I suspect Scoppotone wrote this just to resolve the Lauren/Kip/Alex triangle which came to ahead at the end of her last book.

I hated the new format of each suspect revealing their fears after they'd been interviewed by Lauren and the ending seemed so abrupt - unless I missed something I was a bit bemused. The pieces of the puzzle just did not seem to fit together, it was a very shoddy denouement (if you could call it that)& not terribly plausible either.

I've always enjoyed the "Lauren Laurano mysteries", however upon reading this latest one it was apparent that the author has no plans to develop the series any further as she too has clearly become bored with Lauren & Kip.

Time to move on I would say & after having finished the book and read the interview at the back with Scopptone I gather that this is exactly what she plans to do.

In this fourth outing, Lauren Laurano, NYC private investigation, agrees to spend some time with friends at their new Long Island home helping to fix it up. Not exactly her idea of good time, but she's trying to mend fences with her lover Kip. When the opportunity arises for to accept an investigation into a murder ruled a suicide, she doesn't hesitate. Perhaps she should have. As Laurano investigates and discovers each new layer, things get uglier and uglier and even include an attempt on her life. She calls on Cecchi, a former NYPD detective with whom she is going to go into partnership, to help solve the murder. Kip, in the meantime, is still punishing her for an affair she had in the previous book. This has it all - good writing, a multi-layered plot, and good characterizations. Scoppettone is back in form! She has, unfortunately, also said that this is the last Lauren Laurano book - "I've said all I can about Lauren, Kip, and especially New York City." That's too bad. I'll miss Lauren, Kip, Cecchi, their friends, and Scoppettone's take on the Village and the City.

I have read all of the Lauren Laurano stories and enjoyed the new avenues that this book followed. Moving (part-time) out to Long Island, partnering with Cecchi, beginning to work out long-standing problems with Kip -- all of this gives Lauren more options for future exploration. Also, I liked the new plot device of revealing each of the "interviewees'" reactions to Lauren's questions about the case; it more clearly linked each of these characters to the murders that had been committed. Sandra Scoppettone has proved for over 20 years that she is an innovative and creative author and this novel is another example of her refusal to keep following a tried-and-true formula, book after book. Now, I just hope it won't be two years before the next one!

This play has only one prop a large box in the middle of thestage that acts as a bed, coffin and judge's podium. Josh the maincharicter had just shot and killed 5 people at his school his friend Micheal, Katie, Matt, Jesse and Emily. The rest of the play he talkes to their gostes about why he killed them, what they are missing and how the rest of his life he will have to live with the memorie of their death. It also has flash backs to events in Joshes life that led him to kill. One such flash back was when he went on a hunting trip with his Grandfather and shot a dear. This play is very powerfull. It goes into the head of someone that had killed and must go on with his life after always knowing that he can never bring them back to life. END

All time favorite book as a child. Made my parents read it so many times the pages are worn thin, especially the big rock fight page. Excellent story behind playing with rocks, sticks and make beleive war games....NOBODY WINS!

If you have a 4 year old who just loves to chuck rocks at everything this book is a must find and buy!

I'm not a fan of profanity and so nearly put the book down after the first two paragraphs. If you can get past that point, it isn't a bad book. A bit predictable, more gore than I needed, but all in all a fairly good read.

This book was poorly written but had a good plot. This is the story of a young woman, Billie James and her encounters with, love, heartache and the other problems teens' today face. The one main thing that I disliked about this book is that fact that the story did not get very exciting until the last 4 chapters. As I started to read the book I wanted to put it down but as the end of the book grew closer I became more and more interested. The problem with having too much at the end was that it leaves you with a dead end in the story. I think the author relates well to teens but writes with an odd style and that threw me off at first. I encourage people who enjoy books about the things real people face to read this, but if you get bored in the beginning keep reading because as you get deeper into the book you will come to find that you love it.

when i was a teen, i read some of sandra scoppettone's adolescent fiction and enjoyed it. so when i found her books for an adult audience in the library, i was looking forward to reading them. i took this one out and found it to be such a puerile effort that i couldn't even finish it. the characters are shallow, badly drawn, and appear to be used by the author to service the particular plot twists with no adherence to what their underlying motivation would logically be. the story is confusing and not very interesting, with the result that the reader doesn't really care what happens. the main character possesses no particular charisma - her single defining trait appears to be a propensity to gauge waiting time in exaggerated terms (i.e., "after 100 hours the elevator finally arrived on the third floor") - a bit of attempted cuteness that wasn't particularly clever the first time, and was downright annoying the 30th. i don't care what anybody's sexual preference is, but this book, and the favorable reviews it has gotten, bother me because i feel that it has not been evaluated badly simply because the main character is gay - affirmative action, if you will. i have written material on a par or better than this that i rejected as being hopelessly sophomoric and certainly not worthy of publication. i think sandra scoppettone should be embarrassed.

Having greatly enjoyed the first Lauren Laurano mystery, I was horribly disappointed in this one. I don't know about you, but when I'm reading a MYSTERY, I don't expect to read about the color of the characters' hair in private anatomical parts, if you get my drift. (The author described it graphically, which I found very offensive.)

After reading this book, I dropped the series like a hot potato. Too bad, since the first book was very good, and provided a very thought-provoking glimpse into the lives of lesbians (which would hopefully lead to better understanding and acceptance). But, as a heterosexual, I found this book much too graphic for me. Yuck.

This is a wonderful romp through New York City via lesbian fiction. Funny, romantic, and at times very intellectual. She does a super job of capturing the female and the lesbian psyche. Any ney sayers are just closet bigots. I've read this book at least five times and I still love it. I just replaced my tattered copy. Highly recommeded!...

What a mess! The plot is non-existent, there is no suspense, time and place jump back and forth. The writing is sophomoric. No wonder she published under a pseudonym!!!

This is the bleakest book I have read in a long time but I persevered because of a general interest in the writing of this author.

This book recounts the story of a woman who has been sexually exploited since her childhood and does so with gritty and uncompromising reality. For this reason, it is a difficult book to read yet I found it oddly compelling.

Be prepared to find none of the characters in this book at all appealling, including the main protagonist.

Darkly brilliant, this curious fictionalization of a real and still-unsolved murder sets a standard for feminist noire unmatched nearly a quarter-century after its original publication. Fans of Scoppettone's popular crime novels will recognize in SOME UNKNOWN PERSON a voice at once incisive and cynical, but here unbuffered by her characteristic urbane drollery. This one isn't funny, it's stunning.

Based on the actual death in 1931 of alcoholic, drug-addicted and sexually-exploited 25-year-old New York socialite, Starr Faithfull, the novel unsparingly goes where only later others would follow. And never with Scoppettone's brutal honesty. She doesn't whine, toes no party line, and thus draws images of child-molestation, drunkenness, drug-dependency and a particularly female death-of-self that both shock and set the stage for a new understanding of tragedy. There are no easy answers in this superbly crafted tale, no heroes. And no redemption. For in this telling a woman's psyche may be so distorted by early betrayal and violation that she becomes the author of her own hell. And through either a moment's peevishness or a classic flaw in character literally anyone may commit the crime for which there will be no forgiveness.

Scholars of Women's Studies have been squeamish about the absence of a truly dark voice in the pages of women's literature. And one popular novel does not constitute a voice. But the impact of SOME UNKNOWN PERSON's final pages may be compared to that of Conrad in THE HEART OF DARKNESS, and for its carefully-wrought difference Scoppettone's book deserves a place on that shelf. This breathtaking bleakness does not covertly celebrate the arrogance of men. This exquisitely blighted landscape reveals a woman's heart of darkness. Terrifying and unforgettable, this book is a classic.