Rating: 
Summary: Spellbinding!!!
Review: "Let me tell you" says Jack Hammond at the very beginning of one of the most intriguing novels I have read in some time. And tell us he does. He says he is doing it because confession is supposed to be good for the soul.Jack's first confession involves his downfall from a prestigioius Atlanta law firm. He is approached by a beautiful woman who begs him to accept a pro bono representation of her boyfriend who is charged with a drug crime. At first he declines but the vision of the woman remains with him and he finally asks for permission from his firm to take on the case. Once permission was granted one thing leads to another and the grateful girlfriend winds up in Jack's bed for a night of lovemaking. The boyfriend is successfully defended and thanks his girlfriend for her efforts on his behalf by beating her to death. This time he gets a bargain basement lawyer who thinks the jury might have some sympathy for his client if the fact of the amorous relationship is brought out, so Jack is subpoenaed to a deposition and the story comes out. End of job in tony Atlanta law firm. Two years later...he is trolling the depths of the criminal justice system as the sole practitioner in Jack Hammond and Associates when he is notified that one of his former clients has died of a drug overdose. As Jack explores the cirsumstances of the death, things do not add up and he is inexorably drawn into a mystery which has many roads, but no easy endings. Another beautiful woman surfaces as he tries to unravel the facts behind the death. Powerful forces are at work to prevent both of them from finding the answers they seek and the story weaves together like a fine rug to a powerful ending. Reed Arvin is an outstanding writer with a keen ear for diologue and the ability to tell a story in such a way that you are sorry to see the pages getting fewer. The Last Goodbye was my first exposure to this writer. It will not be the last.
Rating:
Summary: 4 1/2 Stars...A Big Hello!
Review: "The Last Goodbye" is a wonderful big hello. Reed Arvin is a talented writer, depicting believable characters and realistic settings amidst important themes. The story follows a down-and-out lawyer who becomes part of a personal investigation into the death of a friend. In the past, Jack has sacrificed his career on the altar of passion and personal need, and once again he succumbs to the allure of a beautiful woman. Michele is a big star with a lowly past. When the past and the present collide in her life, murder and betrayal become the inevitable results. Shady characters abound, and Jack must fight his own demons to ride to the rescue. But is Michele a part of the subterfuge? The answer will have life-threatening consequences. Unlike Grisham's legal thrillers, Arvin's story is much heavier on character and philosophizing. In the vein of James Lee Burke and John D. MacDonald, Arvin gives us something to sink our teeth into. Every chapter contains scenes or snippets worth mulling over. You'll laugh, cringe, and respond emotionally to these characters and their struggles. Arvin has a history in the world of religious publishing. Justifiably so, he has shifted his formidable skills to a much larger realm. My one caveat: Somewhere along the way, he seems to have abandoned the redemptive value of story. Most will disagree with me, I'm sure. Don't get me wrong--I loved this book and the beauty of the narrative. But with Jack's romanticized angle on adultery and his bitter ventings against God, I couldn't help believing the story would end with some glimmer of a lesson learned, a hope rekindled. James Lee Burke is a master at this sort of thing: portraying life's grittiness while still holding to a reverent faith. Without a doubt, Reed Arvin has the same skills and insights, the same pathos and melancholy. In the darkness of the savage world he depicts, I hope he hasn't said his last goodbye to the very light which brought him to this point. That said, I will be anticipating his next novel. Great writing is a rare commodity, and Arvin proves he is one of the best around.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, gritty story -- well told
Review: As a budding author, Reed Arvin must be on Cloud Nine. The Vice President of Marketing for Arvin's publishing house, HarperCollins, says: "Reed Arvin knocks me out with just his second book." Pretty heady statement from your boss! It's rare for a new author to have such a grip on all phases of the human condition. Arvin deals with a lot of issues in THE LAST GOODBYE. He does such a good job at painting the underbelly of the legal system that I was surprised to find he's a musician-turned-author, not an attorney. His grasp of medical technology and corporate ethics shows either (1) meticulous research; (2) the innate ability to look at all sides of an ethical situation; or (3) a combination of numbers 1 and 2. In THE LAST GOODBYE, Arvin's main character, Jack Hammond, is a hotshot Atlanta attorney with a slight flaw in his character. He's a sucker for a damsel in distress. The need to rescue Violetta Ramirez, the girlfriend of a tough criminal overrides his common sense and good judgment. The case goes south. The girl winds up brutally murdered and Jack is out on the streets before he really knows what hit him. Fast-forward 2 years. Jack's life and career are in the toilet. He's defending penny ante crooks and eking out a living only because the clerk who hands out the criminal assignments is sweet on Jack's babe of a secretary, Blu. Hammond's still haunted by the memory of the murdered Violetta. He lives in a drabby apartment and drives a beat up Buick. He doesn't sleep well. Jack is thrust back into life and the fast lane when Doug Townsend, an old friend and recovering addict is found dead from an overdose. From the start, Jack smells a rat. Doug was recovering and reclaiming his life, not relapsing back into the world of drugs. Doug died from a needle overdose. Doug was mortified of needles. Mortified. The more Jack digs - through Doug's things and his personal computer -the more certain he becomes that (1) Doug didn't die by his own hand (2) he was obsessed with opera singer Michele Sonnier and (3) he was involved in some pretty serious corporate espionage. His search for the truth leads Jack into the highbrow world of opera, the Atlanta projects, and world of pharmaceutical research and development and the at-all-cost side of corporate espionage. I thought this book started slow, but after Jack decides to find Doug's killer(s), the story revs up to a supersonic finale that kept me turning pages until all the plot lines were resolved. If you like thrillers, this book is for you. It's not pretty and it doesn't have cookie cutter characters, but it is an insightful look at the complexities of our legal system, ethical issues surrounding pharmaceutical research and the process of who decides what patients receive experimental treatment for the ever-growing number of drug-resistant human maladies. Hollywood will love this book. Can't wait to see how they cast it. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Cross Grisham & Palmer to get this legal/med thriller !!
Review: A friend recommended we try Nashville musician/producer turned writer, Reed Arvin -- and what great fun was in store! His bestseller, "The Will", wasn't handy so we tried this, his second outing, and now see what the acclaim is all about. A gripping story, with both legal and medical suspense (much of the book reminded us of the fine plots of Michael Palmer), found us turning pages to find out who did what and who will win in the end!
The storyline is a bit complex to summarize, but the gist of it is that struggling young lawyer Jack Hammond, after a brilliant start with a big wealthy law firm, now runs his own one-man shop after woman trouble. He toils as a public defender, groveling for what few cases get sent his way, mostly guilty parties needing plea bargaining or just sense talked into them as they take the stand for drugs, theft, assault, etc. When good friend Doug Townsend is killed ostensibly by an overdose, Jack goes hunting for the real story -- and is soon immersed in the life of Black opera star Michele Sonnier and her millionaire husband who is about to IPO his successful drug company. Apparently not learning from experience, Jack beds Sonnier en route to discovering some ugly intentions of her husband amid the subsidized housing tenements of the "Glen" and its thug overlords. The suspense comes from Jack's juggling the hunt for the real truth with his affair with Michele and his desire to stop her husband's scary plans. A bittersweet ending ties up everything nicely, but not before we're kept up late sweating out all the paths this one might entwine.
Arvin seems to have the formula for winning writing -- characters we tend to care about, a complex plot pitting good vs. evil in a manner that builds intense suspense, and enough cogent social commentary to add a dollop of provocative intellectualism to his mix of entertaining story telling! Wow! Can't wait to find a copy of his other novel!
Rating: 
Summary: I'll be back
Review: A new hero, who keeps it interesting, will see me again. A passable plot, with some new viewpoints, make it worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: takes on a lot and achieves it
Review: After seeing several press reviews declaring Reed Arvin the NEXT BIG THING (don't ya hate that?) I finally broke down and bought this book. Not to gush, but I can't recall reading something that took on so many layers in a straightforward page-turner. It's like a nice buffet when you expect a speedy snack. There's enough twists and turns to keep you guessing - the stock scam gave me whiplash - but there's also heart and soul. Best of all, the people were so real to me at the end I was talking back to the book. (...)
Rating:
Summary: Love and Lust can be Mighty Dangerous
Review: Atlanta lawyer Jack Hammond had it all, great digs, great wheels, made the great big bucks. But he fell for a dame, the beautiful Violeta Ramirez, girlfriend of a drug dealing client who, as a result of their tryst, was brutally beaten to death by said drug dealer. And then Jack was fired. Two years later he's doing court appointed work keeping the the disaffected and disadvantaged out of jail. Gone are the great digs. The great wheels have turned into a beat up Buick. Then he hears of college buddy Doug Townsend's death by drug overdose. Jack's suspicious, as Doug, who had a fear of needles, had been found with one in his arm. Add that to the fact that he had cleaned up his act and Jack suspects murder. He gets a hold of Doug's laptop and with the help of a hacker named Nightmare, manages to get at the stuff on the hard drive. It seems Doug had been tracking the deaths of some hepatitis C patients who had been enrolled in an experimental drug trial. Doug had also been obsessed with the gorgeous African American opera diva named Michele Sonnier, who just happens to be married to "Charles Hundred-Million-Dollar Ralston," a pharmaceutical company executive with his own Hep C drug. Jack finds himself falling for Michele and that leads him into an exploration of her unknown past, which is at odds with her current life as an opera star and trophy wife. And as he once again gets carried away by lust, he slowly begins to suspect that all is not as it seems and that the woman he has fallen for may have secrets that can kill. Mr. Arvin has written a nail-biting story, full of edge of the seat suspense that had me turning the pages well into the night. He takes on the issues involving who gets experimental drugs, interracial relationships, poverty and power in a book that not only thrills, but makes you think.
Rating:
Summary: One Heck of a Darned Good Book!
Review: Atlanta lawyer Jack Hammond once had it all, now it's all gone. He slept with a client's girlfriend, got the client off and the scumbag beat the dame to death and Jack lost his job and his reputation. Two years later he has a small practice defending pushers, hookers, down on their luck and just plain broke clients and he learns that his friend Doug Townsend, a computer hacker and former junkie, has been found dead. The cops write it off as an overdose, but Jack knows Doug had kicked and was clean, so he sets out to do some serious snooping. In Doug's apartment he finds a sort of shrine to Opera Star Michele Sonnier and an image of a church made out of photos of only her eyes. It looks like Doug may have had a few loose screws. Michele is married to bazillionare, Charles Ralston, CEO of Horizon Pharmaceuticals and he's about to take his corporation public and make still another bazillion. Jack, who one would think has a few loose screws himself, has apparently forgotten how much trouble he got into the last time he mixed work and women. He seeks out Michele, finds out that she'd had and given up a child before her marriage and had a generally rotten childhood. This is info her husband and adoring fans know nothing about. Townsend had been helping Michele look for her daughter, now he's dead and Jack's involvement with Michele may very well get him dead as well. I could go on and on about this Chandleresqe story that I simply adored, because the story goes on, keeping the reader hooked and guessing as Jack chases all over Atlanta for clues and answers, but I'll stop here with just this parting comment, this is on heck of a darned good book!
Rating:
Summary: Supposedly a thriller... disappointing...
Review: Attorney Jack Hammond is a good defender, with a lot of heart, but his list of clients is low, and his bankbook is even lower, since he left a prestigious law firm. The death of long-time, college friend Doug Townsend is viewed by Jack as a murder paralleled to the police report of a 'suicide'. Doug's body is found with a needle in one arm, and the autopsy reports that he died from an O/D of fenatyl. Jack knows different as his friend had been 'sober' for many years, and Doug never followed the fenatyl path. Hammond's investigation leads him to 'hacker' Nightmare (a favorable character to the story), to opera diva Michele Sonnier - her splendor on stage, and her murky past neither of which stops Jack from falling in love with her. Michele is also married to pharmaceutical mogul Charles Ralston, founder of Horizn Pharmaceuticals, conspirator with a trial drug (tested on humans which results in death) for hepatitis C. Yes, The Last Goodbye has a good premise and a few good characters, but Arvin's development of both of the latter is very weak. Narrated by protagonist Jack Hammond, the author delivers very weak dialog, unnecessary flowered prose to cover pages and move the story from A to Z, slooooowly, diverting from the original path of Doug's death, creating a thought process to the reader of 'where is this story going and when will it end?!' A farcical, way-out-there, disappointing ending, and overall too much rhetoric. Recommend instead: DYING GOOD by Allan George Cole, and SHADOWS IN THE DARKNESS by Elaine Cunningham.
Rating:
Summary: In need of stern subeditor
Review: Disclosure: I was sent this book by Harper Collins to review for free, most likely as I happen to have a "Top 1000 reviewer" mark by my name. I'd never heard of Reed Arvin, and were it not for Harper Collins' largesse, there is no way on Earth I would have come to be reading this book. Observation: as at the date of writing, there are 24 reviews posted of this novel, 15 of which (including the first eleven by date) are posted by Amazon Top 1000 Reviewers. Given that there are something like half a million Amazon customer reviewers, for a second novel by a largely unknown author, this strikes me as either an extraodinary co-incidence, or cogent evidence that these Top 1000 reviewers know something the rest of the world doesn't. Perchance they, too, only came to be reading because Harper Collins sent them the book? I suspect I'm off HarperCollins' free books mailing list for noting this, especially if I'm wrong, but there you go - sometimes you bite the hand that feeds. As for the book itself, well, it's not that The Last Goodbye a bad book - it isn't. It's just that it really isn't that *good*. Arvin tries to do too much with too little material. This is five books' worth of ideas fighting for dominance in a single story: there's gitty urban realism (for which read drugs, race, incest etc.); gumshoe PI noir; evil pharmaceutical company hi-jinks and japery; a new-economy techie computer-hacker angle, Grisham-esque courtroom drama, operatic exposition and theatrical intrigue and last but not least dotcom era IPO mania (complete with corporate jets) elbowing each other to get to what is really a pretty short and understaffed bar. So it was always going to end up in a fight, and Arvin was alsway going to be the one needing to be taken away to get his face fixed up. There are other technical issues. The writing is not as disciplined as it could be (though Arvin is certainly funny at times). Dialogue is frequently contrived. Even simple parts of the exposition are extremely implausible (e.g. how Sonnier esacaped the slums to become Opera singing trophy wife of coporate high-flier; how sleazy gumshoe Jack came to know her and win her confidence, why Jack really gives a damn about any of this in the first place). The onward transport of the plot is regularly waylaid while Arvin is obliged to keep all the different plates he has set off spinning on their sticks. All of the above boils down, I think, to the lack of a proper editor. Someone needed to be firm and say, "Reed, just calm down. You have some great ideas. Save some of them for next time." Lastly, underneath this superstructure there's no real metaphorical scheme - although as mentioned above as presented, there's no room for it anyway. What you see is what you get - it's basically an everything-and-kitchen-sink-thrown-in yarn. To my mind Arvin would have been better jettisoning half his hobby horses and writing a tight thriller with some sort of sophisticated figuarative underlay. It's not a bad read by any means - Arvin sets up his protagonist as an engaging and loveable rogue, but this is not destined for any best seller lists anytime soon (despite Harper Collins' best efforts to ensure the contrary!) Olly Buxton
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