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Sparkle
“A kaleidoscope of a thriller that’s at once smart, funny, touching and relentlessly paced. Rudy Yuly’s debut novel Sparkle does what only a great thriller can do—it defies you to stop turning the pages.”
- Gregg Olsen, New York Times bestselling author of Victim Six
- Gregg Olsen, New York Times bestselling author of Victim Six
- GenresThriller
372 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 3, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 11, 2013
Death is in the news every day, and if people stop to give it a second thought they most likely think of the void left in the lives of the living, the emotional mess it creates when someone dies or is killed. Very few people, however, think about the nuts and bolts of death–the literal mess it makes.
Brothers Joe and Eddie Jones have not only thought about it, they’ve made it their business. Literally. Sparkle Cleaners, their Seattle-based janitorial service, specializes in crime scene cleanups. Theirs is a unique tag team, with Joe acting as the face of the business and Eddie the actual cleanup man. And anyone who’s ever used Sparkle Cleaners will tell you, no one can clean a crime scene like Eddie.
He’s so good, Sparkle Cleaners gets the inside line on jobs from members of the Seattle PD, including Detectives Louis and Bjorgesen. When they call Joe to schedule the cleanup of a triple murder–a husband, wife, and their six-year-old daughter–they couldn’t possibly have foreseen the chain of events that would unfold…or that it would get even more complicated when Sparkle is assigned to the cleanup of a seemingly unrelated massacre of six people at a club in Chinatown.
But what no one knows, not even Joe, is that Eddie’s gift goes far beyond being able to erase the physical signs of death. Due to a trauma the two suffered when they were young children, Eddie has retreated into his own little world, one which presents to everyone else as severe autism. But while people think Eddie is virtually uncommunicative, what they don’t realize is that he communicates with the dead. At every cleanup scene he encounters the spirit/ghost of the person who died, and only by his erasing the physical signs of their death are they able to move on to the next world.
Things get weird, even for Eddie, when at the scene of the triple homicide the young girl refuses to leave even after Eddie’s finished cleaning. Not only does she refuse to leave, she reveals to Eddie a piece of evidence the police missed, and makes him promise to “make the catch.” Eddie tries to ignore the situation, but when it happens again at the Chinatown club he knows he must act, and in doing so is forced to confront the very trauma from his past which bestowed his gift upon him.
Rudy Yuly has created something very special in Sparkle, a book which works on several different levels. First and foremost, this story is about relationships: brother to brother, partner to partner, man to woman, living to dead. It’s about what ties people to one another–be it love or loyalty or obligation–and what happens when events occur which stress those ties that bind. Joe wants to be a good brother, knows Eddie needs him, but still can’t help but resent him a little for putting Joe in a situation where he can’t lead a normal life because of Eddie’s condition. And though to the outside world it’s Joe who’s taking care of Eddie, endearingly, from Eddie’s perspective it’s very much the opposite:
It was tough on Eddie. He had to take care of Joe all the time, walking him through rituals he should be totally comfortable with. Joe couldn’t seem to get it, always trying to change stuff that needed to stay the same, like last night. When it really was time for something to change–like today–Joe would hang on to it with all his might.
Yuly exquisitely captures the frustration and awkwardness the brothers feel trying to deal with one another, as well as that which they both encounter while interacting with the women in their lives: Joe with a waitress at his favorite bar whom he’s desperately attracted to, Eddie with the worker at the zoo who takes him on a tour every Saturday as part of his rigid routine. Having dealt mostly with only each other for decades, their social skills–though for very different reasons–are highly suspect, and painfully realistically portrayed by Yuly.
The book also unfurls two different mysteries over the course of the story, that of who killed the victims at the two cleanup sites, as well as what exactly happened to Joe and Eddie when they were kids that caused Eddie to retreat into his private world. Yuly doles out clues to the killer’s identity and motives, and flashbacks to that fateful day in the boys’ lives, at just the right pace, slowly and confidently weaving all the treads together to create a complete tapestry. Yuly even manages to throw in a little curve at the end, one which only adds to the book’s overall reflection on relationships and the impact death can have on the living.
Released independently last year, Sparkle may well have slipped past under your radar, but this offbeat, lovingly written work is one I highly recommend you pick up. I may have missed it in 2012, but Sparkle has declared itself ready to fight for a spot on my Top 10 of 2013 list, that’s for sure.
Brothers Joe and Eddie Jones have not only thought about it, they’ve made it their business. Literally. Sparkle Cleaners, their Seattle-based janitorial service, specializes in crime scene cleanups. Theirs is a unique tag team, with Joe acting as the face of the business and Eddie the actual cleanup man. And anyone who’s ever used Sparkle Cleaners will tell you, no one can clean a crime scene like Eddie.
He’s so good, Sparkle Cleaners gets the inside line on jobs from members of the Seattle PD, including Detectives Louis and Bjorgesen. When they call Joe to schedule the cleanup of a triple murder–a husband, wife, and their six-year-old daughter–they couldn’t possibly have foreseen the chain of events that would unfold…or that it would get even more complicated when Sparkle is assigned to the cleanup of a seemingly unrelated massacre of six people at a club in Chinatown.
But what no one knows, not even Joe, is that Eddie’s gift goes far beyond being able to erase the physical signs of death. Due to a trauma the two suffered when they were young children, Eddie has retreated into his own little world, one which presents to everyone else as severe autism. But while people think Eddie is virtually uncommunicative, what they don’t realize is that he communicates with the dead. At every cleanup scene he encounters the spirit/ghost of the person who died, and only by his erasing the physical signs of their death are they able to move on to the next world.
Things get weird, even for Eddie, when at the scene of the triple homicide the young girl refuses to leave even after Eddie’s finished cleaning. Not only does she refuse to leave, she reveals to Eddie a piece of evidence the police missed, and makes him promise to “make the catch.” Eddie tries to ignore the situation, but when it happens again at the Chinatown club he knows he must act, and in doing so is forced to confront the very trauma from his past which bestowed his gift upon him.
Rudy Yuly has created something very special in Sparkle, a book which works on several different levels. First and foremost, this story is about relationships: brother to brother, partner to partner, man to woman, living to dead. It’s about what ties people to one another–be it love or loyalty or obligation–and what happens when events occur which stress those ties that bind. Joe wants to be a good brother, knows Eddie needs him, but still can’t help but resent him a little for putting Joe in a situation where he can’t lead a normal life because of Eddie’s condition. And though to the outside world it’s Joe who’s taking care of Eddie, endearingly, from Eddie’s perspective it’s very much the opposite:
It was tough on Eddie. He had to take care of Joe all the time, walking him through rituals he should be totally comfortable with. Joe couldn’t seem to get it, always trying to change stuff that needed to stay the same, like last night. When it really was time for something to change–like today–Joe would hang on to it with all his might.
Yuly exquisitely captures the frustration and awkwardness the brothers feel trying to deal with one another, as well as that which they both encounter while interacting with the women in their lives: Joe with a waitress at his favorite bar whom he’s desperately attracted to, Eddie with the worker at the zoo who takes him on a tour every Saturday as part of his rigid routine. Having dealt mostly with only each other for decades, their social skills–though for very different reasons–are highly suspect, and painfully realistically portrayed by Yuly.
The book also unfurls two different mysteries over the course of the story, that of who killed the victims at the two cleanup sites, as well as what exactly happened to Joe and Eddie when they were kids that caused Eddie to retreat into his private world. Yuly doles out clues to the killer’s identity and motives, and flashbacks to that fateful day in the boys’ lives, at just the right pace, slowly and confidently weaving all the treads together to create a complete tapestry. Yuly even manages to throw in a little curve at the end, one which only adds to the book’s overall reflection on relationships and the impact death can have on the living.
Released independently last year, Sparkle may well have slipped past under your radar, but this offbeat, lovingly written work is one I highly recommend you pick up. I may have missed it in 2012, but Sparkle has declared itself ready to fight for a spot on my Top 10 of 2013 list, that’s for sure.
October 20, 2013
SPARKLE was an interesting mix of original ideas and melodramatic clichés. This is not necessarily bad. Every story has its sappy moments and authors stand out by the way they use those and Rudy Yuly does quite a good job at keeping his sappy moments under control. The proper amount of starts here would be 3.5, but 4 sounds also good.
The novel is about brothers running a crime scene cleaning business, yet one brother is more interesting than the other. Eddie is autistic and has a flabergasting gift for cleaning blood. He is the best in the business. Whenever Yuly narrates from the point of view of Eddie, SPARKLES lives up to its title. Yuly understands the mechanisms of autism and incorporates them very well to a crime plot.
Parts of the crime plot made me wince though. I thought some of the characters were overexposed and underused. Some were not necessary at all, yet cleverly used. I loved SPARKLE for its characterization and its brilliant exposition of the inner workings of autism, but it was kind of rough as a crime novel.
The novel is about brothers running a crime scene cleaning business, yet one brother is more interesting than the other. Eddie is autistic and has a flabergasting gift for cleaning blood. He is the best in the business. Whenever Yuly narrates from the point of view of Eddie, SPARKLES lives up to its title. Yuly understands the mechanisms of autism and incorporates them very well to a crime plot.
Parts of the crime plot made me wince though. I thought some of the characters were overexposed and underused. Some were not necessary at all, yet cleverly used. I loved SPARKLE for its characterization and its brilliant exposition of the inner workings of autism, but it was kind of rough as a crime novel.
March 27, 2015
I was surprised at how much I liked this book. There is a bit of a supernatural element to Eddie and his cleaning job which I usually steer away from. This book, however, portrayed his contact with stuck souls as a minor detail in a much larger story. I grew to care for Joe and Eddie in a way I didn't expect. I found myself becoming protective of the strange brothers and rooting for them until the very end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2014
Sometimes I feel so concerned for a character in a book that I feel sick when their well-being is in question. My stomach was in knots for Eddie Jones for half of this book. The writing, while not perfect, was enjoyable and flowed well. The characters in general made this book better than what I expected from reading the blurb.
July 31, 2011
I enjoyed this story very much. One thing the author accomplished which I really liked was the idea that neither brother was being cared for by the other in a bigger way. The world view was that Joe was caring for and burdened by his developmentally disabled brother, Eddie. However in Eddie's mind he was equally responsible for the care and burden of Joe. This was a nice twist and made me think about the roles of being cared for and caring for another.
I also enjoyed discovering the identity of the 'killer' and the way things were wrapped up for the brothers.
I also enjoyed discovering the identity of the 'killer' and the way things were wrapped up for the brothers.
April 7, 2015
I enjoyed Sparkle. The brothers being crime scene cleaners made for an unusual perspective and I thought it worked well. I liked the way the brothers' relationship was developed and I liked Eddie Jones a lot.
The only real issue I had with the book (Kindle edition) was that the female cop was often referred to as both a he and a she within the same paragraph or sentence. This started off being a bit confusing, needing to re-read the paragraphs, but as the book went on it became expected whenever she cropped up!
The only real issue I had with the book (Kindle edition) was that the female cop was often referred to as both a he and a she within the same paragraph or sentence. This started off being a bit confusing, needing to re-read the paragraphs, but as the book went on it became expected whenever she cropped up!
April 11, 2013
Fair. Easy read. Good surprise ending.
May 9, 2013
This is written by a friend of mine and it's a murder mystery/ thriller set in Seattle. Our book group read it and liked it quite a bit. Proud of my pal Rudy!!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews