Rating: 
Summary: Excellent surreal mystery
Review: Barth Crane is a high powered Toronto attorney who relishes the rush he receives when he wins a case. Ethics are not a problem, as Barth will do anything to triumph, including lying under oath, cheating, and tampering with witnesses.The tightly focused lawyer travels to Murdoch, Ontario on his first murder case. Local high school teacher Thomas Tripp is accused of killing two students. Barth expects an easy victory because the bodies of the victims were never recovered nor are there any witnesses that Tripp committed a crime. Circumstantial evidence links the suspect to the murder. The barrister settles in at the local hotel and begins to immerse himself in the life of the town in an effort to gain an edge for his client. Gradually, the legend of the Lady in the Lake begins to haunt him; changing him and making him take actions that will effect Barth for the rest of his life. LOST GIRLS is an atmospheric work that seems gothic in tone. The story line gradually builds up the tension level until the reader feels, like Barth, overwhelmed and anxious. Barth is a loathsome person, yet the audience will feel drawn to him, especially as he travels down a road nobody could have foreseen he would take. Andrew Pyper's ability to bring his story to life is brilliant and will leave readers clamoring for more works as soon as possible. Don't be surprised if this book hits the charts. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: A Labyrinthine Legal Shocker
Review: In this classical murder mystery, author Andrew Pyper tells a tale of a young cocaine addicted lawyer, Bartholomew Christian Crane, who travels to his long-forgotten hometown to defend a high school teacher accused of abducting and killing two of his female students. Being ruthless, Crane will let nothing stand in his way of getting his client off. As he starts to piece together his defense for his client, he finds himself being evoked into the town's inexplicable urban legend that is unraveling before his eyes. He begins to suspect that everything that is occurring to him is happening for a reason. Crane marvels at the thought of the two missing girls are somehow linked to the town's inglorious history and a long lost episode of his murky past. I give this book an 8.5. There were a few parts that could've been left out, but the rest was a nail-biting thriller. Pyper uses great sensory details and imagery to set you in a place you maybe haven't experienced. If you liked "The Sibyl in Her Grave," or "Drowning Ruth," then "Lost Girls" will surely tingle your spine. A psychological terror, and a labyrinthine legal shocker; from it's cryptic opening, to it's haunting ending, "Lost Girls" will take you into treacherous bewilderment.
Rating: 
Summary: Is that IT?
Review: The opening chapters promised much, from the genuinely chilling prologue to the delightful introduction of Barth Crane - the junior associate of the far from reputable lawyers known cynically as "Lie and Get 'em off". My anticipation grew as Crane arrives at the vaguely unsettling location of Murdoch and meets some bizarre (and well depicted) characters. But then, by about a third of the way through, I found this book really began to drag. What revelations there were felt decidedly underwhelming. The supernatural sub-plot was very understated - almost as if it could be put down to Crane's sleep deprevation and drugs abuse. Whilst this ambiguity could have been a major advantage if handled subtly, in Pyper's hands however it merely comes over as a rather wishy-washy loss of direction. The courtroom scenes are adequately, if uninspiringly, described, and the twist, if indeed it were intended as such, is eminently guessable and left me feeling rather unfulfilled. Lost Girls falls uncomfortably between two stools. It probably has insufficient gritty authenticity to satisfy readers of legal dramas and whodunnits, and certainly contains not enough shocks and chills for devotees of the ghost/horror genre. I'm sorry I cannot be more generous about Lost Girls. The author clearly has considerable talent and often employs startling and delightful imagery, but the overall impact of the novel on me was rather akin to a wet grey mush (which perhaps was Pyper's intention?). ...
Rating:
Summary: Canadian Gothic
Review: Lost Girls exists at a curious intersection of genres: a Scott Turow courtroom drama twisted about a Martin Amis comic amorality play, a Stephen King ghost story messing with a Thomas Harris psycho thriller. This conjunction of story types is mostly compelling -- to Pyper's credit there are few moments where the disparate elements collide rather than collude. Despite the solid sense of place (Canada certainly an underutilized thriller locale) and dank, gothic atmosphere, the ghost story elements are the least effective (and I'm a big fan of ghosts popping up in genres where the don't belong) because its awfully tough to credit Pyper's amoral, cokefiend, stripclubbing protagonist having such a freakout at a few odds and ends going bump in the night -- and because the book has to decelerate its cocaine-driven prose and pacing to to whip up the requisite dark and stormy lake atmosphere. So after an appallingly funny kick off the book drags a bit in the middle -- stay with it. The story takes an obvious twist I didn't see coming and stays particular and curious all the way to the end. The only caveat for genre-only readers -- despite the thriller drag Pyper's concerns are more those of Turow & Amis than King & Harris -- is a plus for everyone else.
Rating:
Summary: Strong debut novel--I loved it!
Review: Bartholomew Christian Crane is a lost soul of questionable lawyerly morality. His first murder trial is the case of the lost girls, two missing teenagers from Murdoch, an odd little town in northern Ontario. Barth relies on sarcasm and cocaine as he encounters strippers, a ghost and his strange client. Will he emerge from this trial unscathed? Author Pyper's background as a poet is evident from the opening paragraph of this, his debut novel. The story is liberally sprinkled with Pyper's own brand of humor, spiced with unique imagery and the authentic flavor of the north. He had me hooked from the opening scene. If you enjoy intelligent crime fiction, suspenseful fantasy or well-crafted stories, this book is a must-read. But be warned, this is not a typical court-room drama or a brain-candy upper. The story is soulful, depressing and riveting.
Rating:
Summary: On a par with "The Secret History"
Review: Imagine Stephen King, but with subtlety...Okay, I can't imagine that either. A better comparison is Donna Tartt's cult novel, "The Secret History." In both cases, I found the book by accident, never having heard of the author; became entirely immersed from Page One; and felt a sense of loss when it ended, like finishing the last morsel of a favorite dessert. Pyper's Lost Girls is eerie, witty, richly atmospheric, and keenly suspenseful -- though the suspense is less a result of wondering whodunnit (or whatdunnit!) than it is an eagerness to see how the answers will effect the book's protagonist. And what a protagonist. Pyper's antihero narrator is a proudly immoral, self-absorbed lawyer, whose determination to free a likely murderer is exceeded only by his concern that he might run out of cocaine. Entirely against your will, you find yourself feeling empathy for the guy and yearning for his redemption. A fabulously diverting book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Worth Your Time
Review: ...This is not a good book. ...Simply because its not well written, was a least 100 pages too long for the story, contained no characters about which anyone could be reasonably sympathetic and had no focus. Part courtroom drama, part ghost story, the plot of Lost Girls never really finds a focus. It shifts from a murder trial, in which the main character is the defense attorney, to ghost story to urban legend. The main character himself is sleazy, unlikable and incompetent and I gave up on finding anything redeeming about him after the first 50 pages. That said, its difficult to care what happens to him. The "lady in the lake" legend is an element that never pans out for Pyper and shouldn't have made it past the editor. It merely adds static to an already precarious plot. Overall, its obvious that this was a first novel and it makes a good case for the use of editors. Sentence fragments and passive voice abound. If the story itself was better, it would be easier to forgive these things but, alas, its not. Leave it sitting on the shelf. There are better things to read out there.
Rating:
Summary: Overrated and boring
Review: The cover made much of Pyper's writing. He does very well at description of perception: what the character sees, hears, etc. Actually most of the prose flows along nicely. But I was jolted out of the story and into irritation every 5-6 pages by sentences without subjects or verbs or a switch to inappropriate imperative: "Slip boxers off into a ring around my feet, step over to the bathroom, and crank up the hot water." Had he used this style consistently as the narrator's voice, I could have adjusted, but it just pops out every now and then and breaks the flow. My second criticism is that the outcome and even most of the path to the outcome were predictable. By the end of the first 50 or so pages I was continuing on in the hope of being surprised. But I never was. Third, the narrator is boringly self-absorbed: cocaine this, stripper that, let me tell you about the dream I had last night. It was like being stuck at a cocktail party with a bunch of scuzzy egocentrics. The only reason I give it two stars rather than one is the potential of Pyper. He obviously has a good command of language and a talent at sensory description.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely not Stephen King!
Review: LOST GIRLS begins with a prologue describing cousins in a canoe having sex. The canoe overturns and the girl is pulled into the depths, apparently by some monster.
The next chapter is rather confusing because, suddenly, there are two girls missing and their teacher is a suspect. We are introduced to the protagonist, attorney Bartholomew Christian Crane. Crane works for Lyle, Gederov & Associate, often referred to as Lie, Get 'Em Off & Associate. It will be Crane's job to defend the teacher. Graham Lyle is, according to Crane, a raving queen. Gederov is a "second-generation Russian immigrant who has somehow retained a threatening hint of his ancestor's accent." He's also, "cruel, misogynistic, racist, flatulent, and nauseating dining company." The key word here is "misogynistic." So now we have incest and misogyny and a partner who's homosexual... "
Crane is sent to his home town of Murdock, Ontario. Crane's client doesn't seem to care if Crane gets him off or not. Crane doesn't care; all he wants to do is win, but as he begins to piece together a case, blaming someone else, of course, the bizarre legend of the place begins to pull him down. There's a story about the Lady of the Lake and suddenly the prologue begins to make sense.
If you assume the book is going to be about how Crane gets the teacher off, you'll be wrong. Crane begins a search for the Lady of the Lake, apparently an actual person, who fits in well with the misogynistic elements at the beginning.
Too much of a downer for you? Surprise, surprise. Get ready for an O'Henry twist at the end, that cloaks Crane with redemption.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Dark, and Misinterpreted
Review: It seems that this gorgeous book has been marketed totally incorrectly. The cover makes it look like a cheesy thriller, so people who want a fast, mindless read pick it up and get bogged down by the psychological depth, mythical dimension, and gothic aesthetic. Andrew Pyper's book is a portayal of the darkness within a man's soul and man's connection between darkness and feminity, both holding fascination as well as horror. It is about the female aspect of a man's psyche coming up to haunt him because it was repressed for too long, taking on the form of ghosts, teenage girls, and strippers. It is about females in society also, and the way they are percieved and treated by the males who desire and fear them. Women represent certain psychological aspects of men, and in the book they take on mythical, archetypal roles. The symbolism of the lake around which the book revolves, of evil lurking beneath the surface of the water, is another representation of the murky, dark, psychological depths of man, which also correlates to women's sexuality. The main character is impotent and obsessed with young girls, and has a boyhood secret he has never been able to get over or deal with. The town he goes to in order to defend a man accused of killing two teenage girls also has a dark secret in its past: the townsmen got together and purposefully drowned a woods-dwelling prostitute they all had slept with, because they became afraid of and disgusted by her. It is a very timeless theme of literature and Andrew Pyper has a fresh, eerie take on it. Please do not underestimate this book, and do not read it if you want a formulaic, whodunit type thriller. "Whodunit" is not remotely the point in this book.
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