Pretty Ballerina

Harding #2

by John Wessel

With the toughness of James Ellroy and the fine-tuned suspense of Raymond Chandler, Pretty Ballerina marks the return of ex-con/private eye Harding -- in a harrowing tale of love, betrayal, and terrifying memories.Twenty-two years ago, a boy ran away from home and disappeared. Two years later, his sister hid in a basement while the rest of her family was murdered upstairs. The crime was never solved.

That surviving sister is now a thirty-two-year-old former porn star and current scream queen of the B-movie set. When she begins to receive terrifying messages from an anonymous sender -- strange reminders of the most horrible night of her life -- she calls on Harding for help. Harding and his partner and girlfriend Alison, don't know who -- or even what -- they are hunting for. They only know that if they don't do something to make the letters stop, their lovely client is going to die.

Genres: Mystery, Crime

240 pages, Hardcover

First published June 11, 1998

About the author

John Wessel is the author of THIS FAR, NO FURTHER and PRETTY BALLERINA. He lives with his wife in a suburb of Chicago.

Reviews

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again well done Mr. Wessel. I did not want to put this book down either, I was finding myself once again trying to sneak in reading time whenever I could! I will say I did however like the first book better, but I can't complain or have a bad thing to say about this book.

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite an ordinary private eye story without too much personality. No difficulties to put the book down and go out to do something else.

The novel wasn't especially bad but it was just another story in the spirit of Philip Marlowe. A bit shady private investigator whose narrative was slightly sarcastic (very much like P.M. as mentioned). Also a plot was missing and the surprises weren't very surprising.

All and all a somewhat incoherent story with people running here and there with a bit unclear motives and objectives.

Perhaps I have read too many detective stories lately...

And FYI: Leningrad changed its name to Saint Petersburg already 1991.

Pikku Ballerina
LIKE 1999

[Tara]

3 1/2 stars. I haven't finished a book this quickly in a while.
It's your basic formula for a story surrounding a hardboiled detective with a soft heart,too much time, and way too much curiosity at his disposal. As always there's a super hot, sharp-witted girlfriend who is not only beautiful,but holds a black belt in numerous forms of martial arts. This was rather enjoyable. There were the must-have twists and turns and surprising revelations with a neatly wrapped ending.
The moral of the story? Live for today and love like there's no tomorrow, lest you wind up getting stirred in with a batch of concrete.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boo.

[Judy Carey Nevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish reading it--not really of interest to me & my husband (we read mysteries aloud together), so we stopped.

[Jackie Simons]

Read 11/98