Peter SwansonGIRL W/CLOCK FOR HEART

The title alone made me want to read this one. It’s supposed to be a noir thriller, though it lacks the brooding spell and the sense of inevitable, darkening fate that distinguish the classic noirs. The book has a number of glaring flaws, but the story has enough twists to keep you reading.The Good:There’s only one, and that’s the plot. It’s full of unexpected twists and it keeps thickening. The story moves back and forth between the present day, when Liana Decter re-enters George Foss' life, and twenty years earlier, when they met as freshmen in college.I don’t want to give away the twists, but suffice it to say George and Liana’s youthful affair broke off unexpectedly, and George’s heart has never quite let go of its great love.In the years since college, George has drifted along the safe and easy course of a not-quite-fulfilling life, toiling away at a job he no longer cares about and sort of dating a woman he can’t commit to.When Liana walks back into his life after a two-decade absence, he lights up. Turns out, she’s in trouble and could use a favor. How can he say no? Even if the favor is a big ask. Even if it doesn’t seem quite right.The Bad:There’s lots to list here, starting with the writing. Granted, this was Swanson’s first novel, and I hate to pick on a writer for making mistakes I’ve made myself, but I do think Swanson’s editors should have helped him out more.The writing is often clunky, with sequences of short, declarative sentences that read like a child’s primer: “George went to the pub. George got a beer from the bar. George sat in his favorite booth. George took a sip of his beer.” That sort of thing.There are lots of information dumps. As George drives somewhere in his car, the narrator fills you in, lecture style, on the events of last night. Many of these information dumps occur in dialog, with a secondary character spilling a long story, unprompted, in the same voice as the narrator. These frequent dumps fill the reader in and advances the plot, but they feel contrived and awkward. They pull you out of the story, breaking the sense of immersion.The book’s biggest flaws are lack of characterization, atmosphere, and flavor. None of the characters are particularly deep or compelling. The ungainly prose focuses more on explaining details than on conveying a clear voice or perspective. The chronological back-and-forth within many of the present-day chapters makes the reader work hard to untangle a narrative that the author should have straightened out himself.And yet, despite all this, the book is almost impossible to put down. Soon after George does his favor for Liana, he finds himself in a world of trouble. I won’t give away the details of the intricate plot, because the joy of the book lies in the long stream of unexpected twists.If you’re looking for a good entertainment, something for the plane or the beach, this one fits the bill. In the hands of the right team, it would make an excellent movie.

Peter Swanson is one of my absolute favorite authors as of late. Recently, one of my friends asked if I would start reading The Girl with A Clock For A Heart with her as sort of a make-shift book club. Having previously read Peter Swanson’s The Kind Worth Killing, and knowing anything written by this author was bound to be thought-provoking and stimulating, I eagerly agreed. The first novel I read of Swanson’s was going to be hard to beat, but I was excited to see what else he had up his sleeve. I knew this book would be good, but I truly did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. As it turns out, book clubs aren’t really for me. My friend and I began reading at the same time but I stayed up until about 5 am deeply buried in the trenches of these pages, unable to sleep until I got to the end. I finished this gem in less than ten hours. The story goes back and fourth from present day to the main character, George’s, freshman year in college, where he began a relationship with an eccentric girl named Liana. Unlike some novels written in this manner, this one was extremely easy to follow. For reasons that you’ll need to read to find out, Liana never returned to university after Christmas break, and George was left scrambling in an attempt to put the obscure pieces back together in order to find out what truly happened to his girlfriend. Fast forward 20 years, George has a job, a long-time girlfriend, and what seems like a very comfortable routine. While many reviewers seemed to be frustrated with what could seem like his naivety, I believe that his actions were all due to the fact that before Liana walked into George’s neighborhood bar, turning his life upside down once again, he was feeling pretty aloof and disinterested in basically every aspect. Over the past two decades, Liana had landed in some trouble and found herself turning to George for help. While Liana’s favor may have seemed like big ask of somebody you have not seen for over 20 years, the concept of the unpredictable as well as the opportunity to branch out from his mundane day-to-day customs appealed considerably to George. Tying in the fact that his help would also give him the chance to reconnect with his college sweetheart, playing it safe was never in the cards.Although I did see various readers state that they were not in love with the ending, or that they wanted more, as somebody who read the book from start to finish in one sitting, I do not see any other way Peter Swanson could have ended this novel. I love being spoon fed just as much as the next reader, but sometimes it’s an authors duty to leave some things to the readers imagination. I believe Swanson did a good job at this towards the end of the book. Every time I was sure I knew what was going to happen next, I was left shocked and in awe. This story was stock-filled with thrills, surprises, twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat (and awake all night). I was not familiar with this author prior to reading his other hit novel The Kind Worth Killing, and was completely shocked to find out that The Girl With A Clock For A Heart was actually the first novel he had written. Excellent job all around, and I am anxiously awaiting to read his new upcoming book titled “All The Beautiful Lies.”

This is a complicated story about a thief, who isn't who is represented to the public. It takes a lover to untangle the deceit and manipulation trail left by the thief. Even though the author takes the reader back to the beginning of the circle, the main character keeps the reader focused on the clues. This is totally believable and I would recommend to an adult audience. I do not believe that the sex scenes added any interest to story, since sex was not used as manipulation.Looking forward to another book by this author.

This is a new author to me and I was going to easily give the book 5* but a couple of proper howling mistakes let it down, unfortunately. The story was really good and a fascinating and gripping tale for sure. I was sold as soon as I read the synopsis. It has an open ending, really, though I looked him up after I finished it and he doesn't appear to have written a sequel. He really ought to, though. At least I was aware it had a dodgy "ending" from what other reviewers have written, but I'd expected a follow-up, so let's hope he jumps to it, eventually, as it's been a few years already since it was originally published.I did wonder at poor George's gullibility where his first love was concerned. She was certainly well aware she could easily run rings around him !! An intelligent bloke badly let down by an excess of testosterone....he isn't the first and won't be the last......I was also a little baffled by a couple of his descriptions.....I have no idea what "a rectangular brunette" looks like and again with "His face was a well-shaved rectangle." However, a big error was taking us to Charlestown and altering it to Charleston on the next page. That should've been spotted and so should a point occurring on a Tuesday morning, which suddenly changed to a Monday as it is careless. He writes new where I'd use anew and another massive ouch moment for me was when he used flairs and not flares !!These awful errors aside, I'll definitely be reading more by this author.

I knew I was going to enjoy this book from the opening section which left me with a load of questions and a desire to read on and find out what was happening. I’m glad to say I was not disappointed. I loved George and Audrey/Liana/Jane’s relationship at college. He falls for her hard, and ends up getting embroiled in a dangerous mystery when he finds out she’s not what he thought at all. First love can be intense. You can ignore signs that things don’t quite add up because you don’t want anything to alter the image you have of the person you’re enthralled by. This is one of those books that’s full of misdirection and twists and turns, and I love that stuff. Who is Audrey/Liana/Jane really? What does she want from George and why? I love the fact that the end is left quite open, not everything is resolved and you’re left to make up your own mind about what happens next.

I purchased this debut novel by Peter Swanson after being blown away by The Kind Worth Killing which made my top ten reads of 2015 and found myself jettisoned into the world of George Foss, searching a crime scene and feeling triumphant at the sight of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. Now I like that book but was a tad confused why it had the starring role in the prologue.All was to become clear though as chapter one commenced with George meeting his on-off girlfriend Irene in a local bar in Boston, during the evening he sees his college sweetheart Liana. It doesn’t take George long to cut the evening short with Irene and start a conversation with Liana where it becomes apparent really quickly that this is a girl who has caused him a few problems in the past, as well as herself it would seem since she is living under an assumed name.The plot that follows is well-constructed, engaging and full of action as we learn more about both Liana and George through the split time-line which takes us back to their college days and the events that surrounded their short but intense relationship.So the readers have been introduced to the protagonists and on the basis of a deep and sincere, albeit brief relationship what comes next will take your breath away – readers be warned, do not question too deeply and you can swing along and be entertained by this superbly diverting debut. There is a lot to enjoy; the pace is fast and furious and this definitely is one of those books which urge you to read ‘just one more chapter’, the writing is accessible with the odd moments of wry humour, particularly in George’s more reflective moments which leads onto the depth of emotion George displays which is very much that of a young man, out in the world for the first time and given his background it is obvious why he is presented in the book as ‘Mr Average.’ However I suspect most men lose that before they hit their late thirties and would be slightly more reluctant to do Liana any favours at all, but hey, like I said, this book is to be enjoyed, not questioned!Despite the subject matter, I found this a great way to spend a few hours, I enjoyed what is essentially a romp with the broken and damaged where most of the characters have few, if any, redeeming features. There is also a notable absence of secondary characters apart from victims and villains quite probably because these would surely be shouting ‘don’t do it’ from the side-lines!

This is an intriguing story about Liana Decter/Audrey/Jane and George Foss. Who is Liana? What is she up to? George meets ‘Audrey’ at college and they fall in love. Well, he did. Did she? Who knows. Without revealing the story after one term they don’t see each other for a long time when she reappears into George’s life and asks for his help which he duly gives. What follows is like an episode of Hustle and instead of the handsome Adrian Lester you have Liana etc and her sidekick ‘Donnie Jenks’. Although the storyline stretches credulity, it is none the less very enjoyable and well written with a good ending that leaves you hanging and wondering!

This had so much promise but, although I enjoyed some of it the way through, it was all so conveniently plotted that I didn't feel any real sense of conflict or satisfaction at the end. George Foss was also not a protagonist I was cheering on. I don't want to say too much or I'll spoil the plot but he came across as much too gullible and eager to please the one person he should have known not to trust. However, I really liked the way the story was told seamlessly across twenty years and the amount of detail in which some usually obscure scenes were described.