Rating: 
Summary: Captivating
Review: If you like thrillers, this is a captivating book which takes hold of you and sucks you into the story so you can not put it down. It is written with recent factual events as the background to fiction which has a chiling undertone of similarity to the current tragic Laci Petersen murder. It is a must read for all who enjoy a well written thriller. Cudos to Peter Blauner!
Rating: 
Summary: You Can Go Home Again (But Beware the Consequences)!
Review: Lynn Schulman moves with her family back to her hometown of Riverside, NY and finds herself wrapped up in the murder of a friend. The lead detective turns out to be a former boyfriend and as the case unfolds, Lynn finds herself more involved than she would like. With more depth than the average murder mystery, this book illustrates how past history affects the present.
Rating:
Summary: An intelligent read
Review: Not a standard murder mystery, The Last Good Day quietly shatters the myth of the safe harbor of the suburbs. Peter and Lynn Schulman flee the city in the wake of 9/11 only to encounter a different and more personal catastrophe in Lynn's hometown.Author Peter Blauner takes what could have been a predictable plot by lesser writers and throws in twists that has the reader questioning their expectations. Each character including the secondary players are well drawn. Peter and Lynn, the main characters, are not necessarily as upstanding as they seem at first glance. Michael, the "villian" who harasses the couple, is filled out fully as well. While the reader can't condone his actions they come away with a greater understanding of his motivations. Blauner takes care with all the character and surrounding details to the point that the reader finds themselves in his environment. This book is great for a summer read.
Rating: 
Summary: trendy, forgettable
Review: Peter Blauner has plugged into the trendy words and behavior of northeastern suburban life circa late September 2001 in his less-than-riveting mystery novel, "The Last Good Day." His extremely unsubtle, knock-you-on-the-head references to 9-11 seem to be a carefully calculated attempt to draw readers into his carelessly crafted tale.
The chief characters, 40-somethings all, immersed in status-conscious consumerism and obsessed with appearing successful, at all costs, failed to engage the interest of this reader. Their "secrets", their long history going back together to high school days, are inferred by readers long before they are slowly "revealed" by the events of the book. My conclusion? This novel is not worthy of your time; it fails to be absorbing, timely, or relevant, despite the heavy-handed ploys to make it so.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Summer Read
Review: Peter Blauner's fifth novel salvaged an otherwise miserable and rainy Memorial Day weekend on Eastern Long Island. Put on some sweats, throw a few logs on the fire and begin turning the pages of an enormously readable murder mystery--probably one of the best I've read in years. Set in a bucolic Westchester bedroom community in the wake of 9/11 (a skillfully employed subtext), murder interrupts and ultimately destroys the lives of several well developed characters. With Blauner's brilliant dialogue and crystal clear images, you can almost feel the characters' pain. If the sun ever does come out, it will be a great beach read.
Rating:
Summary: strong look at the sins of village life
Review: Riverside, New York Police Chief Harold Baltimore knows that the headless floater is not a poor person. He bases his conclusion on the liposuction scars found on the corpse. Harold soon learns that online sports-memorabilia salesman Jeffrey Lanier has filed a missing person's report. When he returned home from a business trip his wife Sandi was nowhere to be seen. Harold concludes that the headless floater is Sandi. Photographer Lynn Stockdale Schulman is devastated by the violent death of her best friend. Even more moribund to the grieving woman is that Detective Lieutenant Michael Fallon is using the tragedy to hit on her, as he wants to renew their high-school romance. When Michael begins crossing the line her husband tells her to file a sexual harassment charge against the cop. Sandi's murder goes to a back burner as the dysfunctional triangle heats up. A social veneer related to sexual harassment, immigration and 9-11 is placed over the police procedural, but this is a two edged sword. On the one hand it provides depth and insight into a small town coping with a nasty world, but on the other it trivializes the homicide investigation. The cast is intriguing though at times they act more like soap opera performers as everyone has a dark secret to hide. Still THE LAST GOOD DAY entertains the audience, but aimed more at those fans that prefer reading about the sins of village life on a greater footing than the murder mystery. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Four stars for the sheer pleasure of compulsive reading...
Review: Thanks to the author for two of the more fun days of my life....reading his novel compulsively. Now my husband is reading it and making a lot of the same enjoyment sounds I made while devouring what has to be one of the more entertaining reads around. It's so hard find a literate,
amusing, cohesive thriller with fascinating, fleshed-out characters to boot. I just loathe some of the "best-sellers." even Grisham is mostly shallow. The only good book I've ever read of his is "Runaway Jury." I read that compulsively, too, but these kinds of books are, truly, rare. More from Mr. Blauner, please... Oh - and it is so vivid and dramatic, I hope it 's made into a movie. I thought a lot about which actors would play his characters...I'd be first in line for a ticket.
Rating:
Summary: excellent character development
Review: The cast of characters in this book was outstanding. The story line itself had adequate suspense but it was the character portrayals that made it of interest. It was also a smooth , fast read.
Rating:
Summary: a forgettable mystery, an un-thrilling thriller
Review: The Last Good Day, a tepid less-than-riveting mystery/thriller, is Blauner's unsuccessful attempt at creating a believable tense backdrop of New York suburban life shortly after September 11, 2001. While some parts of the storyline 'hold water', the majority of the novel lays fallow, and unfortunately fails to deliver on almost every level imaginable.
The various not-so-subtle references to 9-11 are not apropos to the plot, and as a result, appear to be a flimsy attempt to draw curious readers possibly scouting for terrorist intrigue. The shallow two-dimensional, and often gutter-mouthed, characters fail to engage the reader, and only highlight the carelessly constructed plot which is neither absorbing or captivating. Give this one a pass. Any redeeming qualities to the novel? The photo on the cover is nice...
Rating:
Summary: Peter Blauner's work should not be missed!
Review: There is no doubt that the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers cast a pall on the collective American conscience. The length and breadth of this is very evident in American fiction, particularly suspense fiction. In SMALL TOWN Lawrence Block made the attacks a catalyst for the events that took place in the novel. In THE LAST GOOD DAY Peter Blauner uses the attacks more indirectly --- as a backdrop, as a hint that all is not well --- but ultimately just as effectively as Block. The result is a novel that is a compelling page-turner. THE LAST GOOD DAY is set in Riverside, New York, a bedroom community of New York City that has been undergoing a gradual gentrification and is now quietly reeling from the double body blows of the economic effects of dot-com recession and, two weeks before the events of THE LAST GOOD DAY, the terrorist attacks. Lynn and Barry Schulman have been hop-scotching back and forth across the country and have returned to Riverside, Lynn's hometown, with Barry employed as corporate counsel for a fledgling pharmaceutical company and Lynn pursing her career as a photographer. They experience all the common worries of a professional couple. Barry's company is experiencing a series of potentially damaging setbacks, while Lynn feels the tug between motherhood and her career. Their 17-year-old daughter, Hannah, is embracing the Goth lifestyle with a hey-dude boyfriend, while their 13-year-old son, Clay, seems to lack focus and direction for anything other than video games. However, their lives are kicked into overdrive when a headless corpse surfaces upon the Hudson River in full view of a group of morning commuters --- a group that includes Barry. The body is that of one Sandi Lanier, Lynn's oldest friend. Michael Fallon, one of the police officers investigating the murder, has a complicated history with Lynn, going back to their high school days, and he makes it more than clear that, where there was once a flame, there is still a flicker. But Fallon has a connection to the dead woman as well, one that he would prefer no one knew about. Fallon's impulses, and his apparent inability to control them, hinder the investigation into Lanier's murder and complicate the downward spiral his life has already taken. As the extent of Fallon's involvement with Lanier is slowly revealed, and his continuing attraction to Lynn crosses the line of professional decorum, THE LAST GOOD DAY races toward an inevitable apocalyptic ending, terrible and inevitable. Blauner gets better and better with each novel. THE LAST GOOD DAY is a riveting and compelling page-turner --- there is no denying it. But it is more than that. It is a subtle psychological portrait of how large-scale tragedies can indirectly affect and influence the minutiae, the ebb and flow, of living. With THE LAST GOOD DAY, Blauner assumes a rightful place on the list of authors whose work should not be missed. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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