understanding for having read the novel as part of my life journey.

[Les · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently read the 4th book in this series and while it not all lightness and joy and didn't prepare me for the depths of human depravity that this story highlights

This book should come with a warning label

“Here are some of the extraordinarily dark themes”

It begins with several modern teenagers abusing a mentally ill homeless woman that seriously had me questioning humanity. It then goes back to the Holocaust, the Lebensborn program, the treatment of female collaborators by their countries and the treatment of the children by the governments.

When the Lebensborn child grows up she learns that her father had escaped justice at the end of WW2 and had moved to Hollywood to become a director. She follows with hope of confronting him. When she finds him she is the victim of a brutal incestuous gang rape. Which will lead to the birth of an autistic child who will be institutionalized. But there are further depths to plumb for at least 1/2 of the book the author lets you wonder if the autistic woman; who you are fairly sure was the offspring of her father|grandfather and his daughter; was later impregnated by her own ½ brother. It is simply too horrific to ponder and yet you must

While a bunch of other weird coincidences play out a young woman is trying to solve the murder of her mother and another young woman is struggling with the publicity of the murder. When a piece of evidence turns up that will unravel the whole hidden past everyone is at risk.

This is like the other book by the author where everyone in the book is tightly related/ involved etc.

If you can get past all the violence against humanity and violence against women it is a fairly dull mystery.

[Marci · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a result of being selected First Reads giveaway.

I was really torn about reading this book. First of all, I was almost bitterly surprised by the actual plot of this book. I thought it was like a typical coming of age type story: runaway encounters more life than she was running from, but the runaway mentioned in the synopisis is not the Karen or any of the teenages you run into. From that one surprise, this becomes a completely different story.

Putting that aside, it is a beautiful story. It jumps quite a bit. I was trying to read this during midterms week, and for a book with so much going on "simultaneously" that is not a good time to be reading a story like that. Then you have this almost paradoxical relationship between two much tell and too much show. Like, you can show me all this violence and chaos but you're going to just blatantly tell me that so and so is this or dating whoever. It's like a horrible flashback to high school English classes all over again.

I would recommend this book but conditionally.

[Karrie Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is way more than what the synopsis will lead you to believe. There are many twists and turns along the way.

[Viola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Macabre

Interesting horrible tale filled with mess and craziness. Every person's life had misery and agony. What a depressing and agonizing story. But, had to finish reading it to see what happened. Ugh

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good

[Janejellyroll · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a hard book for me to like because it felt like it went far beyond simply presenting dark themes to absolutely *reveling* in them. There's a tackiness in using things like the Holocaust to simply add drama to an otherwise fairly dull Hollywood-themed murder mystery, but I think the author realized early on without the Nazi eroticism and lurid accounts of sexual assault (including details about how a vulnerable woman was assaulted, again and again, by a family member), there simply is much here.

The book opens with an autistic woman being assaulted by a group of entitled teenagers (one of the teenagers is the granddaughter of the main character and even after this brutal assault with rock throwing, I think we're supposed to actually care how things work out for her) and then moves to the 1940s, where a young Kate Stanton is taken on a school field trip of activities in an extermination camp, led by her father, the camp commandant (somehow I seriously doubt that even the most dedicated leaders would take elementary school children to view the gas chambers in action). From there, we're on a tour of the rest of Kate's life which can be summed up as Nazis, beatings, rape, more Nazis, more rape, and finally catering to a spoiled teenager who likes to throw rocks at autistic women for kicks.

The events of the book span several decades, but Tandori finds something tasteless to highlight and exploit in almost all of them. The whole thing made me want to bleach my eyeballs.

[Angie ~aka Reading Machine~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kate Stanton remembers all too clearly about death and tragedy. Kate was raped by her own father then had his child Sonja. Sonja is killed in an explosion but Kate has never forgotten. Flash forward years later, a homeless woman carries around a necklace like it's security blanket. Liz Farrell is searching for her homeless mother Maria and not having any luck finding her. Kate Stanton's granddaughter Karen Devane goes to Kate's home to drop off items only to witness a homeless woman beating on her grandmother's mailbox. Then Karen and her friends witness this same woman be hit by a car. Karen is horror struck by what's happened yet no one believes her. What do all of these people have in common? Your answers await you in Too Little, Too Late.

I found this book to be fascinating with switching from past to the present so seamlessly. The characters are rich, bold, complex, and interesting. The story is character driven and complex. It's also page turner for me too. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more books like this.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that started as a stand alone and then became the first in a series.

I found the book difficult to follow. In hindsight, I understand why it is a Hollywood mystery, but it did not become clear until I reached the middle of the book. The subject matter is compelling and it was an interesting read; however I occasionally found myself flinching at some of the questionable "sex" practices. They were necessary for the plot, but I would have been happy with less detail.

Some of my confusion came from trying to keep the characters straight. I thought it was because I tired, but I paged back and found out that the wrong brother's name was used at a crucial moment. I only checked that one instance, but I suspect that similar errors occurred earlier in the book.

On the positive side, the character development was excellent and I will most likely read the next book in the series.

[Gail Ritter · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the synopsis of this book, the reader might think it's a mystery-thriller centered around the 17 yr. old Karen. What it really is, is a disturbing book about family secrets; taking the reader from WWll Poland, post war Norway, and landing in Hollywood. It's a tale about the characters surviving horrors, and having the resilience to create new lives for themselves. Karen's involvement in the killing of a homeless woman is the culmination of events in her family that she had no inkling about. This was a book I couldn't stop reading, even though I was cringing at what might be revealed next.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway.

Too Little Too Late is a slightly unexpected story centered around the cycle of abuse endured by a family and some of the interesting connections that are eventually found out. Tandori adds a sort of historical element to this book by incorporating characters with involvement in the brutal acts of the Nazi's from decades past. These characters are woven together in a way that is not fully revealed until the last few pages. I really enjoyed the diversity in characters' backgrounds and the different relationships that were formed throughout this book.

[S.E. Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hooked me from the get-go. I absolutely loved this book from the beginning to the end. I can tell that a lot of thinking and research went into this book. That is what makes it unique. The characters are from different types of backgrounds and each of them was interesting in his/her own right. I liked the way the author keeps us in suspense until the end - revealing just enough to keep us turning the pages. Marta Tandori is my new favorite author. I am already reading another one of her books which is also interesting.

[Bill Thibadeau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Continuance by this author and was mesmerized by the story and writing style. So, it was a natural that I would read this book. I was only a bit let down due to the storyline. For me, Continuance was a hard to follow book.

This book has a great cast of characters and a dark but gripping lengthy start to the story. Even better, there is an equally good sequel called No Hard Feelings. This author would have no trouble competing with the so-called mainstream authors. I will make it my mission to read all of Ms. Tandori's writings.

[Mirachil27 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Pageturner

Too Little, Too Late is another in Maria Tandori's Kate Stanton Hollywood series. For fans of the Late Stanton books, this entry will have you glued to your seat as you finally get the whole Nazi backstory that was briefly mentioned before. The depth of the characters and the horrors they committed or endured will give fans of human horror, man's inhumanity to man, plenty to chew on. I highly recommend this book, but be warned, it will hook you, and you'll have to go out and buy the whole series.

[Cathy Geha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another of Ms Tandoori’s stories that covers much ground over many years and several generations. This story starts with Nazis and Lebensborn and the beginning of the story in Europe, moves to Hollywood in the 60’s and continues on to the present day. Three or four generations are mentioned. There is incest, murder, rape, autism, a love story or two and finding family and family history. This is another novel with twists and turns and much information to keep track of.

[Caralyn Rubli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for free in a giveaway by Goodreads. It was a good book, but I was confused for most of it, not remembering who was who. Everyones part in the story was interesting, but I felt like just when a characters part got interesting, another character was focused on and I spent most of it asking myself "Who is this person again?". All in all a very good book.

[Marie (UK) · Rating 3 out of 5]

this had a very complex and long lead in to what was the heart of the story - a search for identity. Some of the content was a little too sexually erotic for my liking but generally did have relevance to the story line. The characters were well drawn and you either loved them or hated them depending on what side they were on. Overall an enjoyable read

[Jai · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is about multi generations of a family for whom tragedy and perversion surface far too frequently. There is a large cast and often it is hard to remember relationships particularly since some names change. The timeline seems to have some peculiar jumps but all in all it is an interesting story.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couldn't put it down. It is graphic and disturbing but it is one of those you want to find out what happens as the plot twists. The book begins in one place and ends up somewhere completely unexpected.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is an amazingly written book. I was gripped from page one until the last page, but left wanting more. This story is full of twists and is such an exciting read. I look forward to reading more from this author.

[Nancy Loomis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book, keeps your interest as you are always wondering what's going to happen next.

[Briga · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read almost a third of the book before I gave up. Too much jumping around for me to focus on the story (ies?) and the parts I did gasp had a bit too much of the ick factor for my personal taste.

[Sylvie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved to read this book. Story was really addictive and I could not sleep until the end ! Thank you !

[Nancy]

Had to stop almost at the end, draft a family tree and then, finish reading to be able to understand. Also, too graphic for my taste. Aside from that, it is very well written. Never a dull moment.

[bex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy and complicated, but it all came together. I decided on a 3* rating despite the attempt at a hook at the end.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could not put this down. Was really well-written. A lot of jumping around but still a great read. Incest, killing, love and compassion, secrets, mystery and thriller all in one. Worth reading.