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World Enough
"Clea Simon writes with authority and affection about a lost world. Highly recommended"
Catriona McPherson
This intriguing, hardhitting, intricately-plotted mystery set in Boston's clubland marks an exciting new departure for cozy author Clea Simon.
The Boston club scene may be home to a cast of outsiders and misfits, but it's where Tara Winton belongs; the world she's been part of for the past twenty years. Now, one of the old gang is dead, having fallen down the basement stairs at his home.
With her journalist's instincts, Tara senses there's something not quite right about Frank's supposedly accidental death. When she asks questions, she begins to uncover some disturbing truths about the club scene in its heyday. Beneath the heady, sexually charged atmosphere lurked something darker. Twenty years ago, there was another death. Could there be a connection? Is there a killer still at large ... and could Tara herself be at risk?
Catriona McPherson
This intriguing, hardhitting, intricately-plotted mystery set in Boston's clubland marks an exciting new departure for cozy author Clea Simon.
The Boston club scene may be home to a cast of outsiders and misfits, but it's where Tara Winton belongs; the world she's been part of for the past twenty years. Now, one of the old gang is dead, having fallen down the basement stairs at his home.
With her journalist's instincts, Tara senses there's something not quite right about Frank's supposedly accidental death. When she asks questions, she begins to uncover some disturbing truths about the club scene in its heyday. Beneath the heady, sexually charged atmosphere lurked something darker. Twenty years ago, there was another death. Could there be a connection? Is there a killer still at large ... and could Tara herself be at risk?
336 pages, Hardcover
Published January 31, 2019
3 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
About the author
Clea Simon
57 books404 followersBoston Globe-bestselling author Clea Simon is the author of
The Butterfly Trap,
a sinister slow-build "he said/she said" that will definitely surprise you.
This follows Bad Boy Beat a fast-paced amateur sleuth mystery featuring a novice crime reporter with a nose for news who is convinced a series of street-level killings are connected.
In a different mood, Clea's most recent cozy is The Cat's Eye Charm, the fifth in her "Witch Cats of Cambridge" series.
She is also the author of the psychological suspense novels, Hold Me Down and World Enough, both named "Must Reads" by the Massachusetts Book Awards, as well as the dystopian Blackie and Care black cat series (The Ninth Life), the Dulcie Schwartz feline/academic mysteries (Shades of Grey), the Pru Marlowe pet noir mysteries (Dogs Don't Lie), and the Theda Krakow cats & crime & rock & roll mysteries (Mew is for Murder), as well as three nonfiction books: Mad House: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings; Fatherless Women: How We Change After We Lose Our Dads; and The Feline Mystique: On the Mysterious Connection Between Women and Cats.
The recipient of multiple honors, including the Cat Writers Associations Presidents Award, she lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, with her husband, Jon Garelick, and their cat, Thisbe. Find her at Clea Simon.com
This follows Bad Boy Beat a fast-paced amateur sleuth mystery featuring a novice crime reporter with a nose for news who is convinced a series of street-level killings are connected.
In a different mood, Clea's most recent cozy is The Cat's Eye Charm, the fifth in her "Witch Cats of Cambridge" series.
She is also the author of the psychological suspense novels, Hold Me Down and World Enough, both named "Must Reads" by the Massachusetts Book Awards, as well as the dystopian Blackie and Care black cat series (The Ninth Life), the Dulcie Schwartz feline/academic mysteries (Shades of Grey), the Pru Marlowe pet noir mysteries (Dogs Don't Lie), and the Theda Krakow cats & crime & rock & roll mysteries (Mew is for Murder), as well as three nonfiction books: Mad House: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings; Fatherless Women: How We Change After We Lose Our Dads; and The Feline Mystique: On the Mysterious Connection Between Women and Cats.
The recipient of multiple honors, including the Cat Writers Associations Presidents Award, she lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, with her husband, Jon Garelick, and their cat, Thisbe. Find her at Clea Simon.com
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 20, 2018
I like my mysteries dark and complex, smoky, and this one lingers on the palate like a good Pinot Noir. Clea Simon was part of the Boston rock scene in the 1980s and went on, like her main character, Tara Winton, to become a journalist. Looking back with those well-honed reporter's instincts, she sees the screwed-up lives of the musicians she used to admire, the long-dead and those who barely survived those drugged-out years. Tara recognizes her own survivor's guilt, for having come through unscathed. It's a sadly familiar story of talented people who burned out young, and Simon tells it well.
On another level, though, World Enough is a book about being a writer, telling the stories you've been longing to tell, or the ones you've been afraid to tell. It reads like a meditation on the creative process, bringing us inside as Tara tries to find the thread that weaves through the piece she's writing about revisiting the Boston club scene. Simon articulates the process beautifully, from "the wisp of a thought hovering" in some alcove of the artist's brain to the pattern-finding and coalescing of ideas, when the mosaic begins to form a picture at last.
I kept being reminded of the Antonioni film, Blow-Up, one of the best things to come out of mod London (besides the Diana Rigg episodes of "The Avengers," although these haven't aged well . . .), and when I went and read Roger Ebert's review, I realized why:
On another level, though, World Enough is a book about being a writer, telling the stories you've been longing to tell, or the ones you've been afraid to tell. It reads like a meditation on the creative process, bringing us inside as Tara tries to find the thread that weaves through the piece she's writing about revisiting the Boston club scene. Simon articulates the process beautifully, from "the wisp of a thought hovering" in some alcove of the artist's brain to the pattern-finding and coalescing of ideas, when the mosaic begins to form a picture at last.
I kept being reminded of the Antonioni film, Blow-Up, one of the best things to come out of mod London (besides the Diana Rigg episodes of "The Avengers," although these haven't aged well . . .), and when I went and read Roger Ebert's review, I realized why:
It's especially nice when a writer friend crafts a book so perceptive and engaging, I wish I'd written myself. I look forward to Simon's next Tara Winton mystery.
Watching Blow-Up once again, I took a few minutes to acclimate myself to the loopy psychedelic colors and the tendency of the hero to use words like "fab" (Austin Powers brilliantly lampoons the era). Then I found the spell of the movie settling around me. Antonioni uses the materials of a suspense thriller without the payoff. He places them within a London of heartless fashion photography, groupies, bored rock audiences, languid pot parties, and a hero whose dead soul is roused briefly by a challenge to his craftsmanship.
October 8, 2017
This book is a new undertaking for Clea Simon as she moves into the underworld of Rock and Roll music twenty years ago. The MC Tara was accepted there but was really on the outside. Tara went for the music and didn't really know all the "dirt and drugs" that was occurring. Tara was an aspiring journalist and now has a job in the commercial world. She meets up with her editor at the time and he asked he to write a piece on the Rise and Fall of the Rock bands. As Tara begins to dig into the past, she finds her memory is not accurate.
The story jumps between the present and the past. I find this form hard to read as There is no clear-cut line between the two decades. There are a couple of deaths which the police rule accidental. Are there more to these deaths and how will they effect Tara? I recommend this book.
Disclosure: I received a free copy from Severn House through NetGalley for an honest review. I would like to thank them for this opportunity to read and review the book. The opinions expressed are my own.
The story jumps between the present and the past. I find this form hard to read as There is no clear-cut line between the two decades. There are a couple of deaths which the police rule accidental. Are there more to these deaths and how will they effect Tara? I recommend this book.
Disclosure: I received a free copy from Severn House through NetGalley for an honest review. I would like to thank them for this opportunity to read and review the book. The opinions expressed are my own.
February 12, 2018
Clea Simon has a knowledge of the 80’s rock scene in Boston I had no idea existed. This was quite a lesson and while being schooled I became hooked to solve the mystery! I thought I had it figured out just for a while then a snippet of a clue was dropped and STILL I was surprised by the ending. I applaud Clea for peaking and keeping my interest! Quite enjoyable!
October 14, 2017
Clea Simon is never one to bow to convention. Her highly original, noir infused mysteries stand far above and far apart from the vast quantities of formulaic fare. While I’ve long been a fan of Clea Simon’s unique pet mysteries, World Enough is the first of her non-animal novels that I’ve read. I was very impressed. World Enough takes the reader into the clubland of Boston where in the 80s a generation of hopefuls rocked. Now, years later the scene is tired. Dreams have given way to the realities of growing up and growing older. Tara Winston loved the scene for the music and for the comraderie, but she only begins to delve deeper into the past when Frank, an aging rocker, falls to his death. What begins as a retrospective, a lament for a dying age becomes something more as her suspicions grow and she learns that there was far more going on behind the scenes than she had ever realized, and that the death of a shooting star twenty years before may be linked to Frank’s death.
Clea Simon’s approach to the 80s music scene is frank, nostalgic but not rose tinted. Alcohol and drugs flow as freely as the music, and the long reaching damage caused by both is clearly seen. World Enough is not a traditional whodunnit, and is all the better for it. The novel is about finding the truth and dispelling illusions. The world explored in World Enough is gritty and fascinating, providing readers with a unique taste of the past. I can't praise the novel enough.
5 / 5
I received a copy of World Enough from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
--Crittermom
Clea Simon’s approach to the 80s music scene is frank, nostalgic but not rose tinted. Alcohol and drugs flow as freely as the music, and the long reaching damage caused by both is clearly seen. World Enough is not a traditional whodunnit, and is all the better for it. The novel is about finding the truth and dispelling illusions. The world explored in World Enough is gritty and fascinating, providing readers with a unique taste of the past. I can't praise the novel enough.
5 / 5
I received a copy of World Enough from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
--Crittermom
May 15, 2021
Just finished reading "World Enough" by Clea Simon. Personal disclaimer: Clea is a friend of mine and we were both involved in the Boston Music Scene (1977 through the 1990s ). She captures the camaraderie of those times. The family atmosphere where almost everyone knew everyone else. The scene did begin to fall apart at one point and Clea hits on some of the noticeable reasons for it's demise.
She describes clubs, bands, people and attitudes within the community alongside a mystery, running throughout the novel which her main character Tara must come to grips with.
Clea uses her knowledge of the scene, from the point of view of a reporter, to unearth the mystery. Multiple areas of the rock and roll world flow though the story as she explores a mystery she has unknowingly walked into.
Reading this book brought back memories of good times and bad. Characters are a mixture of various people and, although a few stories are easy to identify, most cannot be attached to any one person.
Anytime I feel nostalgic for this period of my life I'll pick up "World Enough" to get my fix.
She describes clubs, bands, people and attitudes within the community alongside a mystery, running throughout the novel which her main character Tara must come to grips with.
Clea uses her knowledge of the scene, from the point of view of a reporter, to unearth the mystery. Multiple areas of the rock and roll world flow though the story as she explores a mystery she has unknowingly walked into.
Reading this book brought back memories of good times and bad. Characters are a mixture of various people and, although a few stories are easy to identify, most cannot be attached to any one person.
Anytime I feel nostalgic for this period of my life I'll pick up "World Enough" to get my fix.
May 12, 2017
World Enough weaves together some of my favorite things: A good mystery, a flawed heroine regaining her mojo, and rock 'n' roll. Specifically, World Enougj is set in the Boston rock scene and alternative press scene in the mid-80's. Having been there, I can say that Clea Simon has done a beautiful job of evoking this time and place before Boston underwent a tech-fuelled makeover and when the Rat was the gloriously grubby place to be. Simon gracefully handles the transitions from past to present, as her heroine Tara Winton, a bored PR associate, tries to recapture the idealism and sense of community she knew back in her youth as a rock critic and club regular. Her obsession with the mysterious death of a musician from the old scene sends her down a rabbit hole where she finds that her memories of that time dont hold up to the reality her investigation uncovers.
Many fiction writers have tried and failed to credibly capture the rock and roll life on the page. Clea Simon, a former music reviewer herself, gets it exactly right.
Many fiction writers have tried and failed to credibly capture the rock and roll life on the page. Clea Simon, a former music reviewer herself, gets it exactly right.
May 15, 2018
In pin-point specific jargon, Clea Simon depicts Boston's musical underground for what it was in the eighties: thrilling, a hint of the taboo, the kind of place outsiders become insiders, and all because of an identification with the music of the times that draws Boston's youth en masse to a world of their own. This book pulses in the rhythmic cadence of a bass and kick drum in an arena where anything can happen, and probably did, as journalist on assignment, Tara Winton, who is in the gritty culture but not of it, suspects. Author Clea Simon has penned a noir story and set it in the night clubs of Boston. She lures the reader to the unravelling of a mystery, and reports with an eye for detail and a flair for nostalgia over the music that laid the foundation in a culture now gone.
April 11, 2017
It was really engaging, I had a hard time putting it down. I buzz-sawed right thru it. There was one part that I really liked, when she's walking home from the club, and you write (paraphrasing), "Maybe this is what we love, the night", that scene just captured the innocence and wonder of those times with a little bittersweetness.
I'm not a huge fan of the mystery genre, so I'd hesitate to say I LOVED it, since it was, after all, a mystery. But I liked it a lot.
I'm not a huge fan of the mystery genre, so I'd hesitate to say I LOVED it, since it was, after all, a mystery. But I liked it a lot.
June 3, 2017
I opened up World Enough and climbed into a time machine that carried me somewhere both familiar and strange. Anyone who's invented family in rooms filled with booze, smoke, sex, and loud music will feel at home in this place. What's just as satisfying is being immersed in the unique details of the 80s Boston club scene. I'd never been there until I read this book. Most of all World Enough gave me the thrill of imagining what dark mysteries might lie beneath my own fuzzy memories.
May 12, 2017
A page-turner about a music scene I'd never plumbed until this book brought me into it! Great characters and atmosphere, and a solid, satisfying story that kept me up later than I wanted, so I could read what happened next - Clea Simon knows how to tell a good story, and World Enough is an excellent way to turn off the world for awhile and get swept up into an alternate universe!
November 8, 2017
Everybody has a past. Some are more memorable than others; some we would prefer to forget. My own past was rooted in the hippie movement and the music scene that went with it. Though WORLD ENOUGH’s Tara Wilton hit her crazy prime a few decades later in the clubs of the ‘80s, I can identify. I understand those push-pull relationships with once-upon-a-time friends. I get the compulsion to both renounce the past and embrace it. The dichotomy that runs throughout this story is eerily my own.
In this multi-layered work, Tara, a one-time newshound now bored by her current job, finds herself pulled back through doors she thought were closed forever. A story about the old scene leads her to new information and the possibility that events of the past were not as she had imagined them to be at the time. The death of one of the old tribe raises questions—was it accidental, suicide, or murder?— and brings doubts about another death back in the day.
Clea leads us slowly, purposefully, sometimes almost painfully through Tara’s thought process as she is drawn to uncover the facts, however grotesque. What happened? Where did it all go wrong? The world is dangerous when we begin to peel back the layers of its darkest secrets and reveal the raw, bleeding truth.
In this multi-layered work, Tara, a one-time newshound now bored by her current job, finds herself pulled back through doors she thought were closed forever. A story about the old scene leads her to new information and the possibility that events of the past were not as she had imagined them to be at the time. The death of one of the old tribe raises questions—was it accidental, suicide, or murder?— and brings doubts about another death back in the day.
Clea leads us slowly, purposefully, sometimes almost painfully through Tara’s thought process as she is drawn to uncover the facts, however grotesque. What happened? Where did it all go wrong? The world is dangerous when we begin to peel back the layers of its darkest secrets and reveal the raw, bleeding truth.
November 21, 2017
Clea Simon immerses readers and her new series sleuth, music journalist Tara Winton, in the 1980s Boston club scene in the noir-tinged World Enough (Severn House, ARC). Tara once covered the city's punk rock bands for fanzines that paid little but gave her needed access. Now working in a dull corporate communications job, Tara is drawn back to the heady, long-ago times when her former editor asks her to write a piece on Boston bands for his glossy city magazine. The assignment coincides with the accidental death of musician Frank Turcotte, although Tara wonders if her old friend, sober for 20 years, really just fell down the stairs. And could his death be connected to that of once rising star Chris Crack back in the day? She soon discovers that digging into the past can prove dangerous, but letting go just isn't in her nature. Once a reporter, always a reporter. Simon knows what's she writing about.
from On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever
from On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever
December 21, 2017
Tara Winton was a clubber/reporter for the music scene in 1980's Boston. She now has a "real"
job. When an opportunity arises to write an article about the scene now, and then, she jumps at the chance. She uses the death of a "star" back then and a current death, to tie into the article. Someone wants her story stopped before it starts, as she might be getting to close.
Great book, and hopefully the start of a new "Boston noir" series. Has everything, sex, drugs, and Rock&Roll... I'd recommend it. One warning, although she is known for her cozies, this is NOT!!!
job. When an opportunity arises to write an article about the scene now, and then, she jumps at the chance. She uses the death of a "star" back then and a current death, to tie into the article. Someone wants her story stopped before it starts, as she might be getting to close.
Great book, and hopefully the start of a new "Boston noir" series. Has everything, sex, drugs, and Rock&Roll... I'd recommend it. One warning, although she is known for her cozies, this is NOT!!!
October 15, 2018
A time machine back to the Boston music scene of the 1980s, and a lovely meditation on how some friendships last and others don't, and some people can change while others can't.
October 22, 2017
World Enough
A Boston-based noir mystery
by Clea Simon
Severn House
Severn House Publishers
Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 01 Nov 2017
I am reviewing a copy of World Enough through Severn House and Netgalley:
The Boston club scene is a place for outcasts and misfits. Tara Winston’s belongs in this world and has been a part of it for twenty years. But now one of the old gang is dead, it looks as if he fell down the basement stairs at his home.
Tara’s journalistic instincts tells her there is something more to Frank’s death. She does not believe he just fell down the stairs, she thinks he was murdered. When she begins asking questions she begins uncovering some dark things about the club scene in its heyday. Beneath the heady, sexually charged atmosphere lurked something even darker. Another death occurred twenty years prior. Is Tara the next victim? Find out in World Enough.
Four out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
January 6, 2019
One critic called this bitter-sweet. It's more bitter than sweet. Not bitter in the sense of gross disappointment but a bitter taste. The lesson Tara, our intrepid reporter, learns is that truth is different for everyone. The corallary of which is you never know someone completely. Mysteries abound as Tara digs into her past when she was part of the music scene 20 years ago. The toggling from the present to the past worked well enough to act as a nice counterpoint. I found the story lagging especially at first. I kept thinking...get on with it. I know this reflects the unfolding of her article but it set me on edge. In the end, I enjoyed this novel but I want to get back to Blackie and Care and the other feline mysteries.
October 15, 2019
Call it 3 1/2, but I rounded down because I found it somewhat hard to follow all the characters who kept moving in and out of focus.
I liked the development of the main characters and the backdrop of '80s rock in Boston, although the descriptions of the music came across as rather generic. The contrast between the grit then and the gentrification of today was also well done.
I liked the development of the main characters and the backdrop of '80s rock in Boston, although the descriptions of the music came across as rather generic. The contrast between the grit then and the gentrification of today was also well done.
March 29, 2018
World Enough is a compelling mystery that takes the reader into the dark, smoky, drug-riddled clubs of the Boston music scene in the 1980s as Tara Winton revisits her past in order to solve a mysterious death. Tara is an endearingly imperfect character who, like the other habituees of the ‘80s rock scene filling out the book, grapples with middle age, the lost dreams of youth and a future that didn’t turn out as expected. Clea Simon is a gifted writer who weaves together past and present in a satisfying story that is rich with atmosphere and gritty, resilient characters who keep you on your toes wondering if they are really who they seem.
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December 15, 2017Noir is really a bit more gris
I was disappointed overall. It kept my interest to completion, but not the page turner I had hoped for. It might have more appeal if you are familiar with the 80's grunge/ garage band scene in Boston. It teeters on formulaic. Not a lot of depth.
I was disappointed overall. It kept my interest to completion, but not the page turner I had hoped for. It might have more appeal if you are familiar with the 80's grunge/ garage band scene in Boston. It teeters on formulaic. Not a lot of depth.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews