Four Corners of Night | 
| Author: Craig Holden
Creator: Terrence Mann
Publisher: Random House Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 1866813
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio Cassette
Number Of Items: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 055352609X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780553526097
ASIN: 055352609X
Publication Date: December 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Absolute Mint Condition. Never used, Gift quality. Non-Smoking Home. See my other listings to save on shipping! (area 31)
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The protagonists of Craig Holden's poetic, intricate, and challenging novels are complex individuals whose many dimensions are revealed so painstakingly that when their deepest secrets are finally uncovered, the reader is likely to whisper a satisfying "aha!" and experience a closure that is secondary to the solution of the mysteries at the heart of the plot. Like his previous novels, this one is a meditation on friendship, love, and the meaning of family, as two men, both of them police detectives, undertake a search for a missing teenager. Mack and Bank have been down this route before--7 years ago, when Bank's own daughter disappeared in a case still marked "unsolved" in the police files of the unnamed Midwest city where the novel is set. The parallels between her disappearance and Tamara Shipley's abduction aren't immediately obvious, but first Mack and then Bank begin to suspect a connection. As the search for Tamara bolsters the link between a murdered Catholic priest who knew her family and a shadowy organization called the Sisters of Compassion, which operates a kind of underground railroad for young abuse victims, evidence points to a hidden motive for what might not have been a kidnapping after all. And when Mack's own difficult teenage daughter goes missing, his search for Naomi uncovers even more disturbing connections between Tamara Shipley's disappearance and the decade-old abduction of his partner's child. The denouement doesn't wrap up all the loose ends--that's not Holden's style. In fact, it raises more questions than it answers. But those questions, and the characters who pose them, will linger in the reader's mind long after the details of the plot have faded from memory. --Jane Adams
Product Description
In his critically acclaimed novels The River Sorrow and The Last Sanctuary, Craig Holden forged a powerful, poetic vision of the American heartland. Now the writer The New York Times calls "astonishing" returns to this haunting landscape in his newest work. At once a suspenseful search for the truth in a teenage girl's abduction and a multilayered rumination on family, love, and friendship, Four Corners of Night explores bold new terrain in literary suspense fiction.
It's 9:00 A.M. in an unnamed Midwestern city. Bank Arbaugh and Mack Steiner have just come off a typical night shift--patrolling the city, scaring off prostitutes, shaking up the usual suspects. Sitting in Denny's, waiting for bacon and eggs, they get a call over the radio: A teenage girl is missing. With a glance, the two cops--best friends since childhood, as close as brothers-- know their lives have shifted off balance, because seven years before, Bank's own daughter went missing and has not been found to this day.
Two parallel stories: two girls from opposite sides of town, seven years separating them. As evidence mounts, one case begins to illuminate the other, until finally, the inevitable conclusion is revealed. Craig Holden takes us on a harrowing journey into the night, and exposes not only the heart of a tattered American city, but also of two men whose lives are intertwined in loss, envy, and love.
Stunning, haunting, and unforgettable, Four Corners of Night is a book that makes us think about friendship, the stuff of heroism, and the meaning of truth. Holden stops at nothing to ask the question: To what lengths will we go to overlook what we don't want to see?
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
A twelve-year-old girl is snatched from the street where she lives. Andfor two cops, Mack Steiner and Bank Arbaugh -- partners, best friends,fathers themselves -- the girl's disappearance will hurtle them backthrough layers of friendship, memory, and loss. Because seven yearsbefore, Bank's own daughter vanished without a trace. And now, as policedescend on the small midwestern city, as witnesses are grilled andevidence mounts, one case begins to illuminate the other. And for twomen, a harrowing journey has begun -- one that will test their long,complicated friendship and uncover a chilling truth about two missinggirls, two shattered families, and at least one heartbreaking lie.
"Powerful, lyrical... Holden gracefully sustains narrative tension...Aside from the astonishing ending, what makes Holden's latest worknoteworthy is the depth of his characterizations and the assurednesswith which he handles chronological leaps to develop parallel plots andsubplots. Holden is an accomplished storyteller who delves deeperbeneath the surface with each successive book."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY"Four Corners of Night is more than just your father's policeprocedural. It's more than just a buddy story. Craig Holden turns boththese scenarios inside out with his thought-provoking and sophisticatedstory... with characters so real you can almost touch them."
THE DENVER POST "Few writers are able to balance the plot of a mystery the way Holdencan: slowing down to allow his characters to develop, then picking upthe pace of the action until it leaves us breathless."
DETROIT FREE PRESS
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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 excellent as an abridged book on tape! October 19, 2006
There are many complaints by fellow reviewers about the slow pace that the book unfolded. It sounds like the abridged book on tape was just the ticket. Usually, I hate abridgements because so much is cut out and the story gets confusing. In this case, the story flowed well and it was quite compelling.
The reader, Terrence Mann, did a great job of creating different characters with his voice and with helping the tension level to spike and release.
I give this audio version an A.
 Ugh! Utter crap... August 31, 2005
This book was neither compelling nor interesting. I couldn't have been moved to care one tiny little bit for any of the characters if the author were personally driving a D9 cat pushing me toward a giant flaming pit of empathy. The character descriptions (which were crucial for setting the atmosphere of the book and by extension the plot) were so dimensionless I had to consult my college physics text to reassure myself I wouldn't be sucked into some accidentally formed black hole. The story? Some girl or two get kidnapped, sort of, and two detectives try to find them, sort of. Despite first impressions to the contrary, it actually took about a third of the book before the plot to appear. Even then, the addition of this limp noodle of a story did little to urge the reader ever onward to some fuzzy shapeless conclusion. What passed for a plot twist was so tortuously unwound that I failed entirely to care one way or the other about it when it was painfully chalk outlined. Don't read this book unless you tend to miss your train or bus stop because the shampoo bottle labels you usually read are so absorbing.
 Agrre With Suzzinclaremont January 21, 2005
I'll chime in and agree with Suzzinclaremont's review. However, I could only make it through about the 1st 120 or so pages. I found the narrator's first person style boring, as well as his descriptions of Bank, who really seems to be the main character. Of course, this is a matter of taste. I generally don't like books written in this style, which are short on dialogue and long on narrative descriptions.
Damn, but this book was great! June 26, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was the first book I've ever read by Holden, and it was an immense pleasure. It's a story of two cops, both flawed in their own different ways, tracking down a missing child. The twist is that one of the cops had his own child disappear years earlier. The characters in this book are so human, so real, so utterly believable...and the prose is just a dream. Holden writes like a poet, with supreme skill and depth. If you enjoy the literary suspense thrillers of folks like James Lee Burke and the better works of Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos, you'll get a kick out of this one. It's got action, it's got heart, and it's a just a damn good read.
DARK CORNERS November 29, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
After the less than compelling LAST SANCTUARY, Holden returns to the territory he did so well in THE RIVER SORROW. The relationship between our two protagonists here is painstakingly drawn, and evokes feelings of anger, sorrow, and love. The parallelisms between the disappearance of Bank's daughter and the apparent abduction of Tamara are fascinating to unfold. The use of the time shifts is intriguing, although at times a little confusing. But the story is so captivating, you find yourself spellbound by Holden's web. While I can't agree with Sarah's actions, I can understand her motivation. There's always an underlying feeling of what's really going on here that helps the novel move toward it's inevitable climax. A very good psychological thriller.
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