Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: I expected a murder mystery. I got much much more. A beautifully written novel.
Rating:
Summary: Give it a six!
Review: I love this novel! If I could, I'd give it a six. I first learned about Mr. White's Confession while perusing the variety section of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Clark had won the Edgar award for the novel and was surprised to find out that it qualified as a mystery, but it was the setting that captured my attention. St. Paul, Minnesota, was once a haven for criminals like Dillenger and Alvin "Creepy" Karpis of the Ma Barker gang. The deal was for them to behave while in the City, but when the heir to the Hamm's Beer fortune was kidnapped, it all began to unravel.
Clark captures the aura of the place in this novel set in 1939. The police are still as hard-nosed and as corrupt as ever. Transients receive especially harsh treatment. The hero, Lt. Wesley Horner, is one of the good guys. The reader immediately relates to this sad man who's just lost his wife and who's awfully hard on himself. He falls in love with an underage transient. He resists for a time (it wouldn't be right), but she manages to convince him that age doesn't matter. Meanwhile, he's investigating the murder of a showgirl and the main suspect is an amateur photographer, Herbert White, who photographs dime-a-dance girls. There's no evidence White had anything to do with the girl's murder. He's just a weirdo with an awfully poor memory. But then another dancer is killed. She also modeled for White. Perhaps the biggest twist is when Horner's young lover disappears and he fears she's succumbed to the maniac on the loose; Horner hates himself even more for not being able to protect her. White is browbeaten into a confession and winds up in Stillwater, the state prison. Horner doesn't believe he's guilty and sets out to prove he's not. One of the most stirring scenes is when Horner goes to visit White in Stillwater, the prison being reminiscent of the place we get the word "bedlam". White is working on his memory, writing a journal on the slimey prison walls. Horner sends him paper every three weeks. Ultimately, the reader discovers the real killer, but Horner never does.
The obituary at the end is a nice stroke. It does in a few lines what would ordinarily take pages to tell.
Rating:
Summary: Deserves more than an Edgar Award!
Review: I rate this a fabulous mystery and thought- provoking book. Set in the 30's, so no DNA results! I recommended it to my book club to read as soon as it comes out in paperback (we're intelligent, but poor!) Best book I've read all year.
Rating: 
Summary: More than just a mystery!
Review: I really enjoyed this read. I enjoy many mysteries but get tired of the "formulas" - the predictability. I'm adding Robert Clark to my list of writers I can count on to give me something a bit different - almost up there with Ruth Rendell (and Barbara Vine). I was not sure what the outcome would be - and was pleased that Mr. Clark mixed positive with negative outcome (that IS how the world works, after all). I also loved the characters - they felt real, they felt vulnerable, they were multidimensional. I highly recommend this one for anyone looking for something a little out of the ordinary.
Rating: 
Summary: Frustrated by anachronisms
Review: I was constantly aware in this book that the author had not researched the '30's. There WERE NO NYLON HOSE IN EVIDENCE IN THE '30'S! Also, the expressions,etc were more in step with the '90's that with the '30's. Having lived in those years, I know what I'm talking about. I found Mr. White's diary rather tedious and skipped some of it in order to follow the plot line.
Rating: 
Summary: Deceived by an Edgar Award
Review: I was looking for a mystery or thriller. Instead I got a philosophy lecture. If I had wanted philosophy, I certainly would not have gone to the Edgar Awards. I'm sorry I didn't read the reviews before I ordered the book - then I would never had oerdered it. SHAME on the Mystery Writers of America!
Rating:
Summary: A pallid, energy-less, morbid non-mystery. . .
Review: I'm absolutely amazed that this pallid, energy-less, non-mystery was seen to be the best mystery of the year. It doesn't deserve the Edgar; what could the judges have been thinking of? Maybe after reading a thousand or so mysteries they are too blase. Perhaps the definition of what constitutes a mystery needs some renewed attention. I realize that mysteries have in recent years become progressively more deeply psychological (more kinky, if you want to put it that way). But Elizabeth George,Carol O'Connell, Dennis Lehane, John Fink,Minette Walters (to name some writers who come to mind) do this kind of thing superbly, passionately. It isn't enough to set a story in St. Paul in 1939, with a depressed, decent cop, where the major figure and fall-guy is a bizarrely twisted man of arrested development, with an emotional age of about 10. Nice writing just isn't enough. Maybe this is a "mystery" for people who don't like mysteries. I wouldn't give it one star but the automated rating system doesn't permit NO stars.
Rating:
Summary: Mr. White's Confession
Review: I'm not going to do 1,000 words about this book. It will only take a few well chosen words to describe Robert Clark's most recent book. From plot to subplot, from character to character, from dialogue to narrative, from style to style (you'll know what I mean when you, lucky reader, take up this tale), Mr. White's Confession is so well plotted, the characters so very original, believable, and beautifully drawn, the dialogue so true to the ear and to its characters' point of view, and personality, the narrative so descriptive with nary a filler or wasted word, the characters so utterly fascinating you want to know them all, the style of writing so absolutely gorgeous, I can only say that this is by far the best novel I have read in years. Mr. Clark, clearly, is an exceedingly deep thinker, the fact of which is illustrated in Mr. White's diaries, which are, I think, the most deeply moving part of the book. One of the comments I made to a friend to whom I lent the book was, "He writes as if he were a Jesuit, the work is so spiritual and sensitive, while at the same time so well reasoned." I recommend that you purchase this book and read it at once. By the way, it's a real page-turner, so don't start it at 8PM on a week night. I guarantee you won't be able to pry it from your hand once you begin.Barbara Hendryson, Poet and Writer, Menlo Park, CA
Rating:
Summary: Mr. White's Confession
Review: I'm not going to do 1,000 words about this book. It will only take a few well chosen words to describe Robert Clark's most recent book. From plot to subplot, from character to character, from dialogue to narrative, from style to style (you'll know what I mean when you, lucky reader, take up this tale), Mr. White's Confession is so well plotted, the characters so very original, believable, and beautifully drawn, the dialogue so true to the ear and to its characters' point of view, and personality, the narrative so descriptive with nary a filler or wasted word, the characters so utterly fascinating you want to know them all, the style of writing so absolutely gorgeous, I can only say that this is by far the best novel I have read in years. Mr. Clark, clearly, is an exceedingly deep thinker, the fact of which is illustrated in Mr. White's diaries, which are, I think, the most deeply moving part of the book. One of the comments I made to a friend to whom I lent the book was, "He writes as if he were a Jesuit, the work is so spiritual and sensitive, while at the same time so well reasoned." I recommend that you purchase this book and read it at once. By the way, it's a real page-turner, so don't start it at 8PM on a week night. I guarantee you won't be able to pry it from your hand once you begin. Barbara Hendryson, Poet and Writer, Menlo Park, CA
Rating:
Summary: God!
Review: If I could write reviews, I'd write books. Fortunately, I can read reviews, so ... . I'm sitting here, words brimming and churning in my mind but I just can't get them down on paper and do justice to this review. If the author and other reviewers will overlook this little problem, in my simple way I'll say, God! What a book! I compare Robert Clark with Richard Ford, Mary McGarry Morris, Tim O'Brien and Peter Straub. An odd group, to be sure, but character-masters all. Clark has won a place in my list of authors to read without first reading reviews AND buy in hardcover.
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