An Hour to Kill: A Novel

by Karin Yapalater

Karin Yapalater's pulsating debut novel, An Hour to Kill , is an unforgettable psychosexual thriller set in the dark heart of New York City When a series of brutal murders takes place in the desolate wintry landscape of Central Park, a pair of unlikely colleagues, New York City detectives James Gurson and Didi Kane, are sent to investigate. The assignment turns personal, however, when they discover the victims' deaths resonate within their own lives. The first victim, Charlene Leone -- found burned beyond recognition -- is a fellow officer, and Kane's ex-lover. The other, Orrin Gretz, is a prominent New York psychiatrist whose grisly death in a '57 Mercedes Gullwing with a .25 automatic at his side mirrors the suicide of Gurson's father. A psychology buff and a rising star in the department, Gurson is trying to recover from a painful divorce and become a better parent to his young son. Kane, his beautiful partner -- well known for her high-octane obstinacy and her brilliance -- is barely coping with the circumstances of her former lover's brutal end when her grief is compounded by her own shocking implication in the murder. To solve the bizarre slayings the detectives must embark on an investigation that will take on eerie undertones, immersing them in a labyrinth of Freudian reverie, Jungian dreams, unconscious truths and conscious deceptions, visceral sex, and sadistic violence. Ultimately, they will transcend their professional partnership, becoming unconditional confidants in order to unveil the truth, and pull each other out from under their own personal wreckage. Chilling, intricate, and provocative, An Hour to Kill brilliantly captures the disturbing flip side of psychoanalysis, while twisting unpredictably toward an explosive denouement that will stun readers everywhere.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller

288 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2003

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I disagree with the negative goodreads reviews. I found the characters interesting (and not all unlikeable) , and the plot held my interest very well. When reading the story, I looked forward to the the book's resolution, and enjoyed reading it.

It is not the best book I've ever read, it was a little formulaic, but I felt it was worth a read and a perfectly acceptable and entertaining .police procedural.

[Michael W. Boleware · Rating 4 out of 5]

You'd have to be half crazy or a psychologist not to find this police murder mystery compelling and fascinating. You can tell from the acknowledgments section and realistic yet disturbing story that the author has a great understanding of the subject matter. A great read.

[RL · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little hard to get into but once the plot was developed turned out to be an interesting story

[Barbara ★ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let's see...we've got a shrink doing his patients who ends up dead. We've got a drugged out hooker who's doing some anonymous rich couple. We've got a screwy ADA into BDSM. We've got a lesbian cop who's ex-girlfriend gets barbequed. We've got a male cop having personal issues because he can't get it up. Oh and let's not forget the guy killing people in Central Park. The author eventually pulls all this together into a cohesive story but the journey to get there is just not worth the torture.

All in all so much is going on that the plot is almost buried. The writing is very choppy and disconnected jumping back and forth between all these sexually deviant sub-plots. A good lot of this is misdirection which should flow with the plot but doesn't. It just makes it confusing and I quickly lost interest in who or why. Though I did force myself to finish it (and now I could kick myself) since I needed the book for a few challenges.

Here's the passage that gave me a WTF moment and caused me to actually throw the book across the room. "She" was jogging in the park and knowing that some dude was following her and had been for months, she confronts him."

"You know that I don't mind that you've been following me."
"Oh."
"Makes me feel safe, actually."
"Are you in some kind of danger?"
"We're all in some kind of danger, aren't we?"
"You play with words."
"Grown-up toys, I guess." She took a step toward him, reached out her hand. He half expected that she was reaching for his gun, making his first reaction one of defense. But then she pressed up against him, his back resting on the majestic pine. Her strong legs spread in a V, she locked him in, hip to hip. Then slowly, she dropped to her knees, unzipped his pants, took his c*ck in her mouth."

Now seriously, what kind of female does this? She is an upper class prominent professional not a hooker for Pete's sake. It was passages like this that just floored me with their ridiculousness. They caused abrupt halts to the flow of the story and really just threw me for a loop.

[Norman Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goodreads says two stars are for an "OK" book. I had to think about whether this was 1 star or 2. if you are not too fussy, this will be OK. I didn't like any character in the book, and the dialogue was a turn off; I know New York residents are all supposed to be hard-boiled and world-weary, but none of the characters ever seemed to have a pleasant thought or word. As for the plot, it was way too fussy and overly complicated, not to mention unbelievable. One of the large number of evil doers is fingered by the main cop character, Gurson, with very little reason. The motivation for nearly everyone was weak. and so on. ...

Maybe 1 star would have been more accurate. I read this on an airplane and it did succeed in killing time for me, though.

[Jane Plebanek · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very graphic psychosexual thriller set in NYC. I’ve never read one of these so I thought I’d give it a try. This book used so many pronouns that I could never truly understand who was talking? Who is Her/Him/He/They who is Wife? Whose wife? Which wife? Someone has so many side pieces I can’t keep track of them all. It was incredibly hard to follow.

I think the actual plot line was ok. I just spent too much time trying to figure out who the pronouns belonged to. Big yikes.

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first chapter had me giggling. A lot of so-called cop speak with jagged, short sentences. It felt like someone was trying to write a very noir New York murder mystery. It didn't cut it for me, and most of the characters just got worse. No wonder I haven't found any other books by this author. My opinion - give this one a miss.

[Cynthia K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Something felt inauthentic about the writing. I'll admit I became fixated on the brief vignette in which the lead detective is said to be eating Cheerios and the author describes them as "sugar-coated." Nope. That's just not right.
I found the story to be confusing and then all-too clear in whodunit. At least this was a quick read.

[Laura Salas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't absolutely love it, but liked it. This is her debut novel. I'd read another. I liked Gurson, the main detective character, and Kane, his partner. The plot was fairly convoluted.

Killers were ADA's wife, Theodora (a psychotherapist) and an ex-con she was treating.

[Joyce Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a debut novel I did enjoy the two protagonists, James Gurson and Didi Kane. The novel was very graphic and had significant psycho-sexual undertones. I would read another book by the author and I am sorry to see that she has not published another novel.

[Cheye-Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible, generic thriller. You could see this coming a mile away. Don't waste your time!

[Merline White]

fun.

[DAISY READS HORROR · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are into twisted relationships this book is for you. Not sure why it has such a low rating on goodreads, i liked the story overall.

[Carmelina Mendoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do I read it