Hollowpoint

Rating:
Summary: Hollow
Review: "Hollowpoint" puts an emotionally scarred Homicide ADA into a bleak case. Andrew "Gio" Gioberti is still recovering from the freak death of his daughter. In the wake of the car accident that took his daughter's life (he was the driver) Gio loses his wife, much of his financial security and begins losing both his legal expertise and his sanity. We learn that Gio fatally botched his first homicide case on returning from condolence leave - allowing a murder suspect to testify in grand jury before waiving his immunity (without that waiver, the perp's testimony immunizes him from prosecution). Gio is now an alcoholic who uses and discards attractive female ADA's who, as a group, remain endlessly clueless to his exploitation of them. When the story opens, Gio is investigating the homicide of a 14 year old girl, a single mother living with her sister and her crack-addicted mother. The obvious culprit is Lamar Lamb, a small-time dealer who is already in custody in Brooklyn's notorious 75th precinct (the largest in NYC, and located in an area where even Beirut-born cab drivers fear to go.) Nobody saw Lamb commit the act, only leave the apartment when the gun went off. It's as good a case as anybody can expect without looking too deeply (but Lamb's own lawyer predicts a short trial and a long sentence). On Lamb's side is Gio's shattered soul. Everybody else - from the arresting detective to the victim's sister - point the finger at Lamb, but hint at her drug-ridden mother as the true culprit. The stage is set for a legal batle...

...that never happens. "Hollowpoint" is pretty hollow itself, centered around linking the murder Gio investigates at the outset, the case he botched in Grand Jury and the death of his daughter into a loose-fitting continuity that doesn't really hold. To jazz things up, the author creates a hellish setting - of an aging and cockroach infested ruin in which the DA's office is housed, of detectives whose language is confined to 4-letter words, of menacing judges and lazy defense attorneys. Gio also has a girlfriend, a newer ADA who's become wise to his womanizing, yet can't keep away from him. Her sole mission - remind Gio what a jerk he is. The author needs these effects to shore up a conspicuous lack of legal suspense - nothing goes to trial here, or even gets past the grand jury - and Gio spends less time being a lawyer than a man in serious need of one. The legal details are pretty slim, deceptively camouflaged behind the daily mechanics of being an ADA - like getting your grand jury minutes to Supreme Court before some impatient judge decides to dismiss your indictment for laughs, or saying the words "the people are ready for trial" whenever you step inside of a courtroom. The author also plumps up the story with expansive but empty dialog ("Oh," is a frequent example; also, many characters respond to statements by rephrasing what they've just heard as a question). Most annoying is the use of flashback - compulsively flitting between past and present and throwing in the possible future (as when Gio contemplates the apartment of a female ADA he's thinking of sleeping with). The end ties together the loose threads that don't really go anywhere. In the end, it's all pretty much hollow.

Rating:
Summary: Fine story of a desperate man's decline.
Review: Brooklyn Assistant D.A. Andy "Gio" Giobberti is not a very attractive guy. He's a self-pitying womanizer who drinks too much and has little but contempt for his job, his colleagues, even himself. He wasn't always like that. But when his carelessness caused the death of his five-year-old daughter, life, and everything else, lost most of its meaning for him.

Gio's latest case is the apparent homicide of a young African American girl who was shot point-blank while lying in her bed at home. The obvious suspect is drug dealer "LL" who was seen fleeing the scene. Gio is ready to put him away, despite the lack of motive or any solid evidence. His own feelings of guilt have more to do with that than the merits of the case.

Readers looking for "the next John Grisham" will probably be disappointed by Reuland's book. It's not a legal thriller at all. But if you're interested in a touching story of a man's pain and self-destruction, you should find a lot to appreciate in "Hollowpoint."

Rating:
Summary: Fine story of a desperate man's decline.
Review: Brooklyn Assistant D.A. Andy "Gio" Giobberti is not a very attractive guy. He's a self-pitying womanizer who drinks too much and has little but contempt for his job, his colleagues, even himself. He wasn't always like that. But when his carelessness caused the death of his five-year-old daughter, life, and everything else, lost most of its meaning for him.

Gio's latest case is the apparent homicide of a young African American girl who was shot point-blank while lying in her bed at home. The obvious suspect is drug dealer "LL" who was seen fleeing the scene. Gio is ready to put him away, despite the lack of motive or any solid evidence. His own feelings of guilt have more to do with that than the merits of the case.

Readers looking for "the next John Grisham" will probably be disappointed by Reuland's book. It's not a legal thriller at all. But if you're interested in a touching story of a man's pain and self-destruction, you should find a lot to appreciate in "Hollowpoint."

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional!
Review: Here is one of those rare, utterly authentic books that could only have been written by someone who's experienced the raw, unpretty aspects of the life it depicts. In Hollowpoint, first-novelist Reuland (and in real life, senior DA in Brooklyn) gives us two very distinctive views of grief, as well as offering a plotline that snakes in on itself in endless coils. It's a book about pain, about guilt, and about sorrow. It contains some of the finest, most authentic dialogue I've ever read and depicts some of the most believable characters to be found anywhere. This is not easy reading, but it's a book that's impossible to put down. Sadly humorous, poignant, and wrenching. Most highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Probably better to read it than to listen to it
Review: I checked the audiobook out of the library. I must first say that I can't be completely fair because I am returning the tapes, and I haven't made it through the first. The narrator is awful. The book probably would be better read than listened to.

Rating:
Summary: Not a cozy Agatha Christie story
Review: I highly recommend this novel to those readers like me who are tired of formulaic mysteries with predictable characters and plots. Mr. Rueland's first novel transcends the mystery genre and delivers a powerful story of guilt and forgiveness. Excellent descriptive prose, hard-edged style and terrific dialog carry the story line beyond the normal range of most mystery writers. Not a cozy Agatha Christie story, but a harsh, sobering look at murder and its consequences.

Rating:
Summary: Not a cozy Agatha Christie story
Review: I highly recommend this novel to those readers like me who are tired of formulaic mysteries with predictable characters and plots. Mr. Rueland's first novel transcends the mystery genre and delivers a powerful story of guilt and forgiveness. Excellent descriptive prose, hard-edged style and terrific dialog carry the story line beyond the normal range of most mystery writers. Not a cozy Agatha Christie story, but a harsh, sobering look at murder and its consequences.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointment for Sure!
Review: I usually don't read a book unless I have researched it quite extensively first. Therefore, most of my reviews tend to be very positive. Time is so limited one has to be very selective in what they read because there are so many wonderful books out there to be read yet!!

I was thrilled to finally get this book, but totally disappointed after reading it. It written in easy, simple language, and I thought it would be a quick read. I struggled to get through it, and finally did. I almost gave up more than once. It's a great story that just seems to wander all over the place. Assistant DA Giobberti, from one of the most murderous precincts in Brooklyn, is given the case of Kayla, a young 14 year old girl found dead with a gunshot wound to the heart. This case strikes home for Gio who recently lost his 5 year old daughter, Opal, to an unfortunate accident which Gio feels was his fault. He's lost interest in his job, drifts along aimlessly, mourning his daughter and his separation from his wife, Amanda. The murder case is good fiction & almost interesting, and could make this book worth reading, but is so dragged out that you want to scream by the end. While we're waiting for the murder to be solved, we're left with endless chapters of his cruising various woman that he works with. At times the story just drifts too far off course.

I had no feeling for anybody in this novel, and hope now to forget them all. I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy this book at all. The END!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointment for Sure!
Review: I usually don't read a book unless I have researched it quite extensively first. Therefore, most of my reviews tend to be very positive. Time is so limited one has to be very selective in what they read because there are so many wonderful books out there to be read yet!!

I was thrilled to finally get this book, but totally disappointed after reading it. It written in easy, simple language, and I thought it would be a quick read. I struggled to get through it, and finally did. I almost gave up more than once. It's a great story that just seems to wander all over the place. Assistant DA Giobberti, from one of the most murderous precincts in Brooklyn, is given the case of Kayla, a young 14 year old girl found dead with a gunshot wound to the heart. This case strikes home for Gio who recently lost his 5 year old daughter, Opal, to an unfortunate accident which Gio feels was his fault. He's lost interest in his job, drifts along aimlessly, mourning his daughter and his separation from his wife, Amanda. The murder case is good fiction & almost interesting, and could make this book worth reading, but is so dragged out that you want to scream by the end. While we're waiting for the murder to be solved, we're left with endless chapters of his cruising various woman that he works with. At times the story just drifts too far off course.

I had no feeling for anybody in this novel, and hope now to forget them all. I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy this book at all. The END!

Rating:
Summary: Hollow? No Point?
Review: I've read the good reviews. I've read the book. I can't reconcile the two. It's nicely desribed, but the whole book is slim and rather unremarkable, without much intrigue, and even less suspense. I've been to Brooklyn a couple of times, and it does capture some of the sights and sounds.