Recounts the story behind the mysterious death on a Long Island beach of Starr Faithfull, a twenty-year-old alcoholic, drug addict, and nymphomaniac who was seduced at age eleven by a forty-five-year-old man. Reprint.
Sandra Scoppettone first emerged as one of the best hard-boiled mystery writers using the name Jack Early for her first three novels that included A Creative Kind of Killer (1984) that won the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America for best first novel. She had started writing seriously since the age of 18 when she moved to New York from South Orange, New Jersey. Scoppettone in the 1960s collaborated with Louise Fitzhuh and in the 1970s wrote important young adult novels. The Late Great Me depicting teenage alcoholism won an Emmy Award in 1976. Her real name was revealed in the 1990s with the start of a series featuring PI Lauren Laurano. Scoppettone shares her life with writer Linda Crawford.
I had a hard time keeping up with the characters.They were too many to keep up with at the beginning.Starr was depicted in so many ways throughout the book that I couldn't figure whom the author wanted us to believe she was.Not a bad read though.I was eager to know what happened but eager to skip the pages as well...
I put this off for a long time, fearing it would be dull, but I shouldn't have. It drew me right in and pulled me along until the very last page. It was hard to tell where the true story of Starr Faithfull ended and the speculative novel began. Best of all the conclusions the author xame to in this story were 100% believable. Well worth your time whether you like fiction or nonfiction.