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Dani Lancing #1
The Last Winter of Dani Lancing
A riveting psychological thriller in the tradition of Before I Go to Sleep and Memento that introduces P. D. Viner as a master of suspense
Twenty years ago, college student Dani Lancing was kidnapped and brutally murdered. The killer was never found, and the case has long gone cold. Her parents, Patty and Jim, were utterly devastated, their marriage destroyed. While Jim fell apart, Patty was consumed by the unsolved case. She abandoned her journalism career and her marriage to spend every waking hour searching and plotting. She keeps contact with Tom, Dani's childhood sweetheart, who has become a detective intent on solving murders like Dani's. When he finds a lead that seems ironclad, he brings Patty in on it. After years of dead ends, her obsession is rekindled, and she will do anything for revenge, even become a killer herself-dragging her whole family into the nightmare once again, as lies and secrets are uncovered.
Twenty years ago, college student Dani Lancing was kidnapped and brutally murdered. The killer was never found, and the case has long gone cold. Her parents, Patty and Jim, were utterly devastated, their marriage destroyed. While Jim fell apart, Patty was consumed by the unsolved case. She abandoned her journalism career and her marriage to spend every waking hour searching and plotting. She keeps contact with Tom, Dani's childhood sweetheart, who has become a detective intent on solving murders like Dani's. When he finds a lead that seems ironclad, he brings Patty in on it. After years of dead ends, her obsession is rekindled, and she will do anything for revenge, even become a killer herself-dragging her whole family into the nightmare once again, as lies and secrets are uncovered.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published February 21, 2014
52 people are currently reading
3098 people want to read
About the author
P.D. Viner
10 books52 followersI am killing again.
I live in Brighton, UK, with my wife, academic, blogger and author Lynneguist, and our teenage daughter.
I have made films, written theatre and created the audio ranges SmartPass and Shakespeare Appreciated.
Now I'm back and murdering with The Call and more to come. I love writing. I'm so happy and so lucky to have Hera Canelo publishing me.
I live in Brighton, UK, with my wife, academic, blogger and author Lynneguist, and our teenage daughter.
I have made films, written theatre and created the audio ranges SmartPass and Shakespeare Appreciated.
Now I'm back and murdering with The Call and more to come. I love writing. I'm so happy and so lucky to have Hera Canelo publishing me.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 255 reviews
March 1, 2020
this is one of those books that is told out of sequence for showmanship.
and it works just fine, but books like these always make me wonder if they would lose some of their appeal if they were told chronologically - i wonder about the content-to-gimmick ratio. does the story hold up, or is it the dance where you are brought to the brink of discovery only to be swept back twenty years in time that gives it its strength?
it is a perfectly good psychological thriller, with all the seeecrets that i like, and the aftermath of emotional damage, and i was pleased with its serpentine ending, which had a little bit too much coincidence and contrivance, but when i am reading a mystery-thriller, this doesn't bother me overmuch.
it is, as they say, a good read.
the short of it is this: dani lancing's was found, violated and murdered. twenty years later, her loss and the mystery of her final days are still being felt by those who loved her. her parents have separated; her mother is obsessed with revenge, her father is haunted by the absence of the two women he loved, and tom, the young man who loved her, is now an older man who is still carrying a torch for her memory.
and everyone is feeling guilty.
dani was a girl with a whole lot of secrets, secrets we learn over the course of the book. some were known to her father, some to tom, very few to her mother. and these secrets, these cover-ups all contributed to the mystery surrounding her death. and as her mother desperately tries to get closure through vengeance, new crimes will be committed as a result, and things go sideways really quickly.
it's a bit muddlesome, but it all works out in the end, storywise at least. it has one of those endings that is truly surprising and satisfying - like the end of that christopher pike trilogy that rocked my world as a young girl; the one that made me realize that there aren't two possible endings to a mysterious death, but three. and it took three books to get there, and it blew my young-girl mind. this one is similar. there are twists and red herrings and new information and the slow reveal of backstory, and it all is very pleasing to the reader with the anticipation and staggery pacing.
the torch-carrying and pining got to me a little, though. both tom's for dani and jim's (her father) for patty. i get love, but i don't get that endless yearning sustained for as long as it was by two different characters. particularly for tom, whose love is dead and buried, and especially considering that he knew what he knew. it just seems… unnatural. maybe i am just heartless, but i think things like that work perfectly well in melodrama, but in a more realistically-toned novel, it just seems unlikely.
but it's good, i enjoyed reading it and it was a solid three-and-a-half for me. and maybe for you.
come to my blog!
and it works just fine, but books like these always make me wonder if they would lose some of their appeal if they were told chronologically - i wonder about the content-to-gimmick ratio. does the story hold up, or is it the dance where you are brought to the brink of discovery only to be swept back twenty years in time that gives it its strength?
it is a perfectly good psychological thriller, with all the seeecrets that i like, and the aftermath of emotional damage, and i was pleased with its serpentine ending, which had a little bit too much coincidence and contrivance, but when i am reading a mystery-thriller, this doesn't bother me overmuch.
it is, as they say, a good read.
the short of it is this: dani lancing's was found, violated and murdered. twenty years later, her loss and the mystery of her final days are still being felt by those who loved her. her parents have separated; her mother is obsessed with revenge, her father is haunted by the absence of the two women he loved, and tom, the young man who loved her, is now an older man who is still carrying a torch for her memory.
and everyone is feeling guilty.
dani was a girl with a whole lot of secrets, secrets we learn over the course of the book. some were known to her father, some to tom, very few to her mother. and these secrets, these cover-ups all contributed to the mystery surrounding her death. and as her mother desperately tries to get closure through vengeance, new crimes will be committed as a result, and things go sideways really quickly.
it's a bit muddlesome, but it all works out in the end, storywise at least. it has one of those endings that is truly surprising and satisfying - like the end of that christopher pike trilogy that rocked my world as a young girl; the one that made me realize that there aren't two possible endings to a mysterious death, but three. and it took three books to get there, and it blew my young-girl mind. this one is similar. there are twists and red herrings and new information and the slow reveal of backstory, and it all is very pleasing to the reader with the anticipation and staggery pacing.
the torch-carrying and pining got to me a little, though. both tom's for dani and jim's (her father) for patty. i get love, but i don't get that endless yearning sustained for as long as it was by two different characters. particularly for tom, whose love is dead and buried, and especially considering that he knew what he knew. it just seems… unnatural. maybe i am just heartless, but i think things like that work perfectly well in melodrama, but in a more realistically-toned novel, it just seems unlikely.
but it's good, i enjoyed reading it and it was a solid three-and-a-half for me. and maybe for you.
come to my blog!
August 6, 2019
This started out with a really interesting beginning that began pulling me in early on, and it just got better, and better, and WOW! What an ending!
I was immediately intrigued by what I call a 'unique twist' that the author intertwined within the mystery, crime, suspense theme of this book.
I was expecting 'it' to be just a teaser to engage and pull the reader in, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the uniqueness continued throughout the entire book. And, of course, the uniquely twisted ending caught me completely by surprise!
And because I don't want to give away any more of what the 'unique twist' is, I'm just going to say... I really loved this one! You should read it!!
I was immediately intrigued by what I call a 'unique twist' that the author intertwined within the mystery, crime, suspense theme of this book.
I was expecting 'it' to be just a teaser to engage and pull the reader in, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the uniqueness continued throughout the entire book. And, of course, the uniquely twisted ending caught me completely by surprise!
And because I don't want to give away any more of what the 'unique twist' is, I'm just going to say... I really loved this one! You should read it!!
October 9, 2013
I’d like for publishers to make a concerted effort to stop the lazy marketing. This novel has been compared to BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP, MEMENTO, and THE SILENT WIFE, and for good measure, we’ll even toss in Tana French, Gillian Flynn, and A.S.A. Harrison. While this type of marketing may work in some instances, it probably fails more often than it succeeds. Sure, the neon lights flash, people’s expectations reach infinite proportions, and it makes for a great sound bite, but then what happens? If you don’t like the aforementioned authors or books, you skip right on over to the next enticing cover, and if you love those authors or books, you’re bound to be met with some level of disappointment.
Despite the massive consumption of drugs in THE LAST WINTER OF DANI LANCING, this novel felt as realistic as turkey, yogurt, and apple pie. Demons filled each character until the lines between good and evil were about as nebulous as a politician hitting the campaign trail with both hands. No character could escape the evil staring back at him or her, and this included the long dead body of Dani. Nefarious individuals piled up faster than runners at the finish line with Tom Bevans, Marcus Keyson, Jim and Patty Lancing, Duncan and Audrey Cobhurn, and Seb Merchant leading the charge with bullhorns firmly planted at their sides.
Told from multiple points of view, the story slipped out of sequence with relative ease, dipping into the past the way a swimmer might dip his toes into the icy water. The gimmick worked, holding the fast and loose tale in place, otherwise this story probably would have failed when held up to the microscope and examined via a petri dish. But all the jumping around left me looking for solid ground, as I constantly bounced between the various time periods until I finally decided to just strap myself in and appreciate the ride.
Most of the way through this novel, I sympathized with Tom and his love for Dani. Like him, I’d experienced unrequited love—in my case it was on more than one occasion and with more than one individual—only to have the entire experience shatter around me, leaving me with a broken heart and a pile of broken glass. Sometimes nice guys really do finish last. But I digress. In the end, though, Tom wasn’t as nice as I thought he was. Instead, he was more of a pretender than a true contender.
Without giving away too much, I think it’s safe to say there are more stories to tell, more questions that need to be answered, and more problems that need to be solved. But I still haven’t decided whether or not I’ll continue the ride.
I received this book for free through NetGalley.
Cross-posted at Robert's Reads
Despite the massive consumption of drugs in THE LAST WINTER OF DANI LANCING, this novel felt as realistic as turkey, yogurt, and apple pie. Demons filled each character until the lines between good and evil were about as nebulous as a politician hitting the campaign trail with both hands. No character could escape the evil staring back at him or her, and this included the long dead body of Dani. Nefarious individuals piled up faster than runners at the finish line with Tom Bevans, Marcus Keyson, Jim and Patty Lancing, Duncan and Audrey Cobhurn, and Seb Merchant leading the charge with bullhorns firmly planted at their sides.
Told from multiple points of view, the story slipped out of sequence with relative ease, dipping into the past the way a swimmer might dip his toes into the icy water. The gimmick worked, holding the fast and loose tale in place, otherwise this story probably would have failed when held up to the microscope and examined via a petri dish. But all the jumping around left me looking for solid ground, as I constantly bounced between the various time periods until I finally decided to just strap myself in and appreciate the ride.
Most of the way through this novel, I sympathized with Tom and his love for Dani. Like him, I’d experienced unrequited love—in my case it was on more than one occasion and with more than one individual—only to have the entire experience shatter around me, leaving me with a broken heart and a pile of broken glass. Sometimes nice guys really do finish last. But I digress. In the end, though, Tom wasn’t as nice as I thought he was. Instead, he was more of a pretender than a true contender.
Without giving away too much, I think it’s safe to say there are more stories to tell, more questions that need to be answered, and more problems that need to be solved. But I still haven’t decided whether or not I’ll continue the ride.
I received this book for free through NetGalley.
Cross-posted at Robert's Reads
August 23, 2015
University student Dani Lancing was raped and murdered over 20 years ago and her mother, Patty has never got over the trauma and is as determined as ever to find out who did it. However, there is much she doesn't know about Dani and the last winter she spent alive. While she follows her own leads, Dani's childhood friend Tom who has always loved her is now a detective who hunts down serial rapists and murderers is hoping that Dani's case will be solved using modern DNA technology.
What starts off as a case involving the murder of a missing girl, becomes more complex as Patty starts investigating the past and Tom and her husband Jim start to reveal the secrets they have kept all these years. The novel switches backwards and forwards in time to the events leading up to Dani's death and the present day and keeps the tension and emotion high as we see the people left behind coping with their grief, obsession and need for revenge. Definitely a gripping read with some unexpected twists and turns before the finale.
What starts off as a case involving the murder of a missing girl, becomes more complex as Patty starts investigating the past and Tom and her husband Jim start to reveal the secrets they have kept all these years. The novel switches backwards and forwards in time to the events leading up to Dani's death and the present day and keeps the tension and emotion high as we see the people left behind coping with their grief, obsession and need for revenge. Definitely a gripping read with some unexpected twists and turns before the finale.
October 3, 2013
By P.D. Viner
Crown Publishers (Random House), 393 pgs
978-0-8041-3682-2
Submitted by Random House
Rating: 2.5
WARNING: Spoiler alert. Proceed at your own risk.
I am flummoxed. The Last Winter of Dani Lancing. Great title. Promising story. Excellent pacing. Good enough dialogue. Unique characters who stay in character. Evocative sense of place. Firmly rooted in genre (this is a first novel for the author and we can quibble over whether or not falling squarely into genre is a good thing, but let's not.) Technical details indicate sufficient research on the part of Mr. Viner. Clues are offered and the foreshadowing often clever. But I cannot for the life of me get it to come together. The parts are greater than the whole.
Dani(elle) is the daughter of Jim and Patty Lancing: bright university student, track star, beautiful (aren't they all?), Daddy's little girl, contentious critic of a career-centered mother, childhood love (obsession) of Tom Bevans who has become a police detective. So far so good. Additionally, Dani is in love with a married man twenty-plus years her senior; she is pregnant; and then there's the raging heroin addiction, which inevitably means she ends up as some dealer's punch and turned out as entertainment for his friends and business associates. Dani goes missing and her body is discovered three weeks later. No arrests were ever made. It is a cold case.
As the story begins, Dani has been dead for twenty years and her ghost has been hanging out with her dad for the last twelve. She showed up when Patty left Jim rather than grind him to a fine powder under the weight of her grief and guilt. Detective Inspector Tom Bevans has gotten word that Dani's case will come up for review due to advances in DNA technology. Samples were taken and have been preserved. Much smaller amounts of DNA can now be reliably tested. There is a DNA database that can be searched for a match. You think this is good news, don't you? Everyone in this story has an ulterior motive. Remember that. The downside of this development is that it could take another four years for this to happen because there are a LOT of cold cases. So Patty hires a private expert, a former pathologist named Keyson (who turns out to be a sociopath with personal and professional reasons to hate DI Bevans,) to try to move things along.
And move things along he does. Right off a cliff.
Remember what I told you to remember? Everyone here has motives of their own. No one is innocent, or even not guilty. Due to the machinations (deus ex machina?) of Dr. Keyson and the fact that Patty has gone nuts, these ensue: kidnapping, torture, assault and battery, murder, car crashes, tampering with evidence, an overdose of Ketamine, bribery, extortion, suicide, loan sharks, seizure disorders, breaking and entering, petty theft, racketeering, snow, foot chases, car chases, comas, chloroform, and acts of God. Yep. And all of it could have been avoided. Do you know why all of these things happened? Because of the trope of "the good girl." Whore or Madonna, make your choice and make it now because you cannot change your mind later and there is no allowance for individuality, complexity or ambiguity. These things happened because a couple of men wanted so badly for the world to believe that Danielle Lancing had been a good girl that, in the final reckoning, they denied her any humanity. They turned her into a doll. The only saving grace for Dani is that she got to deliver the coup de grace at the end of the story. Even if she was a ghost.
I found it difficult to follow The Last Winter of Dani Lancing in the beginning; the narrative jumps back and forth in time so often and it switches points of view constantly. Your brain will try to impose order and I attempted to fight this, go with the flow, and trust the author. Mistake. My main problem with Dani Lancing is that the author seems to have thrown in a little something from every movie he's ever seen. He is a film-maker, after all, and an award-winning one at that. I was with him, willfully suspending incredulity, until about page 346. At that point the number of cliches reached critical mass and I buckled. By page 360 it had become a cartoon.
Deep breath. Which is not to say that Mr. Viner doesn't have promise. He does. Please refer back to the first paragraph of this review. So many individual elements that were sooo good. They just never made a cohesive whole. The author became overwhelmed with plot elements. I will read his sophomore effort, if there is one, and let you know if that incipient promise is realized.
Crown Publishers (Random House), 393 pgs
978-0-8041-3682-2
Submitted by Random House
Rating: 2.5
WARNING: Spoiler alert. Proceed at your own risk.
I am flummoxed. The Last Winter of Dani Lancing. Great title. Promising story. Excellent pacing. Good enough dialogue. Unique characters who stay in character. Evocative sense of place. Firmly rooted in genre (this is a first novel for the author and we can quibble over whether or not falling squarely into genre is a good thing, but let's not.) Technical details indicate sufficient research on the part of Mr. Viner. Clues are offered and the foreshadowing often clever. But I cannot for the life of me get it to come together. The parts are greater than the whole.
Dani(elle) is the daughter of Jim and Patty Lancing: bright university student, track star, beautiful (aren't they all?), Daddy's little girl, contentious critic of a career-centered mother, childhood love (obsession) of Tom Bevans who has become a police detective. So far so good. Additionally, Dani is in love with a married man twenty-plus years her senior; she is pregnant; and then there's the raging heroin addiction, which inevitably means she ends up as some dealer's punch and turned out as entertainment for his friends and business associates. Dani goes missing and her body is discovered three weeks later. No arrests were ever made. It is a cold case.
As the story begins, Dani has been dead for twenty years and her ghost has been hanging out with her dad for the last twelve. She showed up when Patty left Jim rather than grind him to a fine powder under the weight of her grief and guilt. Detective Inspector Tom Bevans has gotten word that Dani's case will come up for review due to advances in DNA technology. Samples were taken and have been preserved. Much smaller amounts of DNA can now be reliably tested. There is a DNA database that can be searched for a match. You think this is good news, don't you? Everyone in this story has an ulterior motive. Remember that. The downside of this development is that it could take another four years for this to happen because there are a LOT of cold cases. So Patty hires a private expert, a former pathologist named Keyson (who turns out to be a sociopath with personal and professional reasons to hate DI Bevans,) to try to move things along.
And move things along he does. Right off a cliff.
Remember what I told you to remember? Everyone here has motives of their own. No one is innocent, or even not guilty. Due to the machinations (deus ex machina?) of Dr. Keyson and the fact that Patty has gone nuts, these ensue: kidnapping, torture, assault and battery, murder, car crashes, tampering with evidence, an overdose of Ketamine, bribery, extortion, suicide, loan sharks, seizure disorders, breaking and entering, petty theft, racketeering, snow, foot chases, car chases, comas, chloroform, and acts of God. Yep. And all of it could have been avoided. Do you know why all of these things happened? Because of the trope of "the good girl." Whore or Madonna, make your choice and make it now because you cannot change your mind later and there is no allowance for individuality, complexity or ambiguity. These things happened because a couple of men wanted so badly for the world to believe that Danielle Lancing had been a good girl that, in the final reckoning, they denied her any humanity. They turned her into a doll. The only saving grace for Dani is that she got to deliver the coup de grace at the end of the story. Even if she was a ghost.
I found it difficult to follow The Last Winter of Dani Lancing in the beginning; the narrative jumps back and forth in time so often and it switches points of view constantly. Your brain will try to impose order and I attempted to fight this, go with the flow, and trust the author. Mistake. My main problem with Dani Lancing is that the author seems to have thrown in a little something from every movie he's ever seen. He is a film-maker, after all, and an award-winning one at that. I was with him, willfully suspending incredulity, until about page 346. At that point the number of cliches reached critical mass and I buckled. By page 360 it had become a cartoon.
Deep breath. Which is not to say that Mr. Viner doesn't have promise. He does. Please refer back to the first paragraph of this review. So many individual elements that were sooo good. They just never made a cohesive whole. The author became overwhelmed with plot elements. I will read his sophomore effort, if there is one, and let you know if that incipient promise is realized.
July 5, 2015
“In her own wallet she has two photographs of herself……..It’s the woman in the second photograph, the after image, taken maybe three years ago and thirty years after the first, who she recognises in the mirror today. Sat alongside the first photo, it reminds her of some champion slimmer standing next to the cardboard cut-out of their former self. The contrast between the two Pattys, especially in the face, scares her a little – showing how the acid of loss strips away the flesh, etches the lines of pain and rage into the body”
The Last Winter of Dani Lancing is the first book in the Dani Lancing series by British author, P.D.Viner. In January, 1989, Durham University student, Dani Lancing was reported missing. Some weeks later, her body was found: the police report said she had been raped and murdered. Over twenty years later, her case was still unsolved, and those close to her continued to grieve.
Patty Lancing has been obsessed with finding her daughter’s killer since 1989: what would she do if she actually found him? Jim Lancing has tried to get on with his life, but is haunted by the daughter he failed to protect from the “monsters” she feared at age five. Detective Superintendent Tom Bevans has loved Dani since they were both little: he now heads up a task force that hunts the perpetrators of sexually aggravated serial murders. When modern technology raises the possibility of reopening Dani’s case, reactions are mixed: radical actions will be taken and tightly-held secrets will be revealed.
The narrative is carried mainly by Tom, Jim and Patty, although other major players (Marcus, Audrey and Duncan) are occasionally given a voice, and Dani’s ghost and her diary entries play a significant part. The story switches between the events of 2010 and earlier times, but dates are clearly indicated, except where characters have flashbacks, so there is not really any ambiguity, and it serves Viner’s slow reveal of the secrets his characters hold. His characters are complex, multi-faceted, and none is quite what they first appear to be.
Viner skilfully illustrates the effect of an unsolved crime of this nature on those left behind; love, guilt, obsession and revenge all feature. This brilliant first novel has an original plot with plenty of twists and a thrilling climax. Readers who enjoy this novel will be pleased to learn that several associated (free) novellas and the second novel (The Summer of Ghosts) are already available for their reading pleasure. A stunning debut.
The Last Winter of Dani Lancing is the first book in the Dani Lancing series by British author, P.D.Viner. In January, 1989, Durham University student, Dani Lancing was reported missing. Some weeks later, her body was found: the police report said she had been raped and murdered. Over twenty years later, her case was still unsolved, and those close to her continued to grieve.
Patty Lancing has been obsessed with finding her daughter’s killer since 1989: what would she do if she actually found him? Jim Lancing has tried to get on with his life, but is haunted by the daughter he failed to protect from the “monsters” she feared at age five. Detective Superintendent Tom Bevans has loved Dani since they were both little: he now heads up a task force that hunts the perpetrators of sexually aggravated serial murders. When modern technology raises the possibility of reopening Dani’s case, reactions are mixed: radical actions will be taken and tightly-held secrets will be revealed.
The narrative is carried mainly by Tom, Jim and Patty, although other major players (Marcus, Audrey and Duncan) are occasionally given a voice, and Dani’s ghost and her diary entries play a significant part. The story switches between the events of 2010 and earlier times, but dates are clearly indicated, except where characters have flashbacks, so there is not really any ambiguity, and it serves Viner’s slow reveal of the secrets his characters hold. His characters are complex, multi-faceted, and none is quite what they first appear to be.
Viner skilfully illustrates the effect of an unsolved crime of this nature on those left behind; love, guilt, obsession and revenge all feature. This brilliant first novel has an original plot with plenty of twists and a thrilling climax. Readers who enjoy this novel will be pleased to learn that several associated (free) novellas and the second novel (The Summer of Ghosts) are already available for their reading pleasure. A stunning debut.
June 20, 2016
This is an absorbing and creative psychological thriller for a debut novel. Instantly, the book pulls you in with a rather peculiar beginning. A distressed father talking to his daughter’s ghost, Dani Lancing, who is there to keep eye out for him, a deranged Mother carelessly cutting up her kidnapped victim, and a cop, Tom, outside Dani house reminiscing what could have been.
The brutal killing of Dani Lancing 20 years ago has traumatized, altered and consumed the lives of the three people in a such profound way that they were unable to move on. Each went their own separate paths to protect, savor her memory and image, and seek revenge and justice in the only way they know how. What happened to Dani?
Well the story is unraveled as the author flips back and forth in various times, all out of order – which took a bit of getting use too - but giving you snippet of the horrifying secrets, cover-ups, betrayal, jealously surrounding Dani’s death and long after.
I prepared to give the novel a high score of 5 stars but as I was getting toward the end, I felt there were too many coincidence (private investigator and his connection to Tom for one), and the drama that unfolded with the chase, seem a bit overdramatic and far fetched. However I was content, distraught and frightened with the conclusion/answers to Dani.
Slow gripping read. Definitely an author I’ll be keeping an eye on.
*Read for #litexp14 - Thriller*
Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for my review copy
The brutal killing of Dani Lancing 20 years ago has traumatized, altered and consumed the lives of the three people in a such profound way that they were unable to move on. Each went their own separate paths to protect, savor her memory and image, and seek revenge and justice in the only way they know how. What happened to Dani?
Well the story is unraveled as the author flips back and forth in various times, all out of order – which took a bit of getting use too - but giving you snippet of the horrifying secrets, cover-ups, betrayal, jealously surrounding Dani’s death and long after.
I prepared to give the novel a high score of 5 stars but as I was getting toward the end, I felt there were too many coincidence (private investigator and his connection to Tom for one), and the drama that unfolded with the chase, seem a bit overdramatic and far fetched. However I was content, distraught and frightened with the conclusion/answers to Dani.
Slow gripping read. Definitely an author I’ll be keeping an eye on.
*Read for #litexp14 - Thriller*
Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for my review copy
October 25, 2013
*Won through a goodreads giveaway*
The Last Winter of Dani Lancing is P.D. Viner's enthralling debut effort featuring a cast of people I don't think I'd want to be alone in a room with. Not one. I don't think there's one hero for me in this novel.
From the beginning it's obvious there are some strange things going to happen in the The Last Winter of Dani Lancing because of her still seeming to be an alive and breathing character and the chapter heading saying it was December 2010. If I had not read the book sleeve I would have assumed that Dani was still up and at 'em. She's not up and at 'em. She's very much so not up and at 'em.
Jim Lancing, Patty Lancing, and Tom Bevans are all still engulfed in at least one state of mourning 20 years later since the death of Dani Lancing as if it has only happened 20 minutes earlier. Jim, Dani's father, still walks around having conversations with her ghost. Tom tries to move on but is unable to let the torch he's held for Dani go out. He constantly compares every potential mate to her but they just don't fit the bill. Patty is probably the worse off.
News that many cold cases would be looked at because of breakthroughs in DNA testing is what really sets the ball rolling...down hill. Tom, Dani's childhood love, mentions this to Patty, Dani's mother. Patty, once a successful journalist, sees this as the break she needs. The break from feeling so consumed with guilt that has cost her her job, her husband, and her sanity. Tom, now a detective who investigates cases such as Dani's, is not even aware of the crazy he has unleashed. Eventually, we learn all about the last winter of Dani Lancing.
The Last Winter of Dani Lancing jumps from the past during the late 80s and the present 2010 in an nonsequential way that I found highly annoying at first. I couldn't decipher the past Dani from the present Dani thanks to the father making this so torturous. As pages flew by, I daresay I enjoyed this order because it allowed the layers to be peeled back slowly as most chapters ended with no closure or cliff-hangers.
As mentioned earlier in this review, I would not want to be alone in a room with any of these characters. Especially not Patty. They are all proof of what guilt, lies, secrets, and grief can do to a person. They all seem like former shells of themselves but there isn't enough information given about the people they used to be. I guess that's the point with anyone who's ever been dealt a devastating loss and how that loss creates a new person who can never go back to being who they once were.
It may seem that there are few more gripes than one should have if rating a novel 4 stars. My reason for such a high rating is because I couldn't help but be invested in the mystery of the last winter of Dani Lancing. Even when I wanted to shake these characters from their fog, I remember how broken someone feels when they are dealing with the loss of someone at the eve of beginning their "real" adult life. I felt sorry that these people were dealing with their grief so poorly and seemingly had no escape except for the truth of her death being revealed. What a reveal!
This debut effort is deserving of its 4-star rating although I found so much fault in the characters and their inability to move on. The Last Winter of Dani Lancing will appeal to fans of psychological thrillers. I enjoyed reading this very much and hope Viner's next will be just as good. The truth, no matter how ugly, needs to be told before any ghosts can be set free.
The Last Winter of Dani Lancing is P.D. Viner's enthralling debut effort featuring a cast of people I don't think I'd want to be alone in a room with. Not one. I don't think there's one hero for me in this novel.
From the beginning it's obvious there are some strange things going to happen in the The Last Winter of Dani Lancing because of her still seeming to be an alive and breathing character and the chapter heading saying it was December 2010. If I had not read the book sleeve I would have assumed that Dani was still up and at 'em. She's not up and at 'em. She's very much so not up and at 'em.
Jim Lancing, Patty Lancing, and Tom Bevans are all still engulfed in at least one state of mourning 20 years later since the death of Dani Lancing as if it has only happened 20 minutes earlier. Jim, Dani's father, still walks around having conversations with her ghost. Tom tries to move on but is unable to let the torch he's held for Dani go out. He constantly compares every potential mate to her but they just don't fit the bill. Patty is probably the worse off.
News that many cold cases would be looked at because of breakthroughs in DNA testing is what really sets the ball rolling...down hill. Tom, Dani's childhood love, mentions this to Patty, Dani's mother. Patty, once a successful journalist, sees this as the break she needs. The break from feeling so consumed with guilt that has cost her her job, her husband, and her sanity. Tom, now a detective who investigates cases such as Dani's, is not even aware of the crazy he has unleashed. Eventually, we learn all about the last winter of Dani Lancing.
The Last Winter of Dani Lancing jumps from the past during the late 80s and the present 2010 in an nonsequential way that I found highly annoying at first. I couldn't decipher the past Dani from the present Dani thanks to the father making this so torturous. As pages flew by, I daresay I enjoyed this order because it allowed the layers to be peeled back slowly as most chapters ended with no closure or cliff-hangers.
As mentioned earlier in this review, I would not want to be alone in a room with any of these characters. Especially not Patty. They are all proof of what guilt, lies, secrets, and grief can do to a person. They all seem like former shells of themselves but there isn't enough information given about the people they used to be. I guess that's the point with anyone who's ever been dealt a devastating loss and how that loss creates a new person who can never go back to being who they once were.
It may seem that there are few more gripes than one should have if rating a novel 4 stars. My reason for such a high rating is because I couldn't help but be invested in the mystery of the last winter of Dani Lancing. Even when I wanted to shake these characters from their fog, I remember how broken someone feels when they are dealing with the loss of someone at the eve of beginning their "real" adult life. I felt sorry that these people were dealing with their grief so poorly and seemingly had no escape except for the truth of her death being revealed. What a reveal!
This debut effort is deserving of its 4-star rating although I found so much fault in the characters and their inability to move on. The Last Winter of Dani Lancing will appeal to fans of psychological thrillers. I enjoyed reading this very much and hope Viner's next will be just as good. The truth, no matter how ugly, needs to be told before any ghosts can be set free.
October 4, 2013
Dani Lancing was a sweet child, full of questions and curiosity as children are. She was exceptionally close to her father, Jim, and as she grew older, that closeness was such that her mother, Patty, felt shut out on occasion, often feeling a twinge of jealously. Dani felt the tension which was developing between her Mum and herself, and was powerless to cross the void. But she could tell her Dad anything, even sometimes things he didn’t want to know.
When Dani left home to start college, she loved the independence which she found, living in an apartment with a girlfriend, having no need to be tidy, to wash dishes, all the necessary chores when she had lived at home. Tom Bevans was her best friend, but Tom loved Dani; his love for her was deep and unconditional, but Dani didn’t love Tom like he loved her. When Dani was kidnapped just after Christmas in 1989, and remained missing for three weeks before her body was found, the lives of those around her changed forever.
Twenty years later, with Jim and Patty’s marriage having broken down, Patty lived on the adrenalin of the hunt. She was determined to find Dani’s killer and had been searching for twenty years; she had given up her successful career in journalism to concentrate solely on her obsession. Grief and guilt were her constant companions. Jim was lonely; alone and sad, missing Patty desperately, but missing Dani more. Moving on seemed not to be an option.
With Tom now a detective in a position of power, and with him still close to Jim and Patty; he had kept in touch with them all these years, even though the case had gone cold, and no resolution had come about; when the chance of DNA matching in 2010 was presented, the passion to find Dani’s killer was rekindled…the need for revenge was great. Patty was consumed – she didn’t eat, drink or sleep – she was heading into dangerous places, and had no comprehension of what could go wrong.
As things moved forward, going deeper and deeper into the darkness, secrets which had been kept all those years ago threatened to be revealed. The danger was immense…would Patty find Dani’s murderer, or would she be just another victim? Would their nightmare never end?
I totally loved this book! Going backward and forward between 1989 and 2010 was easy to follow, as each chapter was headed with the date, so the flow-on with the story didn’t stop. The tension, the emotion was such that I felt completely involved in the plot; the characters were completely likeable, and I really enjoyed the way the story was told. The twists throughout were gripping, always keeping the pages turning to find out what happened next. This psychological thriller is one I have no hesitation in recommending.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy to read and review.
When Dani left home to start college, she loved the independence which she found, living in an apartment with a girlfriend, having no need to be tidy, to wash dishes, all the necessary chores when she had lived at home. Tom Bevans was her best friend, but Tom loved Dani; his love for her was deep and unconditional, but Dani didn’t love Tom like he loved her. When Dani was kidnapped just after Christmas in 1989, and remained missing for three weeks before her body was found, the lives of those around her changed forever.
Twenty years later, with Jim and Patty’s marriage having broken down, Patty lived on the adrenalin of the hunt. She was determined to find Dani’s killer and had been searching for twenty years; she had given up her successful career in journalism to concentrate solely on her obsession. Grief and guilt were her constant companions. Jim was lonely; alone and sad, missing Patty desperately, but missing Dani more. Moving on seemed not to be an option.
With Tom now a detective in a position of power, and with him still close to Jim and Patty; he had kept in touch with them all these years, even though the case had gone cold, and no resolution had come about; when the chance of DNA matching in 2010 was presented, the passion to find Dani’s killer was rekindled…the need for revenge was great. Patty was consumed – she didn’t eat, drink or sleep – she was heading into dangerous places, and had no comprehension of what could go wrong.
As things moved forward, going deeper and deeper into the darkness, secrets which had been kept all those years ago threatened to be revealed. The danger was immense…would Patty find Dani’s murderer, or would she be just another victim? Would their nightmare never end?
I totally loved this book! Going backward and forward between 1989 and 2010 was easy to follow, as each chapter was headed with the date, so the flow-on with the story didn’t stop. The tension, the emotion was such that I felt completely involved in the plot; the characters were completely likeable, and I really enjoyed the way the story was told. The twists throughout were gripping, always keeping the pages turning to find out what happened next. This psychological thriller is one I have no hesitation in recommending.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy to read and review.
January 23, 2014
How do you get over the rape and murder of your only daughter? If you are Jim you look for your dead daughter everywhere, she is with you as an apparition. If you are Patty you will spend twenty years searching for her killer vowing to avenge for her death.
I am not really a big fan of ghosts, so when I started reading The Last Winter of Dani Lancing I was irritated that Dani is talking to her father so many years after her death. That feeling didn't last long as I got sucked in by the story and agreed that Jim's relationship with Dani adds a certain something to this time-hopping story of a hunt for a murderer.
The story is told through the eyes of Jim, Dani's father, Patty her mother and Tom now a detective in London who was Dani's friend, although it soon becomes clear that he wanted more than just her friendship. Dani died in Durham having moved there to go to university and the trail crosses the country as the story unfolds.
The use of the different times from before Dani's death to the present where Patty believes she has now found a concrete lead to Dani's murderer is used to perfection to increase the tension as pieces of information are revealed. P.D. Viner really proves himself to be a master at that slow turn of the handle revealing a twist and then taking a step in a different direction, making this reader wait for the next revelation, the next piece of the puzzle all the while reappraising who I thought had murdered poor Dani. I have to say I was so far off knowing whodunit it was laughable.
The characterisation was fantastic, Jim only willing to remember his beautiful and innocent daughter, Patty who was filled with the need for revenge, a raw anger against the killer but what feels like a more realistic portrayal of a mother's relationship with her complex daughter and Tom, known as the sad man, perhaps because of his role in the police he is the one chosen to break bad news; or is it because he was broken by the death of the young woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with?
A truly original take on what could have been a depressing story of those people left behind when someone dies; instead it is this and so much more, and I will certainly be looking out for more books by the talented P.D. Viner.
I received a free copy of this book from the publishers Random House UK in return for this honest review. They bill this as `A hauntingly original debut that will stay with you long after the last page' and I don't disagree.
I am not really a big fan of ghosts, so when I started reading The Last Winter of Dani Lancing I was irritated that Dani is talking to her father so many years after her death. That feeling didn't last long as I got sucked in by the story and agreed that Jim's relationship with Dani adds a certain something to this time-hopping story of a hunt for a murderer.
The story is told through the eyes of Jim, Dani's father, Patty her mother and Tom now a detective in London who was Dani's friend, although it soon becomes clear that he wanted more than just her friendship. Dani died in Durham having moved there to go to university and the trail crosses the country as the story unfolds.
The use of the different times from before Dani's death to the present where Patty believes she has now found a concrete lead to Dani's murderer is used to perfection to increase the tension as pieces of information are revealed. P.D. Viner really proves himself to be a master at that slow turn of the handle revealing a twist and then taking a step in a different direction, making this reader wait for the next revelation, the next piece of the puzzle all the while reappraising who I thought had murdered poor Dani. I have to say I was so far off knowing whodunit it was laughable.
The characterisation was fantastic, Jim only willing to remember his beautiful and innocent daughter, Patty who was filled with the need for revenge, a raw anger against the killer but what feels like a more realistic portrayal of a mother's relationship with her complex daughter and Tom, known as the sad man, perhaps because of his role in the police he is the one chosen to break bad news; or is it because he was broken by the death of the young woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with?
A truly original take on what could have been a depressing story of those people left behind when someone dies; instead it is this and so much more, and I will certainly be looking out for more books by the talented P.D. Viner.
I received a free copy of this book from the publishers Random House UK in return for this honest review. They bill this as `A hauntingly original debut that will stay with you long after the last page' and I don't disagree.
September 10, 2013
I must admit that when I started reading The Last Winter of Dani Lancing, my initial reaction was one of “Oh no, not another ‘I see ghosts’ type of book”, but thankfully this impression was quickly dispelled and this proved itself to be a really quite clever and compelling read…
What I loved particularly about this book was the way that the story gradually unfolded with more than one or two surprises along the way. This could so easily have devolved into a very linear tale of the lives of those in the shadows of loss- Dani’s parents and her closest friend Tom- and consequently been a little dull. However, thanks to the skill of Viner’s writing and his control of the pace, the reader is constantly wrong-footed, as the details of Dani’s brief life are revealed and the totally surprising consequences of her murder, as evinced by the actions of her mother on the man she believes culpable, and the undertaking of a career in the police force of her friend Tom in the wake of his personal loss. These two characters in particular, carry the weight of the novel, as the death of Dani reverberates through, and dictates their actions, and both characters are incredibly empathetic as the strands of their stories are unveiled. Dani’s father acts as a foil to the more extreme actions of the aforementioned, and Viner skilfully depicts the sad image of a man bereft, trying to hold onto his memories of his daughter by conversing with her and seeking to come to terms with his personal loss. The depth of feeling conveyed in these passages is really quite heartrending, especially set against the more vital actions of her mother and Tom. I am loathe to go into details of the plot as I would want any reader to be surprised as I was by the clever touches of misdirection that Viner instigates throughout, that truly added to my experience as a reader.
There is an ease to Viner’s writing seldom achieved in crime fiction, that does make this book exceedingly difficult to put down- I read this almost in one sitting. His attention to the more sensual details of a scene is unerring, so that the reader really experiences the feel and sensory perception of the smallest details- the coldness of the snow and the smell of blood for example- as well as being totally caught up in the strength of human emotion and weaknesses of the main protagonists. The book is cut through with some nice little comic touches as well to, at times, that lighten the whole affair as this really is a book fair bursting with the gamut of human emotion. I loved that this book so quickly revealed itself as something new and refreshing in a fairly well-used story arc, and the power and intelligence of the writing kept me reading. An excellent debut and a refreshing new voice in crime fiction.
What I loved particularly about this book was the way that the story gradually unfolded with more than one or two surprises along the way. This could so easily have devolved into a very linear tale of the lives of those in the shadows of loss- Dani’s parents and her closest friend Tom- and consequently been a little dull. However, thanks to the skill of Viner’s writing and his control of the pace, the reader is constantly wrong-footed, as the details of Dani’s brief life are revealed and the totally surprising consequences of her murder, as evinced by the actions of her mother on the man she believes culpable, and the undertaking of a career in the police force of her friend Tom in the wake of his personal loss. These two characters in particular, carry the weight of the novel, as the death of Dani reverberates through, and dictates their actions, and both characters are incredibly empathetic as the strands of their stories are unveiled. Dani’s father acts as a foil to the more extreme actions of the aforementioned, and Viner skilfully depicts the sad image of a man bereft, trying to hold onto his memories of his daughter by conversing with her and seeking to come to terms with his personal loss. The depth of feeling conveyed in these passages is really quite heartrending, especially set against the more vital actions of her mother and Tom. I am loathe to go into details of the plot as I would want any reader to be surprised as I was by the clever touches of misdirection that Viner instigates throughout, that truly added to my experience as a reader.
There is an ease to Viner’s writing seldom achieved in crime fiction, that does make this book exceedingly difficult to put down- I read this almost in one sitting. His attention to the more sensual details of a scene is unerring, so that the reader really experiences the feel and sensory perception of the smallest details- the coldness of the snow and the smell of blood for example- as well as being totally caught up in the strength of human emotion and weaknesses of the main protagonists. The book is cut through with some nice little comic touches as well to, at times, that lighten the whole affair as this really is a book fair bursting with the gamut of human emotion. I loved that this book so quickly revealed itself as something new and refreshing in a fairly well-used story arc, and the power and intelligence of the writing kept me reading. An excellent debut and a refreshing new voice in crime fiction.
October 4, 2013
I read this via an early release at NetGalley and I was really enthused over the plot, the writing style, the character development - at first. It's extremely well written from a technical standpoint, the storyline moves along quickly and I wasn't bothered by the jumps in narrative, the author did a great job giving each character a unique voice. By the halfway point I began to feel exhausted by the blind, almost pathological love stories. Tom idolized Dani, Dani's dad worshipped her mom, her mom was obsessed with Dani - once she was dead. It's not every day you find so many determinedly obsessive people in one group! Suddenly, there's the introduction of a bad-guy pathologist, Dani's skelator, chain-smoking mother is fighting for her life like some kind of instinctual ninja complete with perfectly placed kicks while on the run, one REALLY bad drug dealer pops up in the last chapter or so of the book (before this he was a scantily mentioned name) virtually everyone - including Dani - appears to actually be either a liar, a thug, delusional or all of the above and then - they live happily ever after. It felt like the author had no idea how the story was going to end and simply used a grab bag of ideas from myriad movie plots and forced them all to connect.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 1, 2013
Honestly, I've no idea what I read and why I read it. It's a mess of a novel, and this is coming from someone who loves non-chronological structure. It's practically the reason I requested the ARC from NetGalley. Needless to say, it's a disappointment from start to finish.
So, there's Dani Lancing, the murdered girl. There's her sad-sack father, estranged from her vengeance-is-mine mother. Dani haunts her father (yes, there's a ghost to complicate matters, but conveniently she has forgotten just about everything helpful). Fantasies of revenge haunts her mother. There's a lovesick pup of a police officer who has dedicated his career to solving sexual crimes because his one true love died in a horrid fashion. There's a random ass of a forensic investigator who has it in for the lovesick man. And there are murders.
The set up is good (minus the creepy ghost). Just about everything else is overwritten. I'm not sure what's missing in this book in terms of motives, everything is present. The good (!) part is that I had no clue who killed Dani, because that apparently was a McGuffin. No one cares. There's dubious morality. There's no explanation as to why any character acts as they do. Quite irritatingly, there are fancily termed chapters called Intermissions, which basically tell the story of the past. The problem is that the regular chapters aren't linear either and there wasn't any need for intermissions. There's also the hopeless ending, which opens up another can of worms rather than deal with the one already open.
Not a book I'd recommend. 1 star.
I received a copy of this book for review from NetGalley.
So, there's Dani Lancing, the murdered girl. There's her sad-sack father, estranged from her vengeance-is-mine mother. Dani haunts her father (yes, there's a ghost to complicate matters, but conveniently she has forgotten just about everything helpful). Fantasies of revenge haunts her mother. There's a lovesick pup of a police officer who has dedicated his career to solving sexual crimes because his one true love died in a horrid fashion. There's a random ass of a forensic investigator who has it in for the lovesick man. And there are murders.
The set up is good (minus the creepy ghost). Just about everything else is overwritten. I'm not sure what's missing in this book in terms of motives, everything is present. The good (!) part is that I had no clue who killed Dani, because that apparently was a McGuffin. No one cares. There's dubious morality. There's no explanation as to why any character acts as they do. Quite irritatingly, there are fancily termed chapters called Intermissions, which basically tell the story of the past. The problem is that the regular chapters aren't linear either and there wasn't any need for intermissions. There's also the hopeless ending, which opens up another can of worms rather than deal with the one already open.
Not a book I'd recommend. 1 star.
I received a copy of this book for review from NetGalley.
January 6, 2016
This book was just not very good. With shifting points of view in the third person and no clear understanding of what was going on until the middle of it I found myself growing increasingly bored and just grossed out at times.
We have four characters to keep track of in this book. Dani Lancing, her mother and father Patty and Jim, and Tom, Dani's boyfriend from when they were kids.
I have to say that sometimes you will come across books out there that have no sympathetic characters at all. Those are the hardest books to finish for me because you just don't care what happens to the characters and when that happens you don't have a really big incentive to finish the book. Anything you make up in your head will always be better than the ending anyway.
With regards to this book, except for the character of Jim, I ended up disliking Dani's mother and found her ex Tom beyond creepy and obsessed.
It did not help that the narrative kept jumping from the past to the present and back again and as a reader I found it to be a very long winding road trying to understand how Dani died and who was ultimately responsible for her murder. Once that was ultimately revealed I just felt annoyed by the constant 'red herrings' that were strewn about the place. The ending was just awful and it leaves you scratching your head wondering why you wasted your time reading this book.
Please note that I was provided this book for free via the Amazon Vine Program in exchange for a honest review.
We have four characters to keep track of in this book. Dani Lancing, her mother and father Patty and Jim, and Tom, Dani's boyfriend from when they were kids.
I have to say that sometimes you will come across books out there that have no sympathetic characters at all. Those are the hardest books to finish for me because you just don't care what happens to the characters and when that happens you don't have a really big incentive to finish the book. Anything you make up in your head will always be better than the ending anyway.
With regards to this book, except for the character of Jim, I ended up disliking Dani's mother and found her ex Tom beyond creepy and obsessed.
It did not help that the narrative kept jumping from the past to the present and back again and as a reader I found it to be a very long winding road trying to understand how Dani died and who was ultimately responsible for her murder. Once that was ultimately revealed I just felt annoyed by the constant 'red herrings' that were strewn about the place. The ending was just awful and it leaves you scratching your head wondering why you wasted your time reading this book.
Please note that I was provided this book for free via the Amazon Vine Program in exchange for a honest review.
October 12, 2013
When I first picked up this novel I have to admit that I did take a look at the cover and contemplated whether or not I was going to read it. I’m not a huge fan of the art work for the hardcover issue; the paperback edition – to be released in 2014 – is so much more inviting and I love that cover! Needless to say I did give it a go an here are my thoughts!
The Last Winter of Dani Lancing for me is an incredibly interesting book. I struggled early on to make any sense of the story. Multiple time shifts, multiple angles and a storyline that made absolutely no sense to me, I just couldn’t work it out! Normally if I’ve not been able to make any inroads into a story once I’ve read the first fifty pages then I give up – harsh I know - and on more than one occasion I was sorely tempted to do just that with this book. I didn’t. There was something about this book that kept me interested. I persevered and now that I’ve finished the book I’m so glad I didn’t give up on Dani Lancing, in more ways than one.
There’s no doubt that PD Viner is a talented author. Despite my initial reservations I slowly began to understand where he was coming from and what he was trying to achieve. One minute I was in 2010, the next in the early 80’s and then back again all told from various viewpoints. There’s the inevitable moment when you suddenly realise what is happening - a eureka moment - and what has happened to Dani. It’s at this point it all starts to make sense! Just like watching Mr Benn walking into the fancy dress clothes shop on 52 Festive Road. You turn a page and as if by magic you unlock a dark hidden secret that leads you on the correct path to enlightenment. Don’t get too comfortable however; PD Viner will force you to rethink further down the line with a number of shocking and unexpected moments and compulsory red herrings. Talk about keeping you on your toes! I was exhausted by the end – a good exhausted!
The highlight of the entire book for me was the relationship between father and daughter. It took me through a range of emotions and is a veritable rollercoaster of a ride. A father torn by grief he clings on to the smallest memory taking one day at a time. On occasions he is strong but on the flip side he is so reliant on his daughter for strength, to make it through, hour by hour, minute by minute. I loved Dani’s viewpoint, her character and personality - so very well written. I never tired of the pair and as the book develops so does the relationship. It starts of slowly but builds into a wonderful crescendo of emotion. The couple are well suited and although both powerful characters their combined strength is what sold the book for me.
The hospital itself was pulled down years ago and is now a supermarket. She went in there once. Worked out that Dani was born in the deli section. It could have been worse; feminine hygiene and incontinence were close by. Patty bought some cold cuts, salami, breaded ham and a baguette. She thought about eating them then and there, but it seemed a little crass.
Characterisation is well thought out. PD Viner has created a motley crew of personalities in this book and they all play their part in an intriguing mystery. A father clinging on to his daughter, a mother hell-bent on revenge, a boyfriend desperate to seek the truth and a ruthless drug dealer who takes advantage of anyone and everything. I loved Franco; I thought he was a superb addition to the story even though we aren’t introduced to him until late in the plot. I would have liked more from him! A powerful man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.
I often found myself comparing The Last Winter of Dani Lancing to CBS’s The Ghost Whisperer. I just couldn’t get that out of my head! The narrative is strong, haunting and beautiful; I really enjoyed PD Viner’s style.
A wonderful story, a superb debut, this is one book that if you are like me you’ll have to persevere with. Whatever you do stick with it, this is a remarkable book and deserves to be read.
The Last Winter of Dani Lancing for me is an incredibly interesting book. I struggled early on to make any sense of the story. Multiple time shifts, multiple angles and a storyline that made absolutely no sense to me, I just couldn’t work it out! Normally if I’ve not been able to make any inroads into a story once I’ve read the first fifty pages then I give up – harsh I know - and on more than one occasion I was sorely tempted to do just that with this book. I didn’t. There was something about this book that kept me interested. I persevered and now that I’ve finished the book I’m so glad I didn’t give up on Dani Lancing, in more ways than one.
There’s no doubt that PD Viner is a talented author. Despite my initial reservations I slowly began to understand where he was coming from and what he was trying to achieve. One minute I was in 2010, the next in the early 80’s and then back again all told from various viewpoints. There’s the inevitable moment when you suddenly realise what is happening - a eureka moment - and what has happened to Dani. It’s at this point it all starts to make sense! Just like watching Mr Benn walking into the fancy dress clothes shop on 52 Festive Road. You turn a page and as if by magic you unlock a dark hidden secret that leads you on the correct path to enlightenment. Don’t get too comfortable however; PD Viner will force you to rethink further down the line with a number of shocking and unexpected moments and compulsory red herrings. Talk about keeping you on your toes! I was exhausted by the end – a good exhausted!
The highlight of the entire book for me was the relationship between father and daughter. It took me through a range of emotions and is a veritable rollercoaster of a ride. A father torn by grief he clings on to the smallest memory taking one day at a time. On occasions he is strong but on the flip side he is so reliant on his daughter for strength, to make it through, hour by hour, minute by minute. I loved Dani’s viewpoint, her character and personality - so very well written. I never tired of the pair and as the book develops so does the relationship. It starts of slowly but builds into a wonderful crescendo of emotion. The couple are well suited and although both powerful characters their combined strength is what sold the book for me.
The hospital itself was pulled down years ago and is now a supermarket. She went in there once. Worked out that Dani was born in the deli section. It could have been worse; feminine hygiene and incontinence were close by. Patty bought some cold cuts, salami, breaded ham and a baguette. She thought about eating them then and there, but it seemed a little crass.
Characterisation is well thought out. PD Viner has created a motley crew of personalities in this book and they all play their part in an intriguing mystery. A father clinging on to his daughter, a mother hell-bent on revenge, a boyfriend desperate to seek the truth and a ruthless drug dealer who takes advantage of anyone and everything. I loved Franco; I thought he was a superb addition to the story even though we aren’t introduced to him until late in the plot. I would have liked more from him! A powerful man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.
I often found myself comparing The Last Winter of Dani Lancing to CBS’s The Ghost Whisperer. I just couldn’t get that out of my head! The narrative is strong, haunting and beautiful; I really enjoyed PD Viner’s style.
A wonderful story, a superb debut, this is one book that if you are like me you’ll have to persevere with. Whatever you do stick with it, this is a remarkable book and deserves to be read.
October 1, 2013
The Last Winter of Dani Lancing was a challenging read for me. I almost tossed it aside at the 40+ page mark. The writing was all over the place. However, based on a few rave reviews I had read, I decided to continue, anxious to find out more about Dani Lancing.
In a nutshell, twenty years earlier, Dani Lancing was a college student who had been kidnapped, raped and murdered. It was a crime that had never been solved. Everyone who loved Dani were deeply affected. Her parents, Patty and Jim, watched their marriage dissolve afterward. Even Dani's boyfriend Tom was deeply affected. He has made a career of investigating crimes and violence against women. With a promising lead in the 20 year old case and new advances in DNA testing, there is still a slim chance that someone might be brought to justice.
The story of Dani's life through the time of her death, is told in bits and bobs and follows no particular sequence. Probably the only character that I liked in this story was Jim, Dani's father. Her death had such a profound effect on him. He clung to the memory of his daughter. He spoke to her daily and her ghostly presence helps him to get from one day to the next. All this was touching, but then again some seemed a bit too strange as well. As for Dani's mom Patty, she was so full of anger and to me seemed only interested in getting revenge.
For me the novel was one that took focus, commitment and concentration for too little reward. Along the way there were a lot of leads that look promising, but they didn't pan out. While that generally works well in a mystery for me, it just didn't work with this story. In addition, being pulled from the present, back to the 1980s and then back to the present again, coupled with too many points of view only served to weaken my overall enthusiasm for finding out how this one might end.
Sorry, folks, even though I generally enjoy psychological mysteries, this one did not work for me.
In a nutshell, twenty years earlier, Dani Lancing was a college student who had been kidnapped, raped and murdered. It was a crime that had never been solved. Everyone who loved Dani were deeply affected. Her parents, Patty and Jim, watched their marriage dissolve afterward. Even Dani's boyfriend Tom was deeply affected. He has made a career of investigating crimes and violence against women. With a promising lead in the 20 year old case and new advances in DNA testing, there is still a slim chance that someone might be brought to justice.
The story of Dani's life through the time of her death, is told in bits and bobs and follows no particular sequence. Probably the only character that I liked in this story was Jim, Dani's father. Her death had such a profound effect on him. He clung to the memory of his daughter. He spoke to her daily and her ghostly presence helps him to get from one day to the next. All this was touching, but then again some seemed a bit too strange as well. As for Dani's mom Patty, she was so full of anger and to me seemed only interested in getting revenge.
For me the novel was one that took focus, commitment and concentration for too little reward. Along the way there were a lot of leads that look promising, but they didn't pan out. While that generally works well in a mystery for me, it just didn't work with this story. In addition, being pulled from the present, back to the 1980s and then back to the present again, coupled with too many points of view only served to weaken my overall enthusiasm for finding out how this one might end.
Sorry, folks, even though I generally enjoy psychological mysteries, this one did not work for me.
December 4, 2013
This is an assured and intelligent debut novel, which is literary in style, but also encompasses the best of great crime fiction. Danielle Lancing was the only child of only children; her mother Patty a driven journalist, her father Jim a kindly and sensitive man, who placed his daughter on a pedestal. Patty spent her career trying to track down those affected by crime, such as Sonya Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper – seeing murder as a challenge, a story – not something that could touch her personally. Yet when a terrible crime takes their only daughter from them, both Jim and Patty struggle to cope with the void of loss.
In this book, we see how Jim and Patty deal with what happened, as the years pass. Jim converses with the ghost of his daughter – or does he imagine her there to help him cope? Patty has a dreadful, burning need for revenge and seeks the truth with dreadful consequences. Also left behind is Detective Superintendant Thomas Bevans, the ‘Sad Man’, who has loved Dani since he was a child and now spends his time trying to find the men responsible for killing other young girls. Yet, much of what we learn will be challenged. as we discover what really happened all those years ago, and secrets are revealed. This is an absolutely riveting read – with characters you will really care about, beautifully written with compassion and great plot twists. I recommend it highly and look forward to reading more from this author.
This book was provided by the publisher for review.
In this book, we see how Jim and Patty deal with what happened, as the years pass. Jim converses with the ghost of his daughter – or does he imagine her there to help him cope? Patty has a dreadful, burning need for revenge and seeks the truth with dreadful consequences. Also left behind is Detective Superintendant Thomas Bevans, the ‘Sad Man’, who has loved Dani since he was a child and now spends his time trying to find the men responsible for killing other young girls. Yet, much of what we learn will be challenged. as we discover what really happened all those years ago, and secrets are revealed. This is an absolutely riveting read – with characters you will really care about, beautifully written with compassion and great plot twists. I recommend it highly and look forward to reading more from this author.
This book was provided by the publisher for review.
December 28, 2013
I picked up a copy of this book because the book cover caught my eye. Then I read the back cover and was like ok I am ready to read this book. It sounds like something right up my alley that I enjoy. Well I have to tell you that I not only enjoyed it but the first word that came to my mind after reading it was "brillant". I don't usually rave about a book unless it is really, extra special. Mr. Viner really knows how to tell a good story. As much as I felt that Dani's mother was cold in the beginning, I still could understand why she did the things she did in the name of grief and love. In fact, as I got to become more familiar with her, I felt sorry for her. Dani's father on the other hand was just a hot mess. He could not keep himself together. However I found it intriguing that Dani's father was communicating with Dani. Finally there is Tom. He was one of the good guys. He showed how much he loved Dani with his actions. I took this book with me on the road. To my destination it was 3 1/2 hours to four and I finished this book with about an hour and 15 minutes until I got to my location. This book is a one seat read that will have you disappointed when it ends!
July 17, 2024
Setting: London & Durham, England; 1989 and 2010.
It is 2010 and Detective Superintendent Tom Bevans heads up a specialist task force searching for a serial killer who targets young women. But Tom is still haunted by the events of 1989 when, shortly after he joined the police, his best friend (and erstwhile girlfriend) Dani Lancing was murdered whilst she was at Durham University, a crime which has yet to be solved. New advances in DNA and forensic techniques hold out the possibility of a resolution for Dani's long-suffering parents Jim and Patty, who are now divorced. But when Patty is told that a cold case review could be a further four years away, she decides to seek her own form of revenge, tracking down suspects in the original murder. Unfortunately, she chooses to use a private investigator who was originally a forensic expert working for the police but dismissed after his off-duty liaisons were reported by Tom Bevans, leaving the investigator with an axe to grind. As the story unfolds, with Jim being visited by his daughter's ghost, we learn more about Dani and the events leading up to her murder....
I was a bit confused at first by the dialogue between Jim and Dani until I realised that she was only there in spirit. Otherwise, although the jumping back and forth in time also took some effort to keep track of, I found myself quite gripped by the story. A bit slow at times, there were several interesting twists in the tale and a quite satisfactory ending, leaving room for a sequel which I am also keen to read - 9/10.
It is 2010 and Detective Superintendent Tom Bevans heads up a specialist task force searching for a serial killer who targets young women. But Tom is still haunted by the events of 1989 when, shortly after he joined the police, his best friend (and erstwhile girlfriend) Dani Lancing was murdered whilst she was at Durham University, a crime which has yet to be solved. New advances in DNA and forensic techniques hold out the possibility of a resolution for Dani's long-suffering parents Jim and Patty, who are now divorced. But when Patty is told that a cold case review could be a further four years away, she decides to seek her own form of revenge, tracking down suspects in the original murder. Unfortunately, she chooses to use a private investigator who was originally a forensic expert working for the police but dismissed after his off-duty liaisons were reported by Tom Bevans, leaving the investigator with an axe to grind. As the story unfolds, with Jim being visited by his daughter's ghost, we learn more about Dani and the events leading up to her murder....
I was a bit confused at first by the dialogue between Jim and Dani until I realised that she was only there in spirit. Otherwise, although the jumping back and forth in time also took some effort to keep track of, I found myself quite gripped by the story. A bit slow at times, there were several interesting twists in the tale and a quite satisfactory ending, leaving room for a sequel which I am also keen to read - 9/10.
October 23, 2015
Twenty years ago, Dani Lancing, a university student, was kidnapped and murdered. Her death has been devastating to three people in particular: her mother Patty is obsessed with finding her daughter’s killer; her father Jim is a shell of a man who believes his daughter’s ghost is living with him; and her unrequited lover Tom has become a detective solving cases like Dani’s. When it seems that Dani’s cold case will be reopened, a series of events is initiated that does lead to the unraveling of the mystery of Dani’s death but also leads to the revelation of many secrets as well.
This psychological thriller is narrated from the perspective of several characters – primarily Patty, Jim and Tom – and jumps back and forth in time. Initially, this shifting of perspectives and time periods may be disorienting, but the reader soon finds him/herself adapting to the non-linear narrative style.
At the beginning, I found myself engaged in the book. It is very successful in portraying how grief has affected Patty and Jim differently. One may not agree with their actions, but will understand why they behave as they do. As the novel progressed, however, I found myself becoming annoyed. There are so many people who are obsessed with a lost love (Tom with Dani; Jim with Patty who left him) and their constant pining becomes a tad much. Tom’s constant yearning for Dani is pathological and in the end is unconvincing when the reader learns what Tom has known all along. What also becomes annoying is that flashbacks are almost always introduced the same way: one character thinking of another. There are other ways of inserting flashbacks into a narrative.
As the plot unfolds, there is an additional problem: coincidences. That Patty enlists the help of Marcus Keyson, a man who has a grievance against Tom, is described as a “freak coincidence.” Unfortunately, this is not the only coincidence; they pile up. The father of Marcus’s best friend was the coroner who performed the autopsy on Dani? Jim and Tom arrive in Durham just in time to witness an accident involving someone to whom Patty had just spoken?
At times I felt like this novel was really a screenplay. It has all the elements of an action movie: murder, torture, suicide, drug use, extortion, etc. The final confrontation scene certainly has a cinematic feel. There are even unanswered questions at the end (e.g. What will the man emerging from the coma remember and tell?) which suggest a sequel.
The book is successful in developing a theme about how the keeping of secrets can do so much harm. In an effort to protect someone’s reputation, people inadvertently cause irreparable harm to others. Certainly the mystery of Dani’s death would have been solved years earlier if everyone had been honest and forthcoming about what he/she knew.
The novel begins well, but does not live up to its promise: some aspects of the style become repetitive; coincidences abound; the ending feels contrived; and characters who have the reader’s sympathy prove to be unworthy of it so in the end the reader cares for no one.
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
This psychological thriller is narrated from the perspective of several characters – primarily Patty, Jim and Tom – and jumps back and forth in time. Initially, this shifting of perspectives and time periods may be disorienting, but the reader soon finds him/herself adapting to the non-linear narrative style.
At the beginning, I found myself engaged in the book. It is very successful in portraying how grief has affected Patty and Jim differently. One may not agree with their actions, but will understand why they behave as they do. As the novel progressed, however, I found myself becoming annoyed. There are so many people who are obsessed with a lost love (Tom with Dani; Jim with Patty who left him) and their constant pining becomes a tad much. Tom’s constant yearning for Dani is pathological and in the end is unconvincing when the reader learns what Tom has known all along. What also becomes annoying is that flashbacks are almost always introduced the same way: one character thinking of another. There are other ways of inserting flashbacks into a narrative.
As the plot unfolds, there is an additional problem: coincidences. That Patty enlists the help of Marcus Keyson, a man who has a grievance against Tom, is described as a “freak coincidence.” Unfortunately, this is not the only coincidence; they pile up. The father of Marcus’s best friend was the coroner who performed the autopsy on Dani? Jim and Tom arrive in Durham just in time to witness an accident involving someone to whom Patty had just spoken?
At times I felt like this novel was really a screenplay. It has all the elements of an action movie: murder, torture, suicide, drug use, extortion, etc. The final confrontation scene certainly has a cinematic feel. There are even unanswered questions at the end (e.g. What will the man emerging from the coma remember and tell?) which suggest a sequel.
The book is successful in developing a theme about how the keeping of secrets can do so much harm. In an effort to protect someone’s reputation, people inadvertently cause irreparable harm to others. Certainly the mystery of Dani’s death would have been solved years earlier if everyone had been honest and forthcoming about what he/she knew.
The novel begins well, but does not live up to its promise: some aspects of the style become repetitive; coincidences abound; the ending feels contrived; and characters who have the reader’s sympathy prove to be unworthy of it so in the end the reader cares for no one.
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
October 23, 2013
The Last Winter Of Dani Lancing
by
P.D.Viner
Essentially...
Dani was murdered when she was twenty one. This book is the story of her parents destruction, her friend's destruction, and what actually happened to Dani Lancing.
My thoughts after reading this book...
This book was totally engaging in a really sad horrific kind of way. The story meanders back and forth throughout the past twenty years until we are at the present time. The key characters are Dani's mom, Patty...her dad, Jim...her high school friend Tom. And a weird forensic gentleman named Marcus Keyson. You should also know that Dani appears to her father as a ghost. You should also know that her friend Tom...has been in love with her since high school...and it's never been reciprocated by Dani.
Patty has been obsessed with finding out who killed her daughter. She is determined to punish that person. Her marriage is destroyed and she is pretty much destroyed along with it.
This obsession leads to a nightmare of events that almost seems impossible to believe but that's what makes this book so yummy and unputdownable. Dani's cold case is going to be reviewed but most likely not any time soon. Patty will do anything to make this happen sooner...and she does! This starts the series of unfortunate events that lead to the unravelling of almost every key character. It's secrets, lies, and forensic samples at their finest.
What I loved about this book...
I had no clue where the eventual outcome...or rather who killed Dani Lancing...was headed. That was awesome. The second a good thing happened there was a wink or a nod or an accident and really bad things happened. That was doubly awesome. It also helped that I did not like Dani. I don't think that she was very nice at all. Not that she should have died but it was amazing how nearly every choice she made was a bad one. Here is one small example...she believed her dealer boyfriend about drugs and actually became hooked on heroin...oh my!
What I did not love about this book...
I did not have love for any of these characters...but that's why this book was so delicious! I thought I loved her high school friend Tom but even he was annoying at times. He became a special police officer to solve crimes like Dani's but when I found out his role in all of this...oh my...shocking!
Final thoughts...
I found this book to be engaging. I was surprised, shocked and addicted to these characters. They had yummy flaws and horrible relationships...the stuff great mysteries are made of!
by
P.D.Viner
Essentially...
Dani was murdered when she was twenty one. This book is the story of her parents destruction, her friend's destruction, and what actually happened to Dani Lancing.
My thoughts after reading this book...
This book was totally engaging in a really sad horrific kind of way. The story meanders back and forth throughout the past twenty years until we are at the present time. The key characters are Dani's mom, Patty...her dad, Jim...her high school friend Tom. And a weird forensic gentleman named Marcus Keyson. You should also know that Dani appears to her father as a ghost. You should also know that her friend Tom...has been in love with her since high school...and it's never been reciprocated by Dani.
Patty has been obsessed with finding out who killed her daughter. She is determined to punish that person. Her marriage is destroyed and she is pretty much destroyed along with it.
This obsession leads to a nightmare of events that almost seems impossible to believe but that's what makes this book so yummy and unputdownable. Dani's cold case is going to be reviewed but most likely not any time soon. Patty will do anything to make this happen sooner...and she does! This starts the series of unfortunate events that lead to the unravelling of almost every key character. It's secrets, lies, and forensic samples at their finest.
What I loved about this book...
I had no clue where the eventual outcome...or rather who killed Dani Lancing...was headed. That was awesome. The second a good thing happened there was a wink or a nod or an accident and really bad things happened. That was doubly awesome. It also helped that I did not like Dani. I don't think that she was very nice at all. Not that she should have died but it was amazing how nearly every choice she made was a bad one. Here is one small example...she believed her dealer boyfriend about drugs and actually became hooked on heroin...oh my!
What I did not love about this book...
I did not have love for any of these characters...but that's why this book was so delicious! I thought I loved her high school friend Tom but even he was annoying at times. He became a special police officer to solve crimes like Dani's but when I found out his role in all of this...oh my...shocking!
Final thoughts...
I found this book to be engaging. I was surprised, shocked and addicted to these characters. They had yummy flaws and horrible relationships...the stuff great mysteries are made of!
September 5, 2013
A must read mystery/crime novel.
This book was by far one of the best mystery/crime novels I have read this year. There were many twists and turns that kept me guessing right up to the last pages. The characters were well drawn, sad, empathetic, desperate and credible. P D Viner is a fantastic story teller, his settings are realistic and he writes with cinematic prowess – I could see the story play out in the big screen of my mind and do not doubt it will be very long before the feature films rights to this story are snapped up! I wish I had the money to produce this novel as a film – it would work so well.
I loved that the reader was able to form a picture of Dani through the recollections and opinions of other characters in the book – she was a daughter, a friend, a sports star, a popular student; slowly the bigger picture emerges, warts and all. It is interesting to see how we mean different things to different people and this book demonstrates that aspect of life and friend/kinship very well.
The plot is complex and full of twists and turns and the narrative highlights that life can be wearisome, sometimes depressing and that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary and sometimes brutal things. No one is quite how they first appear – there are sinister undertones waiting to be revealed. Perhaps it was the character of Tom Bevans, nicknamed “The Sad Man” that surprised me most of all – his resourcefulness, his ability to react without fear for his own position in society and his physical wellbeing in order to protect Dani and his powerful devotion to her was incredible. No matter what Dani and her destructive lifestyle threw at him he remained devoted and obsessed, obsessed with the image he had constructed and determined to protect that image.
This book was by far one of the best mystery/crime novels I have read this year. There were many twists and turns that kept me guessing right up to the last pages. The characters were well drawn, sad, empathetic, desperate and credible. P D Viner is a fantastic story teller, his settings are realistic and he writes with cinematic prowess – I could see the story play out in the big screen of my mind and do not doubt it will be very long before the feature films rights to this story are snapped up! I wish I had the money to produce this novel as a film – it would work so well.
I loved that the reader was able to form a picture of Dani through the recollections and opinions of other characters in the book – she was a daughter, a friend, a sports star, a popular student; slowly the bigger picture emerges, warts and all. It is interesting to see how we mean different things to different people and this book demonstrates that aspect of life and friend/kinship very well.
The plot is complex and full of twists and turns and the narrative highlights that life can be wearisome, sometimes depressing and that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary and sometimes brutal things. No one is quite how they first appear – there are sinister undertones waiting to be revealed. Perhaps it was the character of Tom Bevans, nicknamed “The Sad Man” that surprised me most of all – his resourcefulness, his ability to react without fear for his own position in society and his physical wellbeing in order to protect Dani and his powerful devotion to her was incredible. No matter what Dani and her destructive lifestyle threw at him he remained devoted and obsessed, obsessed with the image he had constructed and determined to protect that image.
December 30, 2013
Twenty years have passed since that last hard winter of Dani Lancing's life. The life that had been cut short by her brutal murder. The case is long cold, but the mourners are still haunted by not knowing what had happened to her, trying to piece together the few clues to discover the answers.
The parents, Jim and Patty, are each obsessed: Jim, haunted by fleeting images of Dani at various ages in her life, and seemingly, now, after her death; Patty is on a quest to find the murderer(s), even going to such extremes that now, twenty years later, when the police are reopening the case, she is determined to find her own answers. She doesn't quite trust the police to find them. Patty and Jim have long since lost their connection to one another, their marriage destroyed.
DS Tom Bevan is the police detective assigned to the cold case. He was also Dani's friend for years...and suffered from unrequited love.
Set in London and Durham, from the 1980s to 2010, the story jags back and forth through time, in a fractured fashion, revealing the "The Last Winter of Dani Lancing: A Novel" through the various voices of the characters, past and present. The answers do not come all at once, but in bits and pieces, and the stunning surprises at the end reveal a quagmire of corruption, vengeance, cover-ups, and flawed humanity. This is not a story for the faint of heart, as the human condition is exposed in its greatest darkness and frailty. It is definitely a twisted tale with much to ponder about the lengths to which people will go for those they love. It is also difficult to follow at times, with the peripatetic narrative, and some of the conclusions seem a bit incredible. But the reader will want answers, so the book is impossible to put down. 4.0 stars.
The parents, Jim and Patty, are each obsessed: Jim, haunted by fleeting images of Dani at various ages in her life, and seemingly, now, after her death; Patty is on a quest to find the murderer(s), even going to such extremes that now, twenty years later, when the police are reopening the case, she is determined to find her own answers. She doesn't quite trust the police to find them. Patty and Jim have long since lost their connection to one another, their marriage destroyed.
DS Tom Bevan is the police detective assigned to the cold case. He was also Dani's friend for years...and suffered from unrequited love.
Set in London and Durham, from the 1980s to 2010, the story jags back and forth through time, in a fractured fashion, revealing the "The Last Winter of Dani Lancing: A Novel" through the various voices of the characters, past and present. The answers do not come all at once, but in bits and pieces, and the stunning surprises at the end reveal a quagmire of corruption, vengeance, cover-ups, and flawed humanity. This is not a story for the faint of heart, as the human condition is exposed in its greatest darkness and frailty. It is definitely a twisted tale with much to ponder about the lengths to which people will go for those they love. It is also difficult to follow at times, with the peripatetic narrative, and some of the conclusions seem a bit incredible. But the reader will want answers, so the book is impossible to put down. 4.0 stars.
June 27, 2013
I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this one. It was simultaneously a murder mystery, a ghost story, a tale of revenge, and so much more. This book also wove through time quite a bit--from the present day to Dani's childhood and teen years, to various points in time after her death took place. The time shifts threw me a bit at first--even with the helpful date markers at the beginnings of chapters--but once you get a grip on who all the characters are and what motivates them, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing is an engrossing story of how the secrets we keep and the lengths we go to protect the ones we love can often have the opposite effect.
This book kept me guessing until the very end, and I enjoyed how no one individual could have solved the mystery alone. In fact, the secrets they all kept from each other prevented the truth from coming out until over 20 years after the crime took place. I never could have guessed the ending, which made the book that much more enjoyable.
This book kept me guessing until the very end, and I enjoyed how no one individual could have solved the mystery alone. In fact, the secrets they all kept from each other prevented the truth from coming out until over 20 years after the crime took place. I never could have guessed the ending, which made the book that much more enjoyable.
January 14, 2024
This is not a thriller. I say this about a good quarter of the books labelled as a thriller. Just because someone disappears/is murdered does not a thriller make. The only reason that I finished this book is that the audio version has a full cast AND sound effects, making it more of an audio drama. I loved it, and wish more audiobooks were like that. Although it did make me very aware of how much screaming/crying was in this book (which was a lot), because the narrators did indeed scream and cry when called to.
This book tries for something a little different - which I generally appreciate - by focusing on the aftermath of the murder. University student Dani Lancing is found raped and murdered and her killer has never been caught. Twenty years later, her parents are still devastated. Her father, Jim, is a hermit who is comforted only by Dani's ghost (who, as far as I can tell, really is a ghost. Yes, this book has a ghost in it. Dani's ghost, of course, is completely useless when it comes to how she died. She doesn't remember which seems entirely due to plot contrivance). Dani's mother, Patty, has become focused solely on vengeance. Once a star crime reporter, she has turned her investigative skills towards finding the man who murdered her daughter. Meanwhile, "Nice Guy" Tom - the policeman who has been obsessed with Dani since they were children - has focused his career on solving cases like Dani's.
The plot is told out of sequence, which does not add suspense but does add difficulty in understanding what is happening. Patty has an aggravating habit of suddenly breaking into a daydream of what she imagined happened to Dani, but it is written as if it is happening to Patty in that moment. There's a lot of that - Jim's early chapters are him interacting with Dani, before it is not clear at the beginning that it is not Dani, but her ghost.
As I said, this is not a thriller. It's a domestic drama (with that random paranormal element of Dani's ghost thrown in. For no reason. I hate the inclusion of Dani's ghost). A domestic drama can work if the characters are interesting or somewhat sympathetic. I hated all of the characters. All of them. Even minor characters, like the wife of Dani's affair partner, are terrible. Dani herself is terrible. She of course doesn't deserve what happened to her, but she comes across as a thoughtless and self-centered person from her teenage days, before her life started going downhill. Teenagers can often be thoughtless and self-centered, but that seems to be all of Dani's personality. She also does not gain any perspective as a ghost.
It does not help that while Dani makes poor decision after poor decision, every bad thing that could happen to a young woman happens to her. She is date-raped in high school and becomes pregnant and secretly gets an abortion. She goes to university and falls for a guy who hooks her on heroine in order to pimp her out (and repeatedly sexually assaults her). After leaving her abuser and getting clean, she somehow begins a relationship with a married man in his 40's -who is the same age as her dad, with a daughter the same age as her (blatant daddy issues - recreating a relationship with the one person who makes her feel safe, but in a creepy/sexual way). She then gets knocked up by this creepster and thinks it's great that he's going to abandon his wife and daughter for her and their baby (I'm sure she'd be super pleased if her own dad knocked up a girl her age and abandoned her family for a new one!). THEN the creepster's wife asks her brother to scare Dani off and the brother gets thugs to beat Dani badly enough that she is hospitalized and miscarries the baby. And THEN Dani's stalker, Tom, blackmails the creepster into breaking up with Dani in the most traumatizing way possible (telling Dani that he hates her and is glad that the baby died) by threatening to murder/rape the creepster's wife/daughter. Because Tom wants to swoop in and "save" her the next day so she will FINALLY agree to date him. Because nothing says love by breaking down a woman to make her desperate enough to begin a relationship with you! And THEN Dani decides to deal with this final trauma by offering herself to a gang who will "own" her and rape her but give her drugs. Then she dies of an overdose (within weeks of leaving the hospital). I mean, this is a book that uses a chloroform rag to knock someone out with a straight face, so I shouldn't be surprised it is so melodramatic with Dani's trauma.
As you probably noticed, after the big search to find Dani's killer, it turned out she wasn't murdered at all. So why did everyone think she was murdered? Because Tom - who it is revealed spent his life violently attacking any man he considered to have besmirched Dani's honor - didn't want the world to know that Dani was an addict. He thought it was better that her parents didn't have closure for two decades than to have known the truth about their daughter. So he blackmailed people into covering up her true cause of death. Tom is one of the darkest versions of a Nice Guy, but the book treats him as sympathetic (?!?!). At the end, Dani's ghost tells Tom "My white knight, be safe" before she disappears to heaven (!?!?!). Is it not clear that Tom's attempts to white knight Dani's life were toxic? He thought he knew better than her (I mean she was terrible at making her own decisions, but Tom's judgment wasn't any better), and her reputation (/his idealized view of her) was more important to him than anything else!?? There is a second book in this series (Summer of Ghosts), and I get the sense from the summary that Tom continues to be portrayed as some kind of hero and his idolization of Dani is still not treated as pathetic and creepy.
This book tries for something a little different - which I generally appreciate - by focusing on the aftermath of the murder. University student Dani Lancing is found raped and murdered and her killer has never been caught. Twenty years later, her parents are still devastated. Her father, Jim, is a hermit who is comforted only by Dani's ghost (who, as far as I can tell, really is a ghost. Yes, this book has a ghost in it. Dani's ghost, of course, is completely useless when it comes to how she died. She doesn't remember which seems entirely due to plot contrivance). Dani's mother, Patty, has become focused solely on vengeance. Once a star crime reporter, she has turned her investigative skills towards finding the man who murdered her daughter. Meanwhile, "Nice Guy" Tom - the policeman who has been obsessed with Dani since they were children - has focused his career on solving cases like Dani's.
The plot is told out of sequence, which does not add suspense but does add difficulty in understanding what is happening. Patty has an aggravating habit of suddenly breaking into a daydream of what she imagined happened to Dani, but it is written as if it is happening to Patty in that moment. There's a lot of that - Jim's early chapters are him interacting with Dani, before it is not clear at the beginning that it is not Dani, but her ghost.
As I said, this is not a thriller. It's a domestic drama (with that random paranormal element of Dani's ghost thrown in. For no reason. I hate the inclusion of Dani's ghost). A domestic drama can work if the characters are interesting or somewhat sympathetic. I hated all of the characters. All of them. Even minor characters, like the wife of Dani's affair partner, are terrible. Dani herself is terrible. She of course doesn't deserve what happened to her, but she comes across as a thoughtless and self-centered person from her teenage days, before her life started going downhill. Teenagers can often be thoughtless and self-centered, but that seems to be all of Dani's personality. She also does not gain any perspective as a ghost.
It does not help that while Dani makes poor decision after poor decision, every bad thing that could happen to a young woman happens to her. She is date-raped in high school and becomes pregnant and secretly gets an abortion. She goes to university and falls for a guy who hooks her on heroine in order to pimp her out (and repeatedly sexually assaults her). After leaving her abuser and getting clean, she somehow begins a relationship with a married man in his 40's -who is the same age as her dad, with a daughter the same age as her (blatant daddy issues - recreating a relationship with the one person who makes her feel safe, but in a creepy/sexual way). She then gets knocked up by this creepster and thinks it's great that he's going to abandon his wife and daughter for her and their baby (I'm sure she'd be super pleased if her own dad knocked up a girl her age and abandoned her family for a new one!). THEN the creepster's wife asks her brother to scare Dani off and the brother gets thugs to beat Dani badly enough that she is hospitalized and miscarries the baby. And THEN Dani's stalker, Tom, blackmails the creepster into breaking up with Dani in the most traumatizing way possible (telling Dani that he hates her and is glad that the baby died) by threatening to murder/rape the creepster's wife/daughter. Because Tom wants to swoop in and "save" her the next day so she will FINALLY agree to date him. Because nothing says love by breaking down a woman to make her desperate enough to begin a relationship with you! And THEN Dani decides to deal with this final trauma by offering herself to a gang who will "own" her and rape her but give her drugs. Then she dies of an overdose (within weeks of leaving the hospital). I mean, this is a book that uses a chloroform rag to knock someone out with a straight face, so I shouldn't be surprised it is so melodramatic with Dani's trauma.
As you probably noticed, after the big search to find Dani's killer, it turned out she wasn't murdered at all. So why did everyone think she was murdered? Because Tom - who it is revealed spent his life violently attacking any man he considered to have besmirched Dani's honor - didn't want the world to know that Dani was an addict. He thought it was better that her parents didn't have closure for two decades than to have known the truth about their daughter. So he blackmailed people into covering up her true cause of death. Tom is one of the darkest versions of a Nice Guy, but the book treats him as sympathetic (?!?!). At the end, Dani's ghost tells Tom "My white knight, be safe" before she disappears to heaven (!?!?!). Is it not clear that Tom's attempts to white knight Dani's life were toxic? He thought he knew better than her (I mean she was terrible at making her own decisions, but Tom's judgment wasn't any better), and her reputation (/his idealized view of her) was more important to him than anything else!?? There is a second book in this series (Summer of Ghosts), and I get the sense from the summary that Tom continues to be portrayed as some kind of hero and his idolization of Dani is still not treated as pathetic and creepy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2013
I don't often finish a book that I actively dislike, but I did want to see the end of the mystery in this one. It was rather disappointing. I did actually enjoy the progression of the relationship between the parents (it was pretty unbelievable...but then again, we are talking about a book that included a ghost, so...).
August 8, 2015
It is generally a good sign when a novel grabs your attention from the first page and The Last Winter of Dani Lancing achieves just that by introducing us to the key characters and setting up a murder mystery that piques curiosity and will keep you turning the pages. - See more at: izzyreads.com
March 15, 2017
I love a good mystery but this one was, well it was not good. I found it to be slow and slightly repetitive yet as usual I wanted to find out whodunit. I also didn't like the jumping back and forth in time as I found that a little hard to follow.
Received from NetGalley
Received from NetGalley
March 11, 2015
For the love of all that is sacred, do NOT purchase the audio version of this. It is absolutely the worst "performance" I've ever listened to. I finally had to turn it off after the third time of the female performers "wailing" which really sounded like animals dying.
September 14, 2016
A few loose ends and mild difficulty distinguishing if we were in past or present day in some areas determined my 3 star rating. I liked the use of the "ghost" in the story but the 20 year span would have made more sense at 5 or 10years in my opinion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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