What do you think?
Rate this book
The Devil's Backbone
Two sisters. One murder. And a woman who will cross the line to uncover a killer's secrets.
Though they are sisters, Kit and Jenny could not be more different. Jenny is the dutiful daughter, following in her father's footsteps to become a Texas cop. Now working as a detective in the Austin Police Department, Jenny is surprised when she sees a crime report with her sister's name on it.
Kit is the rebellious one, hiding from her past. She's trying to escape the fallout of her mother's death, and the gravitational pull of her father's expectations. Working as a stripper, Kit is living in a nighttime world of pseudonyms and lies. And she's begun to notice some new characters hanging around the club.
Suddenly, one sister's murder leads to the other's investigation of it, and brings her into a world more deadly than she can imagine. As the truth unfolds, one sister begins to question everything---even her own sanity---and the role she might have played in this lethal dance. The Devil's Backbone showcases Kim Wozencraft at her a novelist whose power to shock and compel you is unsurpassed.
Though they are sisters, Kit and Jenny could not be more different. Jenny is the dutiful daughter, following in her father's footsteps to become a Texas cop. Now working as a detective in the Austin Police Department, Jenny is surprised when she sees a crime report with her sister's name on it.
Kit is the rebellious one, hiding from her past. She's trying to escape the fallout of her mother's death, and the gravitational pull of her father's expectations. Working as a stripper, Kit is living in a nighttime world of pseudonyms and lies. And she's begun to notice some new characters hanging around the club.
Suddenly, one sister's murder leads to the other's investigation of it, and brings her into a world more deadly than she can imagine. As the truth unfolds, one sister begins to question everything---even her own sanity---and the role she might have played in this lethal dance. The Devil's Backbone showcases Kim Wozencraft at her a novelist whose power to shock and compel you is unsurpassed.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published September 5, 2006
3 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Kim Wozencraft
20 books38 followersKIM WOZENCRAFT’S latest novel is NEGLECT, from Arcade/Simon and Schuster. Wozencraft is the author of the internationally best-selling novel Rush, which was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jennifer Jason Leigh. Neglect is her sixth novel.
Her work has appeared in The Best American Essays, Texas Monthly, the Los Angeles Times, and numerous literary magazines and anthologies. She was executive editor at Prison Life magazine and has written for HBO Films. Kim holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University and lives in the Hudson Valley region of New York, where she raised three children. She currently teaches English literature and writing courses at SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Ulster.
Her work has appeared in The Best American Essays, Texas Monthly, the Los Angeles Times, and numerous literary magazines and anthologies. She was executive editor at Prison Life magazine and has written for HBO Films. Kim holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University and lives in the Hudson Valley region of New York, where she raised three children. She currently teaches English literature and writing courses at SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Ulster.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 13, 2009
great mystery. it kept me guessing till the end. i read it in one sitting, basically. i wonder whether it's common nowadays for mysteries written by/centered around women to use trauma as a pivotal idea. i wonder whether it's common for mysteries written by men, too! maybe some mystery readers can tell me. as always with these things, my feelings are torn: on the one hand it pleases me to see that the language of trauma and PTSD, not to mention the events that often lead to trauma, are getting such a wide hearing. on the other, i don't like to see this intensely complex and puzzling psychological reality portrayed over-simply. actually this book is not too guilty of this, especially compared to other examples in the mystery genre.
May 19, 2020
I'm not sure any of Kim Wozencraft's novels can top her biography: a narcotic informant who ended up becoming a junkie and subsequently having a long stay in jail. But! The Devil's Backbone is a fine novel, driven by a hypnotic, racing hard boiled prose that rockets the reader from incident to incident. In fact, it rockets one right past a few cliched plot points and reveals that the well-read reader might guess around the one third mark, but this novel is so firmly rooted in character that I decided to forgive the few slight spots and just go with it. I'm glad I did. There weren't really any surprises, but Wozencraft's style is well-crafted, featuring long, drifting sentences that sweep you up and then shorten to terse, truncated machine gun prose that batters you. It's affective.
The Devil's Backbone is not a classic of the genre, but it's certainly worth checking out. It's a shame she hasn't published since 2006.
The Devil's Backbone is not a classic of the genre, but it's certainly worth checking out. It's a shame she hasn't published since 2006.
January 18, 2024
It was a good story, but there were a lot of inconsistencies. 1. In the beginning, it said Kit did Karate, which is Japanese. However, later on, when going to the dojang, the author describes everything from Korean martial arts, which is Taekowndo. 2. Also, it is inconsistent as to when he mom got sick and died, with Kit being different ages for the event at different points of the book. 3. There is a scene where she puts a paper for a prescription in her purse, but after one paragraph or so she suddenly is folding it up and putting it in her pocket. It did not feel well edited. There was potential for something great, but the inconsistencies really dropped it down.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2021
"Bad" sister Kit is an exotic dancer, strung out, drunk, and prone to violence and blackouts. Good sister Jenny has followed Texas ranger dad's footsteps into a law enforcement career and is engaged to a fellow officer. When Jenny is murdered Kit starts to clean up her act and confront her past so that she can find out what happened. Told from Kit's jittery, paranoid perspective so suspicion keeps shifting.
November 1, 2021
Super easy, quick read.
If you’re a thinker while you read, you’ll figure it out pretty quick. If you just sit back and turn off your brain to relax, you’ll be in suspense till the end probably. I’d like a fiction book to contain a new theme, I think. They’ve all been done before.
If you’re a thinker while you read, you’ll figure it out pretty quick. If you just sit back and turn off your brain to relax, you’ll be in suspense till the end probably. I’d like a fiction book to contain a new theme, I think. They’ve all been done before.
July 15, 2019
Headline
Have to put in 20 words or more or Amazon won’t accept my five-star rating so I’m typing until it
Have to put in 20 words or more or Amazon won’t accept my five-star rating so I’m typing until it
April 20, 2020
Good twist... had me guessing for quite a bit of the book
February 15, 2013
So the influence of my best friend continues as I read crime-suspense books simultaneously. I remember buying this with her because we love hunting books on sale. She saw the book and told me that the book looks promising based on its description. She was not planning to buy it though but I insisted because same with Suspicious Origin, sisters were involved so I still purchased it for us and because it only costs less than a hundred bucks.
As I read the book, I learned that it was about a woman named Kit whose father is a Ranger and her sister is a cop. Here comes the irony, she was involved in a crime and didn't bother telling her family because of the fear that her family might discover her job until her sister was also involved in a crime. She was murdered, to be precise.
Actually the story was great to begin with. It has a lot of different and very interesting characters. There are also a lot of different twists that add up to the suspense and mystery of the story line. Every character and event was vital so that you can understand the whole plot. I really appreciate that but the negative side was also very easy to pinpoint.
First is Kit's memory lapses. I understand that she had gone through traumatizing experiences but I really don't see the use of that in the story. At first, to tell you the truth, it tickled my curiosity that I came up with a lot of conclusions about the story but as I went towards the end, I realized its uselessness. It actually made me confused and somewhat pissed of at Kit's character. I wish it was explained thoroughly to the readers to avoid vagueness.
Second is that as you go through the climax, the story was like a mixed bowl of different food that you cannot distinguish the flavors. There were numerous key points given that were not, like I said, explained well that I think were useless and should be removed.
Third, I got sort of disappointed with the ending. Romance actually drives the story to another level so I think it lacks in that department. Yes, I was satisfied with the events but I think it should have ended differently. The energy went really low and I want something more from it because the story started really strong. The author actually showed a little love between two characters but I was dismayed when she didn't pushed through with it.
Fourth, I really wanted to know who assaulted Kit and if it was related to her sister's murder even the threats that she received beforehand. There were so many loopholes that were not explained well. Maybe for some of you who have read this, you have not notice such but I did that's why this questions haunt me at night.
That's it then! Hope you understood my points.
As I read the book, I learned that it was about a woman named Kit whose father is a Ranger and her sister is a cop. Here comes the irony, she was involved in a crime and didn't bother telling her family because of the fear that her family might discover her job until her sister was also involved in a crime. She was murdered, to be precise.
Actually the story was great to begin with. It has a lot of different and very interesting characters. There are also a lot of different twists that add up to the suspense and mystery of the story line. Every character and event was vital so that you can understand the whole plot. I really appreciate that but the negative side was also very easy to pinpoint.
First is Kit's memory lapses. I understand that she had gone through traumatizing experiences but I really don't see the use of that in the story. At first, to tell you the truth, it tickled my curiosity that I came up with a lot of conclusions about the story but as I went towards the end, I realized its uselessness. It actually made me confused and somewhat pissed of at Kit's character. I wish it was explained thoroughly to the readers to avoid vagueness.
Second is that as you go through the climax, the story was like a mixed bowl of different food that you cannot distinguish the flavors. There were numerous key points given that were not, like I said, explained well that I think were useless and should be removed.
Third, I got sort of disappointed with the ending. Romance actually drives the story to another level so I think it lacks in that department. Yes, I was satisfied with the events but I think it should have ended differently. The energy went really low and I want something more from it because the story started really strong. The author actually showed a little love between two characters but I was dismayed when she didn't pushed through with it.
Fourth, I really wanted to know who assaulted Kit and if it was related to her sister's murder even the threats that she received beforehand. There were so many loopholes that were not explained well. Maybe for some of you who have read this, you have not notice such but I did that's why this questions haunt me at night.
That's it then! Hope you understood my points.
February 26, 2017
10/10 goes to the plot that drove me to finish this.
Full review up on https://retellingofwonders.wordpress....
Full review up on https://retellingofwonders.wordpress....
February 9, 2016
Wanted, by Kim Wozencraft was a much more exciting book. However, Wozencraft's books are unique because of her characters. The dialogue and thoughts of prison inmates (Wanted), strippers, and other non-mainstream characters are raw and gutsy. She doesn't write dainty books!
June 19, 2011
I thought is was a pretty good read.
July 25, 2011
Just a good suspenseful read. I don't know if I was disappointed with the ending or not but it was definitely sad!
July 11, 2012
This was a very easy read with just a few characters. It was suspenseful without being confusing and having to really "think" about the story line.
June 3, 2013
Absolutely fascinating history. Read it after traveling the Natchez Trace Parkway. One stretch of land was witness to so much of the life of American settlers. Worth a reread, too.
September 6, 2011
Eh. Decent, but too predictable.
October 28, 2011
i loved it
June 15, 2014
everymans rules of scientific living
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews