Last Talk With Lola Faye

by Thomas H. Cook

Luke Paige, historian & writer, is signing his latest work in a bookstore when in the queue he spots a woman he hoped never to see again. Lola Faye was once his father's secret lover, the destroyer of his childhood. For her husband shot Luke's father dead, and his mother died soon after. Lola Faye wants to talk - and talk.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Noir, Novels

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 7, 2010

About the author

There is more than one author with this name on Goodreads.

Thomas H. Cook has been praised by critics for his attention to psychology and the lyrical nature of his prose. He is the author of more than 30 critically-acclaimed fiction books, including works of true crime. Cook published his first novel, Blood Innocents, in 1980. Cook published steadily through the 1980s, penning such works as the Frank Clemons trilogy, a series of mysteries starring a jaded cop.

He found breakout success with The Chatham School Affair (1996), which won an Edgar Award for best novel. Besides mysteries, Cook has written two true-crime books including the Edgar-nominated Blood Echoes (1993). He lives and works in New York City.

Awards
Edgar Allan Poe – Best Novel – The Chatham School Affair
Barry Award – Best Novel – Red Leaves
Martin Beck Award of the Swedish Academy of Detection – The Chatham School Affair
Martin Beck Award of the Swedish Academy of Detection – Red Leaves
Herodotus Prize – Fatherhood

Reviews

[Snotchocheez · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

It took the glowing reviews of a Canadian
(thank you, Jaidee!) and a South Carolinian (thank you, Clarice!) to finally give local (as in hailing from a town a few miles from here in NE Alabama) author Thomas H. Cook a chance. The three small-town libraries around here all have a wide array of this guy's catalogue, but I never gave him more than a passing glance until my dear GR friends' seals of approval.

The Last Talk With Lola Faye is somewhat unconventional, for a "murder mystery" (which I'm guessing is Cook's usual forté given his bio boasting seven Edgar nominations, and one win). This is suspenseful in a David Mamet-esque sense; I can easily see this converted into a taut, crunchy, Southern Gothic stage play, or (as another friend aptly described) an "indie film". Lots of chewy dialogue, not a whole bunch of action. I think this element is what I most liked (though might also explain the novel's somewhat piddly GR average). Most people would probably prefer their mysteries more plot-driven. I'm perfectly happy with two well-defined characters (with varying levels of unreliability) having a tête-à-tête about a murder, especially when one of the characters is the son of the murder victim, and the other is a woman presumed by the son to have caused the murder to happen.

Lucas Paige is the son, a semi-successful Harvard doctorate, author of history books, and born and raised in fictional Glenville, Alabama, While on a book signing tour at a St. Louis bookstore, he's approached by Lola Faye Gilroy, a "hayseed" Glenville woman who Lucas has long blamed for his father's murder several decades prior. Why does she show up out the blue in St. Louis? It's unclear at first, but as intimated by the title, they go to a cocktail lounge...and talk. There's this uneasy tension between the two that intensifies as they replay the events that led to the murder.

This isn't the flashiest mystery you're likely to read, but the queasy uncertainty is as palpable (or perhaps more so) than any conventional mystery out there. It kindled a slow burn, and I was riveted most of the way. I hope the quality of writing on display here is indicative of Cook's overall talent, as he's got plenty of titles to choose from. Consider me hooked.

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I read a Thomas H. Cook book I'm always struck anew by just how good of a writer he is. He creates these terrific seemingly simple yet upon closer examination infinitely intricate dramas of ordinary lives visited by violent crimes and the way those visitations come to be and remain to echo and haunt. So to say that at the heart of this book is a murder mystery would be accurate, but also terribly insufficient. At the heart of this story is a heart. A heart of a man who, despite achieving moderate success in life, has been emotionally stunted by the events of his youth and a conversation that brings him back to life. Cook is in top form here, the plotting throws surprise curveballs just as you think you have it figured out, the writing is superb, humanity with its small kindnesses and outrageous cruelties of everyday life observed with outmost poignancy. This was by far the most emotionally engaging book I've read in a while. Impossible to put down, read in it one evening. Highly recommended.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this novel was very much like watching an Indie film. The entire novel takes place in a hotel bar where Lucas (a self-proclaimed boring history book writer) and Lola Faye (his father's former mistress) meet and discuss old times.

As you can imagine, they're not reminiscing about "the good old days". As the conversation unfolds, there are quite a few flash backs where Luke remembers his childhood, his parents, and his burning desire to go to Harvard and become a famous writer. Luke also has some secrets that he's never told anyone and Lola Faye seems like she might be able to guess them.

I was intrigued enough to keep reading. Just why is Lola Faye acting like this and saying these things? What are Luke's secrets? What really happened to cause his father's murder?

I didn't feel Lola Faye's conversation seemed true to life, though. Most of the novel involved Lola Faye saying something sincerely, then saying something with a hard edge, then saying something light and fluffy, then back to another penetrating glance and harder edge. We went back and forth with Lola Faye's strange moods and strange sayings for the entire book.

And the ending? The final epilogue chapter? A bit confusing to me.

[Gail Cooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetic...dark...suspenseful...satisfying. For this reader each of these words aptly describe award winning author Thomas H. Cook's beautifully written novel THE LAST TALK WITH LOLA FAYE. Reading it is a bit like watching an absorbing two person play as the story is revealed in a conversation between two characters - Lucas "Luke" Page and Lola Faye Gilroy.

Luke is a fair to middling professor and writer who has come to St. Louis to deliver a lecture at the Museum of the West. It's a dreary, wet December evening, and he doesn't anticipate much of a crowd - there seldom is at his lectures. However, the last person he expected or wanted to see was Lola Faye Gilroy, his father's mistress. Her husband had shot and killed his father, and then killed himself. All of this in Glenville, Alabama, a tired Southern town where his father ran a variety store.

Now, Glenville was not your pretty little town but a place pockmarked by abandoned storefronts "their empty windows staring like blinded eyes onto deserted sidewalks....and a windowless library housed in the basement of the police department." Plus "a trailer park perpetually pulsing in the light of a police cruiser, diesel trucks sitting like exhausted mastodons in red-dirt driveways." It was a place Luke couldn't wait to leave - of course, he would leave because he was considered to be "the smartest kid in town." As far as he was concerned Glenville limited his intellectual prowess; he believed that some day he would write a great novel. Yet here he was some years later addressing a sparse audience, and unable to turn Lola Faye down when she urged him to have a drink with her.

As one drink turns into several and their conversation moves on Luke becomes introspective, looking back upon events, mistakes he had made, remembering Fitzgerald saying "you lose yourself in pieces." He wonders if his first small deceit was where the first piece of him had fallen away.

Luke had believed he knew all about his father, an uninspired man who wasn't even able to run a small store efficiently, and left his mother alone for trysts with Lola Faye. He was a man Luke was never able to please, Yet, as the story progresses we find out just how little he really knows about his family or himself.

THE LAST TALK WITH LOLA FAYE is a landmark novel, a story of regret and redemption that will remain with you long after closing the last page.

- Gail Cooke

[Clarice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading the summary of this book, it seems to be something I might tolerate reading for a book club, but not the kind of novel I would choose to read on my own. So, I’m not sure why I purchased this when it was a Kindle Daily Deal two years ago. Maybe I was thinking I should expand my horizons by reading outside my usual genres. Maybe I was still in an acquisition frenzy attempting to load my new Kindle to create a diverse digital library. Whatever the reason, I’m sure I intended to read it, but it languished in my Kindle queue until last week when I was using the Kindle Audio Companion search to find an audiobook. “The Last Talk With Lola Faye” popped up and I decided it’s time had come.

I’m certain that the amazing performance of narrator, Aaron David Baker, enhanced my enjoyment of this novel. Since this story is told through a dialogue between two people - one male, one female – it had to be a challenge to make the voices of each character distinct enough to avoid listener confusion. AND, when a male narrator manages to do a female voice without sounding like a drag queen, I always give an extra point. Baker managed this.

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this novel. Although not an actual murder mystery, it is a mystery ABOUT a murder.

Luke is shocked when Lola Faye, the woman Luke was certain was his father’s mistress, shows up at his book reading/signing 20 years after his father’s murder. She doesn’t give the impression of being very intelligent, but she proves to be quite manipulative, and the next thing Luke knows he has agreed to talk with Lola Faye over drinks.

The longer they talk the more Luke realizes that not everything about the events leading up to the murder were as he thought. As a matter of fact, Luke slowly realizes that there were many things about his family and his life that were not as he thought.

Although I found Luke to be an unlikable, arrogant character, and I was never sure how I felt about Lola Faye, I really enjoyed the story - especially the slow reveal of the unknown (to Luke) information. I even liked the redemptive final chapter which seems to be the one thing most reviewers didn’t like or for some reason didn’t understand.

[ms.petra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. The majority of the story takes place between Luke and Lola Faye in a hotel bar/lounge 20 years after the murder of Luke's father. He believes that Lola is indirectly responsible for his father's death. The story is paced beautifully, giving the reader just enough information and wanting more. The whole theme of perspective and things not really being what we remember hits a nerve. Aren't most of us arrogant and self absorbed as teenagers?... or maybe we have teenagers in our family and recognize this behavior. The idea of living one's entire adult life based on false premises and having that charade revealed over the course of one night makes for a delightful and thought provoking read.

[Jamaie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not understand the point. I liked it until the last few pages. Who did it? I'm so lost!

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cleverly delivered slow-burn plot that surprises.

Library Loan

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm slowly making my way through Cook's novels, as they become available at the library, and have not as yet been disappointed. If I were to sum up the Last Talk in a few words, I'd choose the quote, "Perception is Reality,"...except when it's not. Cook always provides a subtle message that makes one think.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thomas H. Cook is one of those uneven writers--some of his novels are really, really good, and some are just "meh". Lola Faye is one of the latter. The unlikeable narrator, the vague "mystery", the unrealistic dialogue, and finally the puzzling ending, all conspired to make it hard to concentrate or care. Several questions were left unanswered; I felt a bit cheated when I closed this book.

[Bruce DeSilva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whodunit? Who cares. Please check my blog for an article on Thomas H. Cook and his latest novel: http://brucedesilva.wordpress.com/

[Mira · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was incredibly boring, so boring that I wasn't even excited to write a scathing review of it. It follows a conversation between the main character, Luke, and Lola Faye, someone from his past who was somehow involved in this huge, traumatizing, mysterious event in his life. And chapter after chapter, it was the same goddamn thing. Lola Faye flits from topic to topic, changing from trivial to deep conversation in the blink of an eye. Luke feels bored and apprehensive of these reeling changes and wonders what's going on with her. Almost every chapter ends in a dramatic statement where you think maybe, just maybe, things will start to get interesting, and - spoiler! - they don't. I never cared about the characters, nor about the "plot," i.e. the uncovering of this mysterious life event that could have been explored in a few chapters if the author hadn't stuffed the book with repetitive nonsense. The only reason I finished the book was that I bought it on a whim (for two dollars only, thank god) and figured I should see it through. I only started to become mildly engaged around page 200. And you know what, the slow reveal of this mystery was never quite surprising. The drawn out nature of the plot meant that hints were laid on thickly, so everything was expected. I tried to like this book, I really did - tried to find some meaning in it's unique narrative structure or some shit. But it never happened. TL;DR: how the fuck did this book get 3.4/5 stars on goodreads.

[Barbara Nutting · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another five stars for Mr Cook - he meticulously and very slowly writes his story. I relish every word, this one was very moving and left me with a lump in my throat.

This was dedicated to his mother and the mother character played a very large part in the book. It made me wonder how much of the story was semi-autobiographical? I’d love to know more about this author but can’t seem to find much (even on Google).

[AC · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 3rd Cook. Another fine and intelligent book, less the psychological thriller than the psychological unfolding of an onion. Cook seems to be a somewhat under-appreciated writer.

[Clarabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luke Paige, écrivain et enseignant, vient de conclure sa conférence lorsqu'il croise un fantôme de son passé en la personne de Lola Faye Gilroy. Cette femme était la maîtresse de son père, employée dans son drugstore. De cette liaison, a découlé un déchaînement de violence : le mari trompé a tué l'amant et l'épouse bafouée s'est éteinte à petits feux.

Aujourd'hui la “sulfureuse” Lola l'invite à prendre un verre « pour évoquer le bon vieux temps ». Quelles sont ses intentions ? Luke ne se doute pas encore qu'il va s'engager dans une conversation interminable, où il va être bousculé et forcé à replonger dans ses souvenirs pour évoquer une période révolue mais traumatisante.

Ses réminiscences vont peu à peu éclairer la tragédie familiale de façon stupéfiante. On ne devine rien du tour que va prendre l'histoire, dont les révélations ne vont jamais cesser de nous surprendre. Et cela se lit d'une traite, comme un roman à suspense, à la tension psychologique redoutable. C'est subtil, fort et hypnotique. Une vraie réussite.

[Ruthie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really surprised me. I started reading and became sure that I knew where the story was going and what was going to happen. It felt clunky and predictable. Well, I was very mistaken! This book alternates chapters between and conversation one night and flashbacks. They mesh very well. The story changes directions and goes down a very different road. It felt like an intensely dramatic play or a movie that should be cast with actors who can handle dialogue that changes tone constantly. It often felt like one of the detective shows where the cop acts like he doesn't really know what's going on but he does, and the criminal knows he should be careful with his words but can't stop talking - it reminded me of Vincent D'Onofrio"s character from Criminal Minds...
There is a mystery involved, but the real meat of the novel is the conversation, we watch as it takes twist and turns, and when we think we know what will happen next - it usually doesn't. Fun, tense read!

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes maudlin and sometimes contrived, "The Last Talk with Lola Faye" nevertheless beguiled me. Now a lackluster author and college professor, Luke had been determined to leave his sleepy, dying boyhood town in Alabama (reminded me of Richard Russo's sad New England towns). He had such promise; after all, he was the "smartest boy in Glenville." Catapulted into adulthood by the murder of his father and the death of his mother, Luke had, predictably, found his life to be disappointing. But, years later, over appletinis, Luke revisits those tragic events with his father's paramour, Lola Faye; he tells his stories, and she tells hers. The ending is hopeful and utterly satisfying and in no way predictable. I'll be looking for more books by Thomas H. Cook.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This could be the best Thomas H Cooke novel that I have read. It surpasses even Breakheart Hill which has been a favourite of mine for years.

The synopsis simply doesn't do it justice and I'll admit I started reading it only because it was written by Cooke. I couldn't see how a conversation between two people in a bar could take up almost a whole book and yet once I started I could barely put it down. There are the usual twists and turns and multiple layers to the story that are typical of Cooke's novels but the ending is somewhat different to his usual tone.

Read it, you won't be disappointed.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucas Page is a writer and professor of some mediocrity who is approached at a lecture he is giving by the woman with whom he assumed his father had an affair. Her husband had murdered his father and then killed himself days later. As Lucas and Lola Faye take a trip back into time, new facts and emotions emerge.

I wanted to like this book, and it did keep me hooked until the end. However, it was kind of weird and dark and the ending seemed to just come out of nowhere and then it is all tied in a neat bow in the last few pages. I guess it was sort of redemptive but also left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, metaphorically speaking.

[John Addiego · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another terrific psychological mystery by an author I'm really getting to know. His characters are often flawed in believable, but awful, ways. The mystery seems to revolve around who did, or neglected to do, what a normal, sane person would or wouldn't do. So we explore vanity, selfishness, fear, etc., and the terrible events that may come out of them that have to be unearthed. There is, generally, a kind of redemption for the sinner in Cook's stories, which doesn't always work but seems like the right direction for resolution, at least.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I loved about this book was, through conversation and reflection, two people exchanged and revealed information that sheds a whole new light on a murder taken place years earlier. There is something disturbing about Lola Faye: her intentions are unclear, her emotions unstable and her methods, calculating. An unexpectant unraveling of character begins to take place and although the ending didn't quite seem fitting, I thought the manipulation of the story was wonderful.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like other novels by Thomas H Cook this one deals with regret and lives ruined by one cataclysmic event in the past. They usually have a lone narrator looking back at the past from towards the end of his life, but here we have a dialogue between a man and a woman (though recorded from the male narrator's viewpoint) which almost feels like a two handed play. However I found neither of these characters particularly likeable and I didn't feel the poignancy I have experienced in Cook's other work.

[Kim W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't give many 5 stars. Maybe it's a result of the recent spate of tepid novels I've read but I'm going for 5 for this excellent story.

The whole book is set as a conversation between a man and the woman his father had an affair with. With frequent flashbacks and reminiscences the story develops.

The tension gets thick, I had to cover the right page to avoid the temptation to skip ahead. Some really beautiful writing. Give it a 5.

[Lindaellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nearly everyone on Amazon.com loved this book. Me, not so much. It took me three weeks to read it - and I read a book in between - so that should say something. It just didn't live up to the hype, as far as I was concerned, and there was little to no suspense contained therein. It literally was a talk, a loooooooong talk.

[Alex Mathew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent psychological suspense thriller from the ever reliable literary pen of Thomas h Cook. It is amazing that how writer is able to capture various human emotions, evil, love, empathy and also how he plays with reader's perceptions about the characters through which we see the tragedy being unfolded at the small town Glenwille.

[Barbara Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this little book because it was recommended by Harlan Coben as "compelling and suspenseful'" - and that it was! Not my usual kind of suspense novel, but really well done - good luck figuring out the ending !

[christine galkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

No other author in this genre compares to Cook

The most compelling story teller in the Southern tradition of great story telling . If anyone knows of any author as gifted as Thomas Cook I'd appreciate the recommendation. Even a close second would do.

[Bill S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read almost all of Cook's books and was always of the the mind that 'The Chatham School Affair" was his best. This one comes awful darn close.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like everything I read by this author. Intelligent, page-turning suspense, character-driven stories, clever twists.

[Celeste · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just loved this book. His writing style, the story. Wonderful dialogue and would make a great movie.