Rating: 
Summary: A Good Cure
Review: I read most of this book while I was up most of the night with the a bit of a flu. If you want to help get through a long night it was a good companion. I will not review the plot as many others have done so. I measure a mystery by the characters that one meets, the excitement the plot generates and the ending. This effort gets 2 out of 3. There are wonderful characters such as Blu the beautiful secretary and Sammy Liston( a wonderful name) who move the story along. Also the portrait of Pope and his role in the housing development was terrific. Arvin also makes an effort to have some serious thoughts. There are several pages of wonderful writing in this effort. The two criticisms were a little too much foreshadowing and the ending just was not up to the rest of the story. I would go on about that but would not want to ruin the book for others. My only comment it reminded me of one of my favorite movies but not done as well.
Rating: 
Summary: VERY IMPRESSIVE NOVEL!!!
Review: I was clearly blown away by this story! "THE LAST GOODBYE," by super-talented writer Reed Arvin is one book you do not want to miss! Take my word for it. This book is so good the pages actually seem to turn themselves! I started this novel the instant Marie Elena Martinez from Harper Collins sent it to me and I was captivated with this story from the first page. My attention was focused entirely on each and every word as I read them. I finished the story by late the next afternoon. IT WAS THAT INTRESTING! I have never been that engrossed with a story before... and I read plenty of books on a weekly and monthly basis! The characters in "The Last Goodbye," are well-developed and very believable, the dialogue very exciting causing me to hang on to every word and the plot... a real page turner to be sure! I absolutely love the writing-style of this new writer, so much in fact, I just ordered his first novel, "THE WILL." I can't wait until it arrives in the mail! THE LAST GOODBYE by REED ARVIN gets my Highest Recommendation!
Rating:
Summary: marvelous mystery with superior writing
Review: I won't recap the plot here, since everyone does that. I bought the book because of the New York Times rave, which was well deserved. The plot is ingenious, the writing is superior, and I loved the detail about Atlanta's class structure. A great high-tech angle about two companies racing to cure hepatitis C, too. I highly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: If they had a "six star" rating, I've give it to this book.
Review: I write thrillers, I chain-read thrillers and believe what I say, "The Last Goodbye" is one of the top three or four I've ever read. Arvin has an exceptional grasp of characterization, pacing and plot. His dialogue rings true and the story will suck you in, guaranteed. This novel will make an extraordinary movie. Buy this book! You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: A must-read - incredibly intelligent novel - wowser .....
Review: I'm not sure what's more amazing - the story of TLG itself or how Arvin has re-created himself since The Will. Not that The Will lacked anything, TLG creates a new slant on writing intelligent, edge-of-your-couch reading.
Point being: Arvin has not simply created another story for Henry Matthews from The Will. The creation of Jack Hammond shows Arvin's way of approaching life, mystery and thinking from a totally separate point of view - which I think is nothing short of brilliant. Excellent reading. If you're not a fan of Arvin's, you will be soon ......
Rating:
Summary: strong urban noir
Review: In the Buckhead law offices of Carthy, Williams, and Douglas, Violeta Ramirez weeps as Atlanta attorney Jack Hammond represents her drug dealing boyfriend Caliz held in the Fulton County jail. Jack is attracted to his female client, but hates her arrogant lover. Nothing goes right on this case in which Jack uses his wrong head to think with as Violeta and his legal career both end up dead. Two years later, Jack's clients are beneath the lowest rung of the criminal food chain. However, though he barely ekes out a living, Jack investigates the suspicious death of old friend Doug Townsend. Hacker pal breaks into Doug's computer files and finds certain important documents dealing with the deaths of hepatitis C patients involved in an experimental drug trial. Doug also obsesses over African-American opera singer, which Jack understands as he takes one look at her picture and fixates too. Still Jack keeps digging with his only help coming from the dregs that society drops as statistical outliers outside the numbers that prove the economy is improving. In spite of the protagonist's profession, the powerful THE LAST GOODBYE is an investigative tale that is oceans away from a legal thriller. Anyone who thinks otherwise don't know Jack is a gloomy in the dumps soul still wondering how far one can fall, but not grasping the physics of life that he can drop even further as shown by his investigative team. The story line is filled with sarcastic side comments mostly by Jack who is trying to redeem himself with this case. Fans of urban noir tales will appreciate this strong trek down the mean streets of Atlanta. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: A MESMERIZING THRILLER COMPELLINGLY TOLD
Review: Is it possible for a tension propelled, can't-stop-reading-it thriller to also be beautiful. In the case of Reed Arvin's second novel the answer is a resounding yes. For "The Last Goodbye" is not only an up to date mystery bursting with sex, violence, genetic research, racism, and other murky machinations but it is a deftly painted portrait of a city, Atlanta, from its prison-like public housing project to the upscale avenues where commerce and corruption take place. Arvin sees this city with an artist's eye: "The natural beauty of the place somehow persists; its breezes are still sweet, its pines slender and tall, its honeysuckle fragrant. Cast in that gentle glow, the city willingly accepts its most treasured illusions. And what happens in a city can happen in a pair of human souls." From prose rich in poetic reference this gifted writer immediately segues to the city's underbelly with vivid descriptions of both the under- and over-privileged as his intriguing story unfolds. Jack Hammond was once an attorney with a top flight Atlanta law firm. An up and comer, no doubt, until he made one large mistake. As a result he's booted from the firm and now makes his living as a court appointed attorney working out of a dingy downtown office overseen by the gorgeous fashion magazine loving Blu. "Nearly devoid" of skills save for her physical appearance she receiving a barely living wage. Another compatriot is Sammy Liston, the clerk who sends cases his way. Sammy's largesse is due in large part to his unreturned passion for Blu. Doug Townsend was once a friend, and a good one. Once is the operative word here because Townsend, a former addict, has been found dead. Problem is he was found with a needle in his arm, and he had a phobic fear of needles. Hammond is convinced that his friend was murdered, but why? Much of Townsend's dreary life had been spent in front of a flickering computer screen - he had been a hacker. Convinced that the secret to his friend's death can be found in that computer, Townsend enlists the help of a concave chested scarecrow dubbed Nightmare to unlock Townsend's computer. More than secrets are unlocked. The trail leads to a beautiful opera star - African-American Michele Sonnier by whom Townsend had evidently become obsessed. Further, Sonnier is married to a high powered black businessman, the CEO of Horizn Pharmaceuticals. Townsend's recent hacking activities tie him with that company. Before long Hammond has good reason to fear for his life. But, perhaps he is too blind to see that as he has become infatuated with the irresistible singer. She has a tortured past; he has a dark past. The question is do either of them have a future. Sure to establish Reed Arvin in the top rank of thriller writers "The Last Goodbye" is a mesmerizing tale compellingly told.
- Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointingly ordinary
Review: Isn't the pleasure a reader derives from a novel supposed to increase as the plot unfolds? THE LAST GOODBYE is unusual in that my interest steadily waned as I turned the pages. By the end, I was pretty much indifferent to the hero and the outcome. Jack Hammond is a disgraced Atlanta lawyer reduced to acting as public defender for the urban scum hauled into court on drug and petty theft charges. (Hammond, who's a closet romantic with a weakness for damsels in distress, was summarily dropped from the roster of a high-powered law firm two years before after sleeping with a client's girlfriend.) When Jack learns that Doug, a down-and-almost-out friend with a substance abuse problem, apparently overdosed on an injectable drug, he realizes that something is wrong with the picture. Doug had a paranoid fear of needles. Was it foul play? Hammond subsequently discovers that his old pal was a computer hacker extraordinaire, and that he had an obsession with the gorgeous Michele Sonnier, a troubled young woman from the Atlanta ghetto turned brilliant and wildly successful opera singer married to Charles Ralston, the philanthropic and much revered head of Horizn Pharmaceuticals. Once Horizn debuts in the plot, and considering activist hand-wringing over the greed of the evil drug companies, the reader suspects where the storyline is going - and so it does. It's not that THE LAST GOODBYE is awful. Why, even as recently as yesterday, it provided welcome distraction during the boring bits of a professional seminar I had to attend. But, for me, the characters never became real or garnered much sympathy. Hammond is supposed to be a lawyer, but he acts throughout like a private-eye wannabe; he never becomes sufficiently convincing as either. Minor characters that should have added zest to the story - Jack's Dumb Blonde secretary Blu and the antisocial computer outlaw Nightmare - don't really. Hammond's own preoccupation with the vulnerable Michele is torpid, and the affair slows the action down. Indeed, the final reckoning for the Bad Guys has all the knuckle-biting tension of a computer-enabled stock purchase. Worst of all for my overall opinion of the book, there are no twists clever and/or unsuspected enough to make me pause in admiration. THE LAST GOODBYE is one of a multitude of similarly average potboilers that'll crowd the shelves of the brick-and-mortar booksellers, and which will ultimately end up on the discount tables of the clearance stores found in the outlet malls. Wait for its appearance at the latter and you'll only need to spend a couple bucks.
Rating:
Summary: a great adventure!
Review: Jack Hammond tells of how it all began when Violeta Ramirez came to plead for her drug dealing boyfriend. Smitten, Jack crosses the line between client & counselor. After handily winning Miguel Caliz's freedom, the ungrateful felon promptly uses it to beat to death the beautiful & faithless Violeta. Naturally, after Jack is subpoenaed as a witness in this tawdry trial, his high-flying legal career crashes & burns. Two years later, he has remade his life, working out of his own law office, taking all the court appointed cases Sammy Liston, clerk to Judge Thomas Odom, sends his way, defending the dregs of Atlanta. Until his old college friend, Doug Townsend, is found dead of an overdose. The police don't care that Doug had been clean & sober for months, & tag it as a suicide. Except Jack knows his friend had a phobia about needles. When Jack finds a drawer in Doug's desk filled with plane tickets all paid for in cash, a computer he can't get into, & programs for operas in which one singer always stars, Jack thinks he is setting out to clear his friend's name. What he discovers is the world of opera & a luminous woman with much to hide, foul play between rival biotech companies out to find a cure for Hepatitis C, & a mother in search of her daughter. Rebeccasreads highly recommends THE LAST GOODBYE as a multi-layered story, rich with the exotic scenery & history of Atlanta; dastardly deeds & satisfying redemption. It is lyrically written & filled with characters who will linger long in your memory, such as Nightmare, Michele Sonnier, Rabbit, Blu McClendon, Sammy Liston, & especially Jack Hammond.
Rating:
Summary: A Cautionary Tale
Review: Lawyer Jack Hammond cannot shake a need to help ethnic beauties in distress. He had derailed his chance to rise in the legal world of property and contracts by going way over the line separating lawyer and clients in his dealings with an alluring Latin beauty. The prestigious law firm that had employed him as a fledgling lawyer could not tolerate the negative press, when she turned up dead and her past was revealed. Now Jack is forced to violate his law professor's best advice: "Avoid criminal law like the plague." He is reduced to being a court appointed attorney for all sorts of low-life's engaged in drugs and petty crime. Jack gets a call from the judge's clerk that a client, Doug Townsend, old college friend and rehabilitated meth user, has turned up dead from an apparent overdose. A search of Doug's meager apartment reveals some real surprises. He apparently had an obsession with a renowned opera singer, Michele Sonnier, and had traveled extensively to see her perform. The next bombshell is that a low-life computer hacker, one Nightmare, whose arm Jack has twisted, discovers that Doug, also a computer hacker, had been extensively accessing the computer files of a small, innovative pharmaceutical company. That fact coupled with the fact that Michele's husband is the head of large Horizn Pharmaceuticals takes Jack on a precarious investigation through the streets of Atlanta including the notorious projects, McDaniel Glen, trying to make sense of these "coincidences." Again Jack's strictly legal approach is compromised by his attraction for Michele. The Last Goodbye is a good mystery but is equally good at peeling off the layers of the comfortable, correct façade of important, public personalities and in exposing the extent to which business entities will go to preserve their markets and profitability. The story lines moves fairly quickly, but the book is a little deeper and grittier than some of this genre. I don't have any trouble recommending it.
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