New York Times Editor's Choice Finalist, SIBA Book Award |
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Falco's prose is cold and brisk, with occasional flashes of hard-boiled eloquence, and the story hurtles like a brakeless truck toward its bloody denouement. ––Sunday New York Times Book Review |
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Richmond Times-Dispatch, Cover Review by Doug Childers Readers fond of stripped-down thrill rides through a dark, Gothic world will settle happily into their reading chairs. But as lean as it is, Wolf Point is up to something more complicated. On a deeper level, it is about the knowability of the self. Whether we can ever know ourselves or -- perhaps more troubling -- ever really know others. --. . . a cunning exercise that playfully thwarts its readers' expectations. ––Doug Childers, Richmond Times-Dispatch Chekhov would be pleased with Virginia Tech professor Edward Falco’s Wolf Point ––Valley Haggard, Richmond Style Weekly This story moves in the most unexpected - and dramatic -- directions so that by the dreamy and most satisfying ending we know we've just been taken for a thoughtful, entertaining and absolutely imaginative ride -- one that, like the best fiction, period, stays in our minds for a long time after that final page is turned. Don't miss it. ––Peter Handel, Rejection is my Middle Name This skillful novel moves quickly and convincingly to a satisfactory and satisfying ending. ––Harper Bames, St. Louis Post-Dispatch For a brilliantly executed character study, along with an insidiously suspenseful plot, look no further––this one delivers a long-term wallop. ––Peter Handel, Pages Magazine Falco is a magician at taking what we know is cliche from hard-boiled crime writing and making it fresh and believable. ––Steven B. Yates, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger In Wolf Point, Edward Falco sets up an intriguing view of tattered lives, isolated from society and adrift. Falco makes each character realistic and worth caring about. The author avoids cliches as he delves into each person's psyche. Wolf Point is a talky mystery -- the main action occurs as the three character divulge their pasts, hopes and fears -- but the twists that arise during these conversations are haunting; and the author never lets us forget that brutality and destruction may be just around the corner. ––Oline H. Cogdill, South Florida Sun-Sentinel Readers in search of a straightforward thriller will find plenty of tension on the way to a slam-bang climax ––Peyton Moss in Forward Magazine There's a touch of James M. Cain in this thriller, which Falco buttresses with character exposition that flows from the troubles of our time. ––J. Kingston Pierce, January Magazine Falco weaves his tale of suspense and delves into the psyche . . . ––Clint Hunter, Crescent Blues Magazine Falco's latest novel is superb. It erupts with from its opening sentence's "pulp tableau" (a hot young blonde hitchiking, not quite hiding the greasy thug traveling with her) like a perfectly timed and vividly colored fireworks display against a thoroughly noir night. ––John Domini, Amazon.com Wolf Point is a terrific thriller that stars three protagonists who on the ride form an intriguing triangle that keeps the audience in suspense wondering when the seemingly inevitable altercation will occur. The story line mostly happens inside the Rover yet the suspense is stratospherically high and keeps growing because the audience slowly understands the demons that eat at each of the key players. Edward Falco provides a terrific thriller sort of mindful of Spielbergís Duel except that the audience knows all the adversaries up front and personal. ––Harriet Klausner, Baryon Online
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Think of Edward Falco as William Blake with cinematic potential. As with Blake's famed paeans to the lamb and the "tyger tyger, burning bright," Falco's novel seeks to "shew the two contrary states of the human soul," to dissect innocence and experience down to the rumbling guts. -- . . . Falco goes deep to explore themes of purity and corruption, beauty and decay, stupidity and wisdom . . .
––Tiffany Lee Youngren, The San Diego Union-Tribune
Falco so beautifully manipulates his characters that their actions define the amoral landscape of an indifferent world . . .
––Luan Gaines, Curled Up With A Good Book
Wolf Point is billed as a "page turner," a "literary thriller," and on that level it does not disappoint. But for this reader, it's the underlying subject of seduction and betrayal, seduction and abandonment, and the damage they do that makes the book so interesting. In the guise of a psychological thriller, Ed Falco explores the landscape of exploitation, sexual and otherwise, and tells a classic tale of death and rebirth, of "transgression" and redemption.
–– Kay Bonetti, Director of the American Audio Prose Library
Wolf Point is quintessential Falco as he skillfully reveals the darker twists and frailties of human nature.
–– Laurel Johnson, Midwest Book Review
With the deft touch of a master, the author slowly reveals the reasons for Walker's seemingly cavalier attitude toward the possibility of violence that his young hitchhikers represent, and it has something to do with a certain photograph the authorities have found on Walker's home computer. This troubling, brilliant book reminds us that few people know themselves quite as well as they think they do.
––Betty Webb, Mystery Scene
Falco has crafted a novel equally suspenseful and thoughtful, and wonderfully tactile.-- . . .it has surprising staying power.
––Sarah Weinman, "Pick of the Week," Conversations of an Idiosyncratic Mind
Wolf Point is a haunting work, a cautionary tale that by turns demonstrates that while no deed --- good or evil --- goes unpunished, absolution and redemption are possible if one is willing to pay the price. This is a work to be savored and, more importantly, reread. Highly recommended.
––Joe Hartlaub, Bookreporter
. . . a study of midlife crisis and renewal, strong on psychology and packed with literary allusions . . .
––Edward B. St. John, Library Journal
Categorized by the publisher as a "literary thriller," Wolf Point brings us the same quirky, sometimes menacing characters and vivid places we find in the stories. Despite the sometimes driving plot, this is a quiet book, full of contemplation by the narrator on love, regret, and redemption. It bears reading and re-reading.
--Beth Wellington, The Roanoke Times
In the inevitable blurbs for Wolf Point, Falco is compared to such masters of fiction as Raymond Carver, Richard Yates, Andres Dubus and others. Although this may come across as excessively enthusiastic, even for blurbs, there’s enough truth in some of these comparisons to evoke gratitude for Falco’s skill. Enough truth to make them valid. The author maintains the kind of suspense that leaves the reader in a constant state of flux, not knowing from one page to the next what will happen. Falco is a master not only at this, but also of language and imagery.
––Barbara Rich, The Daily Progress
Wolf Point is a fine, gripping piece of writing that you'll want to down in a sitting or two.
––book-blog.com
Falco, author of the much-praised short-story collection, Sabbath Night in the Church of the Piranha (2005), offers a compelling novel about the darker side of humanity and delves pointedly into the complexities of human sexuality. –– The climax is filled with unbearable tension . . . .
––Andrea Japzon, Booklist
Edward Falco has been pulling off unusual fiction structures for years, so the fact that his stories have turned up not only in a Best American print anthology (1995) but also as hypertext should not surprise (he has work available through http:/(www. eastgate.com). The brave new world of electronic writing also inspired another anthology piece, the comic and provocative "Sexy Chat," the greatest story ever set in an AOL chat room (in the Red Hen collection Blue Cathedral [2000]). Unconventional successes of this kind demonstrate a rare gift for framing, for finding an angle that creates tension, and the opening lines of this new novel bear out this gift.
––John Domini, American Book Review
Falco explores narcissism with a run down cabin and on the chilly waters of this part of our country. Truth and tragedy are stripped away and then reintroduced in a plot as murky as the waters surrounding our characters. Is there any hope for these lost souls?
––Crime Spree Magazine
Falco delivers a solid, small-scale thriller
–– Publishers Weekly
This novel is an insightful glimpse into one raucous, life-altering weekend, and it’s a wonderful examination of sexuality and taboo.
—Jennifer Henderson, NewPages
This is Falco’s greatest gift: the surface of the story brims with tension.
––Amy C. Rea, New Century Reading