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The Damned Lovely
“She wasn’t pretty but she was ours…” Sandwiched between seedy businesses in the scorching east LA suburb of Glendale, The Damned Lovely dive bar is as scarred as its regulars: ex-cops, misfits and loners. And for Sam Goss, it’s a refuge from the promising life he’s walked away from, a place to write and a hole to hide in.
But when a beautiful and mysterious new patron to the bar turns up murdered, Sam can’t stop himself from getting involved. Despite their fleeting interaction, or perhaps because of it, something about her ghost won’t let go…
Armed with the playbook from the burned-out ex-cops, Sam challenges the police’s theory on the killing, butting heads with hardened detectives and asking questions nobody wants to answer. As his obsession takes hold so does his sense of purpose—as if uncovering the truth about the killer might heal some part of his own broken life. But the chase sets him on a collision course with a crooked charity, violent fundamentalists, corrupt cops, brazen embezzlers and someone dangerously close to home—all who want to make sure the truth never comes out.
But when a beautiful and mysterious new patron to the bar turns up murdered, Sam can’t stop himself from getting involved. Despite their fleeting interaction, or perhaps because of it, something about her ghost won’t let go…
Armed with the playbook from the burned-out ex-cops, Sam challenges the police’s theory on the killing, butting heads with hardened detectives and asking questions nobody wants to answer. As his obsession takes hold so does his sense of purpose—as if uncovering the truth about the killer might heal some part of his own broken life. But the chase sets him on a collision course with a crooked charity, violent fundamentalists, corrupt cops, brazen embezzlers and someone dangerously close to home—all who want to make sure the truth never comes out.
- GenresFiction
340 pages, Paperback
Published May 2, 2022
About the author
Adam Frost
55 books3 followers"Adam Frost was born in Epping and grew up in Buckhurst Hill, Essex. He attended Buckhurst Hill County High School. He earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Oxford and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. His dissertation was on the short stories of H.H. Munro."
"Adam Frost published his first book Ralph the Magic Rabbit in 2006. It was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize."
"Frost also designs information graphics for The Guardian and other publications. His graphic with Zhenia Vasiliev, ‘The 39 Stats’, was awarded a Silver Medal in the 2013 Information is Beautiful Awards. Other graphics have focussed on the Gothic novel, entomophagy, and the election of Pope Francis."
~Excerpts from Wikipedia.org - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Fro...
"Adam Frost published his first book Ralph the Magic Rabbit in 2006. It was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize."
"Frost also designs information graphics for The Guardian and other publications. His graphic with Zhenia Vasiliev, ‘The 39 Stats’, was awarded a Silver Medal in the 2013 Information is Beautiful Awards. Other graphics have focussed on the Gothic novel, entomophagy, and the election of Pope Francis."
~Excerpts from Wikipedia.org - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Fro...
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 6, 2022
"This was pure. And I was going to dig deep into the root of my obsession because it was mine alone. I mean, I needed something to believe in."
Sam is a loser. He's a writer who hasn't written much, at least for publication and pay, so he's mostly a rideshare driver, making just enough to cover his half pf the rent at an apartment he shares with a white-supremacist-in-training, and more importantly, his constantly running tabs at The Damned Lovely, a dive bar in Glendale, California, a dive city, where the regulars form a sort of "Cheers" type of family; that is, if "Cheers" had been written by Newton Thornburg or Richard Lange or Jordan Harper.
And when a pretty young woman comes into The Damned Lovely and is murdered barely a day later, something awakes in Sam, and, yes, this IS one of those novels in which a woman's death is the catalyst for a man's redemption, and while that's an icky construct in the abstract, it works in reality because THE DAMNED LOVELY is not really a mystery or a thriller, but a contemporary noir about a loser who 's inspired to find a hidden higher gear within himself. And Adam Frost makes us feel, in every passage and on every page, how much this broken man needs to be better — not just for justice for the late Josie Pendleton, but for himself, and for the world in which he does little more than take up barstool space so he can eventually live a life in which he's not brooding over dead women but trying to be alive for the living ones. He's a toxic white male who needs to purge the toxins — of the human type and societal type as well as the alcohol type — from his cerebral bloodstream. It would be nice if he his fellow regulars at The Damned Lovely were able to help, but if they can't, he'll blunder into the cathartic truth on his own, regardless of who has to get sideswiped and swept aside in the process. As he puts it: "And worst of all. I was compelled by a force inside my bones to write something real. Something long and from the heart. Something maybe even wise."
As such, THE DAMNED LOVELY is a plotted story that's not really about plot; the Dead Girl doesn't really register to much affect here, nor do the characters who pass through to beat, berate, ignore or help Sam along his slouch toward Bethlehem. It's about a man who's learning to get out of his own way, who's having to learn over and over that he's not as smart, or as dumb, as he thinks he is, and that if he could just find his place, he could do more with his life than moon over ladies well out of his league, and overcome the tiresome limitations of the Dead Girl tropes that toxify too many male-penned noir stories.
It helps that Sam doesn't think of himself as an alpha male, that he lacks much skill as a self-appointed avenger of wrongs, and that his successes come mostly from what his failures stir up. He's no Fletch, no Elvis Cole, no Harry Bosch, no hero. And yet he's not quite the sum of his failings, either. He's just a guy who's taking the long way around the barn, to borrow a saying of my dad's, toward figuring things out in life. As he reflects: "I am not a wise and intelligent detective. I am Sam. A failed writer trying to feel like a wise detective cuz I can’t write one truthfully."
As such, he's a refreshing presence in a world full of panty-dropping knight-errants and smug professionals who effortlessly bulldoze their way through everything in the shadows of greater L.A. Deep down, he wants to be exactly the opposite of an aspirational-male trope even as he is pretty much the sum of his aspiration: He's self-deprecating and semi-self-aware, and Adam Frost renders him with winning empathy:. As the bar's owner, a retired LA cop, tells him: “I love ya, kid. You know I do. But where’s this all getting you? Look at your face. You’ve been chewed up. Inside and out. Why don’t you give it a break? Go hide behind a computer and write something. Something to make yourself proud or smile or I don’t know. You’re obviously good at it. You’re just tripping yourself up with this Josie dirt. I get it, you’ve put a lot of yourself into it, but at the end of the day, where’s it really getting you?”
And because Sam is willing to honestly explore that question in all its depth and breadth, he rises above the Man Redeemed By a Dead Girl cliché. Because whatever he finds out through his messy investigating, it'll change him, for the better. Even if it turns out that dead is better, which it might well be. Sam comes close to finding out, through the shocking reveal of the true killer, and one way or the other, he knows there's no going back to the underachieving barfly that he was in the book's beginning. And that gives him an endearing sense of his own fallibility without ever lapsing fully into the clichés of male pathos, even as he emodies them on the surface. He knows that he not only needs to be better for himself, but for the world in general — and for the female world in particular.
I'll be honest: Novels like this are for me. I'm one of those readers who interprets "escapist reading" much differently than the literary ecosystem does: I read to escape INTO my reality, to understand why I'm such a loser, and to understand what can be done about it by riding shotgun with those in the same leaking boat, those created by those writers who know these people as well as I know myself. And when they engage their hidden higher gear in the pursuit of redemptive truth, it makes me want to do the same. And even as it awakens some potentially toxic-male truths as well ... well, isn't that a good thing? To be aware of the work ahead, and to drag out the pick and shovel, the way Sam does in THE DAMNED LOVELY, and get to work, and to stay at work?
Much of this journey is made palatable, and even pleasing, through Frost's wryly cynical-but-hopeful voice. There are dozens of great lines here, and I'll share a few:
"It’s not supposed to be for a wide audience. It’s supposed to be good."
“There’s no soul in a Starbucks, Slice. I can’t write someplace without soul.”
"How do you ask someone if they committed murder? I hadn’t a clue. But. I had spent well over a thousand hours boozing with ex-cops pulling stories and figured I’d wing it."
"I kept drinking. Did I really just defend Glendale?"
"I was no longer welcome at the Cheesecake Factory."
"I needed to get into Josie life. In a most digital way. I wanted emails, texts. I wanted private communiqué. I wanted her data all up close and personal in my face. I wanted to know what kinda music she listened to. Movies she watched. Songs she liked. The bad gym mix. Her Counting Crows ugly secret. Her favorite stupid emoji. All of it."
"“The article. I wanna turn it into a TV show. You’ve got all these burnouts—what a great cast. And the cop thing. It’s like Cheers meets Murder, She Wrote. But newer. Cooler. Every week the characters, the ex-cops, will solve a crime. With Slice blazing the trail. You know, the disgraced ex-cop with killer instincts that everyone underestimates. It could be a fun crime show. A dramedy. But with heart. Whaddya think?”
"I was pretty sure she didn’t want to sleep with me either, but then again, those three dots popped up so fast I couldn’t help but smell a whiff of want."
"I was pretty sure she didn’t want to sleep with me either, but then again, those three dots popped up so fast I couldn’t help but smell a whiff of want."
"Backyard Dreams had an office in North Hollywood off Lankershim. Deep in the valley of displaced dreams and runoff satisfaction. A cross-section of start-up families, second gen’ immigrants, and struggling actors. A land of faux happiness you could smell driving down the main strip. I mean, does anyone move to Los Angeles, California with dreams of living in North Hollywood?"
"This be Glendale. The land of Chevy Chase Boulevard. That hurricane of car dealerships and sparkling ribbons promising the American dream. Oh, and while you’re here—have you been up the street? It’s the Americana! The Grove without a soul. Without the gloss but all the function and cheaper parking. Just take San Fernando Road, that endless pipe to nowhere. Glendale. That bland ugly open secret, where nothing ever happens. Nothing wild. Nothing wonderful. Wedged between the trendy boulevards of Silverlake. The Los Feliz hills. The cute bungalows of Atwater Village. The historic Pasadena mansions. The Santa Anita horse track. The JPL. Roofs with a pulse. With history and feeling. Glendale. That tasteless grid of flat streets and relentless, punishing sunshine in search of a soul. The shrug of a last resort: I mean, I guess we could live in Glendale… Glendale. My home for nine years. I’d accepted this. Like some kinda dull splinter. Like one of these days this pain would figure itself out. Take a page from her neighbors and stop being such a sad sack single kid with cooler cousins named Echo Park and Silverlake and Mount Washington. If they can do it, why can’t we? Why can’t we, fellas? Because, cous’, you be Glendale… Glendale. That ugly chore we’re gonna fix up one of these days."
(One stra deducted for a) incredibly sloppy copy-editing; b) the lack of depth and resonance among most of the secondary characters; and c) some implausibly convenient plot twists. THE DAMNED LOVEL is still a very good novel, just not quite a great one. I would have loved to have been its editor so I could help lift it up to that fifth star.)
Sam is a loser. He's a writer who hasn't written much, at least for publication and pay, so he's mostly a rideshare driver, making just enough to cover his half pf the rent at an apartment he shares with a white-supremacist-in-training, and more importantly, his constantly running tabs at The Damned Lovely, a dive bar in Glendale, California, a dive city, where the regulars form a sort of "Cheers" type of family; that is, if "Cheers" had been written by Newton Thornburg or Richard Lange or Jordan Harper.
And when a pretty young woman comes into The Damned Lovely and is murdered barely a day later, something awakes in Sam, and, yes, this IS one of those novels in which a woman's death is the catalyst for a man's redemption, and while that's an icky construct in the abstract, it works in reality because THE DAMNED LOVELY is not really a mystery or a thriller, but a contemporary noir about a loser who 's inspired to find a hidden higher gear within himself. And Adam Frost makes us feel, in every passage and on every page, how much this broken man needs to be better — not just for justice for the late Josie Pendleton, but for himself, and for the world in which he does little more than take up barstool space so he can eventually live a life in which he's not brooding over dead women but trying to be alive for the living ones. He's a toxic white male who needs to purge the toxins — of the human type and societal type as well as the alcohol type — from his cerebral bloodstream. It would be nice if he his fellow regulars at The Damned Lovely were able to help, but if they can't, he'll blunder into the cathartic truth on his own, regardless of who has to get sideswiped and swept aside in the process. As he puts it: "And worst of all. I was compelled by a force inside my bones to write something real. Something long and from the heart. Something maybe even wise."
As such, THE DAMNED LOVELY is a plotted story that's not really about plot; the Dead Girl doesn't really register to much affect here, nor do the characters who pass through to beat, berate, ignore or help Sam along his slouch toward Bethlehem. It's about a man who's learning to get out of his own way, who's having to learn over and over that he's not as smart, or as dumb, as he thinks he is, and that if he could just find his place, he could do more with his life than moon over ladies well out of his league, and overcome the tiresome limitations of the Dead Girl tropes that toxify too many male-penned noir stories.
It helps that Sam doesn't think of himself as an alpha male, that he lacks much skill as a self-appointed avenger of wrongs, and that his successes come mostly from what his failures stir up. He's no Fletch, no Elvis Cole, no Harry Bosch, no hero. And yet he's not quite the sum of his failings, either. He's just a guy who's taking the long way around the barn, to borrow a saying of my dad's, toward figuring things out in life. As he reflects: "I am not a wise and intelligent detective. I am Sam. A failed writer trying to feel like a wise detective cuz I can’t write one truthfully."
As such, he's a refreshing presence in a world full of panty-dropping knight-errants and smug professionals who effortlessly bulldoze their way through everything in the shadows of greater L.A. Deep down, he wants to be exactly the opposite of an aspirational-male trope even as he is pretty much the sum of his aspiration: He's self-deprecating and semi-self-aware, and Adam Frost renders him with winning empathy:. As the bar's owner, a retired LA cop, tells him: “I love ya, kid. You know I do. But where’s this all getting you? Look at your face. You’ve been chewed up. Inside and out. Why don’t you give it a break? Go hide behind a computer and write something. Something to make yourself proud or smile or I don’t know. You’re obviously good at it. You’re just tripping yourself up with this Josie dirt. I get it, you’ve put a lot of yourself into it, but at the end of the day, where’s it really getting you?”
And because Sam is willing to honestly explore that question in all its depth and breadth, he rises above the Man Redeemed By a Dead Girl cliché. Because whatever he finds out through his messy investigating, it'll change him, for the better. Even if it turns out that dead is better, which it might well be. Sam comes close to finding out, through the shocking reveal of the true killer, and one way or the other, he knows there's no going back to the underachieving barfly that he was in the book's beginning. And that gives him an endearing sense of his own fallibility without ever lapsing fully into the clichés of male pathos, even as he emodies them on the surface. He knows that he not only needs to be better for himself, but for the world in general — and for the female world in particular.
I'll be honest: Novels like this are for me. I'm one of those readers who interprets "escapist reading" much differently than the literary ecosystem does: I read to escape INTO my reality, to understand why I'm such a loser, and to understand what can be done about it by riding shotgun with those in the same leaking boat, those created by those writers who know these people as well as I know myself. And when they engage their hidden higher gear in the pursuit of redemptive truth, it makes me want to do the same. And even as it awakens some potentially toxic-male truths as well ... well, isn't that a good thing? To be aware of the work ahead, and to drag out the pick and shovel, the way Sam does in THE DAMNED LOVELY, and get to work, and to stay at work?
Much of this journey is made palatable, and even pleasing, through Frost's wryly cynical-but-hopeful voice. There are dozens of great lines here, and I'll share a few:
"It’s not supposed to be for a wide audience. It’s supposed to be good."
“There’s no soul in a Starbucks, Slice. I can’t write someplace without soul.”
"How do you ask someone if they committed murder? I hadn’t a clue. But. I had spent well over a thousand hours boozing with ex-cops pulling stories and figured I’d wing it."
"I kept drinking. Did I really just defend Glendale?"
"I was no longer welcome at the Cheesecake Factory."
"I needed to get into Josie life. In a most digital way. I wanted emails, texts. I wanted private communiqué. I wanted her data all up close and personal in my face. I wanted to know what kinda music she listened to. Movies she watched. Songs she liked. The bad gym mix. Her Counting Crows ugly secret. Her favorite stupid emoji. All of it."
"“The article. I wanna turn it into a TV show. You’ve got all these burnouts—what a great cast. And the cop thing. It’s like Cheers meets Murder, She Wrote. But newer. Cooler. Every week the characters, the ex-cops, will solve a crime. With Slice blazing the trail. You know, the disgraced ex-cop with killer instincts that everyone underestimates. It could be a fun crime show. A dramedy. But with heart. Whaddya think?”
"I was pretty sure she didn’t want to sleep with me either, but then again, those three dots popped up so fast I couldn’t help but smell a whiff of want."
"I was pretty sure she didn’t want to sleep with me either, but then again, those three dots popped up so fast I couldn’t help but smell a whiff of want."
"Backyard Dreams had an office in North Hollywood off Lankershim. Deep in the valley of displaced dreams and runoff satisfaction. A cross-section of start-up families, second gen’ immigrants, and struggling actors. A land of faux happiness you could smell driving down the main strip. I mean, does anyone move to Los Angeles, California with dreams of living in North Hollywood?"
"This be Glendale. The land of Chevy Chase Boulevard. That hurricane of car dealerships and sparkling ribbons promising the American dream. Oh, and while you’re here—have you been up the street? It’s the Americana! The Grove without a soul. Without the gloss but all the function and cheaper parking. Just take San Fernando Road, that endless pipe to nowhere. Glendale. That bland ugly open secret, where nothing ever happens. Nothing wild. Nothing wonderful. Wedged between the trendy boulevards of Silverlake. The Los Feliz hills. The cute bungalows of Atwater Village. The historic Pasadena mansions. The Santa Anita horse track. The JPL. Roofs with a pulse. With history and feeling. Glendale. That tasteless grid of flat streets and relentless, punishing sunshine in search of a soul. The shrug of a last resort: I mean, I guess we could live in Glendale… Glendale. My home for nine years. I’d accepted this. Like some kinda dull splinter. Like one of these days this pain would figure itself out. Take a page from her neighbors and stop being such a sad sack single kid with cooler cousins named Echo Park and Silverlake and Mount Washington. If they can do it, why can’t we? Why can’t we, fellas? Because, cous’, you be Glendale… Glendale. That ugly chore we’re gonna fix up one of these days."
(One stra deducted for a) incredibly sloppy copy-editing; b) the lack of depth and resonance among most of the secondary characters; and c) some implausibly convenient plot twists. THE DAMNED LOVEL is still a very good novel, just not quite a great one. I would have loved to have been its editor so I could help lift it up to that fifth star.)
May 29, 2022
Totally wanted to support a family member of Stars so bought the book. A very solid novel, interesting story, kept my attention. But dude, Adam, the typos. I was tempted to grab a red pen, circle all the stray words and send it back to you. I don’t just mean one or two here or there, I mean like every other page. Totally fixable, but it did keep taking me out of the story. Which is unfortunate because it is a compelling tale.
September 22, 2022
The Damned Lovely is noir fiction that takes us on a journey of murder and obsession.
Sam is a borderline alcoholic, wannabe writer who isn’t doing much of anything to make his dream come true. He hangs out in a seedy bar that’s like a down-and-out Cheers, which is run and frequented by shady cops.
Sam seems content to languish in this limbo, until a pretty woman comes into the bar. He’s intrigued, but doesn’t talk to her. Then she’s murdered. And suddenly Sam’s obsessed with learning all he can about her, while also finding her killer.
This story is written in first person, putting us in Sam’s head all the time and allowing us to feel his growing obsession. Pacing is quick, as we watch him spiral out of control in his determination to solve the murder of a woman he didn’t know.
We have some interesting twists along the way, and a conclusion you probably won’t see coming.
*I received a free copy to review for Partners in Crime Book Tours.*
Sam is a borderline alcoholic, wannabe writer who isn’t doing much of anything to make his dream come true. He hangs out in a seedy bar that’s like a down-and-out Cheers, which is run and frequented by shady cops.
Sam seems content to languish in this limbo, until a pretty woman comes into the bar. He’s intrigued, but doesn’t talk to her. Then she’s murdered. And suddenly Sam’s obsessed with learning all he can about her, while also finding her killer.
This story is written in first person, putting us in Sam’s head all the time and allowing us to feel his growing obsession. Pacing is quick, as we watch him spiral out of control in his determination to solve the murder of a woman he didn’t know.
We have some interesting twists along the way, and a conclusion you probably won’t see coming.
*I received a free copy to review for Partners in Crime Book Tours.*
February 5, 2023
This book was hyped by authors I like so I gave it a shot. The writing is crisp, clean and stylish without being too mannered. The story is a basic detective novel trope-amateur detective tries to find the killer of a woman he thought he loved. There is some action and it wraps up neatly. Not great but the author has potential. Would give his next book a try.
July 6, 2022
This a fantastic, fast-paced, funny, and smart noir novel. Frost is a terrific, lively writer.
September 21, 2022
In The Damned Lovely, author Adam Frost transports the reader to Glendale, California, for an intriguing dark noir crime thriller that will keep the reader guessing and turning the pages.
Welcome to The Damned Lovely, a seedy dark dive bar in Glendale, California, that is the home of ex-cops, misfits, and loners. Sam Goss, is one of the misfits that frequents the bar, for the past nine years he's been a down-n-out struggling author and ride share driver living in Glendale, who gave up his promising life and career in marketing writing ad copies for seven years in West Hollywood. Sam fills his days drinking, and trying to write in a back room of the bar he calls "the box" that he rents from Jules, a retired cop and owner of The Damned Lovely.
The story centers around Sam's amateur sleuth adventure, as he is drawn into investigating the murder of an intriguing bar patron in a black fedora named Josie Pendleton, a twenty-two year old woman who sits at the bar and reads a novel, not talking to any of the other bar patrons. Josie was abducted in Glendale after spending time at the bar, and was found raped and strangled to death in a stolen car by a jogger. Police investigation thinks there is a connection to Josie's murder with two other recent murders of women in their early twenties, a similar MO that could possibly be the work of a serial killer they dub the Glendale Grabber. Sam's interest in Josie leads him to look into her life, and he falls down the rabbit hole into a dangerous investigation that challenges the police's theory of how she died. Sam's obsession in finding the truth into Josie's murder leads him to finding danger around every corner, even in the dark seedy dive bar that has become his second home. Learning that he can't trust anyone, follow along as Sam puts the pieces of the puzzle together and finds out the truth behind Josie's death.
In his debut novel, author Adam Frost weaves a slow-building and suspenseful dark gritty noir tale written in the first person narrative that follows Sam Goss as he investigates the recent murder of twenty-two year old bar patron Josie Pendleton, and is determined to find the truth and seek justice.
The reader is easily drawn into this riveting dark noir crime story with its richly descriptive plot. It is filled with enough drama, secrets, motives, possible suspects, and intriguing twists and turns that definitely keeps the reader guessing until the surprising conclusion.
This was a really intriguing story to read! Sam takes the readers along on his investigation with daily journal style chapters within a three month timeline from Monday, July 6th to Tuesday, October 20th. The story provides a fascinating cast of characters, a dive bar deep with history and character, enough clues to engage the reader, suprising twists and turns, and danger around every corner, especially when there are people who don't want the truth to come out. I found myself so caught up on following Sam's investigative pursuit of putting the pieces of the puzzle together and solving Josie's murder, while also learning the pasts of Sam and the other bar patrons, it's like a bar full of broken and down-n-out people that form a tight little bar family. Through Sam's obsessive investigation, he learns valuable life lessons as the truth is uncovered. I was absolutely stunned by the conclusion!
The Damned Lovely will definitely take the readers on one heck of a thrilling roller coaster ride.
Disclaimer: I received a paperback copy of the book from the author / publisher in exchange for honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours.
https://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspo...
Welcome to The Damned Lovely, a seedy dark dive bar in Glendale, California, that is the home of ex-cops, misfits, and loners. Sam Goss, is one of the misfits that frequents the bar, for the past nine years he's been a down-n-out struggling author and ride share driver living in Glendale, who gave up his promising life and career in marketing writing ad copies for seven years in West Hollywood. Sam fills his days drinking, and trying to write in a back room of the bar he calls "the box" that he rents from Jules, a retired cop and owner of The Damned Lovely.
The story centers around Sam's amateur sleuth adventure, as he is drawn into investigating the murder of an intriguing bar patron in a black fedora named Josie Pendleton, a twenty-two year old woman who sits at the bar and reads a novel, not talking to any of the other bar patrons. Josie was abducted in Glendale after spending time at the bar, and was found raped and strangled to death in a stolen car by a jogger. Police investigation thinks there is a connection to Josie's murder with two other recent murders of women in their early twenties, a similar MO that could possibly be the work of a serial killer they dub the Glendale Grabber. Sam's interest in Josie leads him to look into her life, and he falls down the rabbit hole into a dangerous investigation that challenges the police's theory of how she died. Sam's obsession in finding the truth into Josie's murder leads him to finding danger around every corner, even in the dark seedy dive bar that has become his second home. Learning that he can't trust anyone, follow along as Sam puts the pieces of the puzzle together and finds out the truth behind Josie's death.
In his debut novel, author Adam Frost weaves a slow-building and suspenseful dark gritty noir tale written in the first person narrative that follows Sam Goss as he investigates the recent murder of twenty-two year old bar patron Josie Pendleton, and is determined to find the truth and seek justice.
The reader is easily drawn into this riveting dark noir crime story with its richly descriptive plot. It is filled with enough drama, secrets, motives, possible suspects, and intriguing twists and turns that definitely keeps the reader guessing until the surprising conclusion.
This was a really intriguing story to read! Sam takes the readers along on his investigation with daily journal style chapters within a three month timeline from Monday, July 6th to Tuesday, October 20th. The story provides a fascinating cast of characters, a dive bar deep with history and character, enough clues to engage the reader, suprising twists and turns, and danger around every corner, especially when there are people who don't want the truth to come out. I found myself so caught up on following Sam's investigative pursuit of putting the pieces of the puzzle together and solving Josie's murder, while also learning the pasts of Sam and the other bar patrons, it's like a bar full of broken and down-n-out people that form a tight little bar family. Through Sam's obsessive investigation, he learns valuable life lessons as the truth is uncovered. I was absolutely stunned by the conclusion!
The Damned Lovely will definitely take the readers on one heck of a thrilling roller coaster ride.
Disclaimer: I received a paperback copy of the book from the author / publisher in exchange for honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours.
https://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspo...
September 22, 2022
A modern mystery but spectacularly reminiscent of early crime and detective thrillers and film noir of the 40s and early 50s.
The Damned Lovely was a genuine page-turner of a book that kept me reading late to get to a good stopping point. The problem for me was the story was so good, with Sam's ongoing investigation and constant drama, there just wasn't one. I always wanted to see what was going to happen next.
Sam is a good guy, but he's worked himself into a hole. His literary agent is a harpy, his roommate is an inconvenient convenience rather than a friend, and his friends are a bunch of barflies with their own troubles. I loved the collection of personalities and stories the author has conceived for The Damned Lovely's regulars. Everyone has a story. The author has a knack for dialogue and a talent for putting the reader in the story.The bar itself also has a personality, as does Goss's Glendale. The moody descriptions set a tone and paint a vivid backdrop for the book's action and events. I could clearly envision the bar, Goss's home away from home.
But the plot is what kept me in my seat, or rather on the edge of it. The police investigation goes in a different direction than Sam's, with twists and turns to follow and some entirely believable red herrings. The clues to uncovering the truth behind the murder are right there, one by one.With the main character's alcohol-infused decision-making and struggles, gritty action, sudden violence, moody setting, and overall feeling of impending doom, this modern mystery is spectacularly reminiscent of early crime and detective thrillers and movies. I recommend THE DAMNED LOVELY to readers of mystery fiction, especially those that enjoy the film noir genre of the 40s and early 50s.
I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours.
August 2, 2022
I received a gifted copy and am providing a review.
The Damned Lovely is a bar owned by a retired cop, Jiles. You will also meet the bar patrons – Pa, The Rooster, Slice, Lily, and Jewels who worked at the bar. There is also an “office” that is referred to as the box, where Sam (the main character) uses some space to pursue his writing career, or lack of. For some scratch, Sam also drives folks around. One evening, a new patron shows up, no one knew her name. She just sat quietly, reading her book, or so it seemed that is what she was doing. Turns out, her name was Josie Pendleton and someone didn’t like her sniffing around a couple of organizations. All Sam had left of her was the denim shirt she mistakenly left at the bar. So, Sam being Sam, and having had too much to drink, decides to figure out what really happened to Josie.
In his quest, he learns about a couple of organizations Josie was apparently involved in – Patriot Strong and Backyard Dreams. He does find out something about one of these organizations. Sam began to question whether he should give up on his quest. He decides, since Detective Pinner was seemingly getting nowhere with the investigation, to continue on, asking his questions, stirring up trouble trying to find answers.
I think we all have a little bit of Sam in ourselves. Sometimes we just cannot let things go, sometimes we get the answers, sometimes we don’t. I’m not exactly sure what genre this tale would fall into, but it is a refreshing read that doesn’t follow all the rules, so to speak, in that it is not so cut-and-dried you’ll figure out who the bad guy is.
The Damned Lovely is a bar owned by a retired cop, Jiles. You will also meet the bar patrons – Pa, The Rooster, Slice, Lily, and Jewels who worked at the bar. There is also an “office” that is referred to as the box, where Sam (the main character) uses some space to pursue his writing career, or lack of. For some scratch, Sam also drives folks around. One evening, a new patron shows up, no one knew her name. She just sat quietly, reading her book, or so it seemed that is what she was doing. Turns out, her name was Josie Pendleton and someone didn’t like her sniffing around a couple of organizations. All Sam had left of her was the denim shirt she mistakenly left at the bar. So, Sam being Sam, and having had too much to drink, decides to figure out what really happened to Josie.
In his quest, he learns about a couple of organizations Josie was apparently involved in – Patriot Strong and Backyard Dreams. He does find out something about one of these organizations. Sam began to question whether he should give up on his quest. He decides, since Detective Pinner was seemingly getting nowhere with the investigation, to continue on, asking his questions, stirring up trouble trying to find answers.
I think we all have a little bit of Sam in ourselves. Sometimes we just cannot let things go, sometimes we get the answers, sometimes we don’t. I’m not exactly sure what genre this tale would fall into, but it is a refreshing read that doesn’t follow all the rules, so to speak, in that it is not so cut-and-dried you’ll figure out who the bad guy is.
September 23, 2022
The Damned Lovely is a thrilling mystery centered around a dive bar of the same name following a young man named Sam and his quest for the truth.
The author’s description of the bar was so crisp that I closed my eyes and immediately imagined such a place. If you’ve ever been to a hole in the wall bar with cracked leather booths and a smoke cloud lingering above the patrons, you can picture it too.
The bar is owned by a retired police officer, Jiles, and is frequented by other both retired and active officers as well as a few other colorful regulars and the bartender, Jewels. The story starts with a mysterious and beautiful stranger enters the bar for the first time and subsequently disappears leaving behind nothing but her denim shirt.
The story largely follows Sam as he looks to unearth what happened to the mysterious stranger (Josie). As he follows the cold trail, it’s clear that Sam is inadvertently looking to heal his own life while searching for the truth about Josie. I loved the air of mystery throughout the novel and really enjoyed each reveal as Sam dove further into the seedy underbelly of LA corruption. I would highly recommend for fans of Noir/Mystery!
The author’s description of the bar was so crisp that I closed my eyes and immediately imagined such a place. If you’ve ever been to a hole in the wall bar with cracked leather booths and a smoke cloud lingering above the patrons, you can picture it too.
The bar is owned by a retired police officer, Jiles, and is frequented by other both retired and active officers as well as a few other colorful regulars and the bartender, Jewels. The story starts with a mysterious and beautiful stranger enters the bar for the first time and subsequently disappears leaving behind nothing but her denim shirt.
The story largely follows Sam as he looks to unearth what happened to the mysterious stranger (Josie). As he follows the cold trail, it’s clear that Sam is inadvertently looking to heal his own life while searching for the truth about Josie. I loved the air of mystery throughout the novel and really enjoyed each reveal as Sam dove further into the seedy underbelly of LA corruption. I would highly recommend for fans of Noir/Mystery!
October 5, 2024
Good ideas and a great dynamic with the author writing in terms familiar to the character - relating their everyday descriptions to drinks and things around the bar is ingenious, as for the time it was their life.
Plenty of mystery and intrigue.
The main character is strongly defined for the reader to know who they are; regardless if this was similar to an Ian Malcom for Chrichton, as an author insert, they certainly felt like an individual.
Plenty of mystery and intrigue.
The main character is strongly defined for the reader to know who they are; regardless if this was similar to an Ian Malcom for Chrichton, as an author insert, they certainly felt like an individual.
March 3, 2024
An old cop bar, a writer with entirely too much interest, and a supposed serial killer (and also some incels). I picked this book up on accident during a trip to LA. I went into Book Soup for one book and this one caught my eye instead. I'm glad it did.
December 24, 2022
Loved it!
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