Dunston Falls Reviews

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00642K5MG

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dunston-falls-al-lamanda/1103168422?ean=2940015279795


Publishers Weekly

Dunston Falls
Al Lamanda. Five Star, $25.95 (219p) ISBN 978-1-59414-586-5

Sheriff David Peck, a former Baltimore homicide detective, faces the biggest challenge of his career when a devastating ice storm paralyzes Dunston Falls, Maine, in Lamanda's suspenseful debut. Peck's efforts to help the isolated town's citizens survive with limited power and supplies get derailed with the discovery of the body of 47-year-old Doris White, who's been stabbed and strangled in her mobile home. Blinding headaches accompanied by haunting images of a fatal fire hamper Peck as he investigates the crime, which proves to be the first in a series of murders. While a closing kicker sheds an unexpected light on the killings, the author's skill at creating tension in his claustrophobic setting suggests the story would have satisfied without this final twist. Echoes of M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense and Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island add

Kirkus Review 1-15-08

This title will publish in March 2008.

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DUNSTON FALLS
Author: Lamanda, Al

Review Date: JANUARY 15, 2008
Publisher:Five Star
Pages: 219
Price (hardback): $25.95
Publication Date: 3/19/2008 0:00:00
ISBN: 978-1-59414-586-5
ISBN (hardback): 978-1-59414-586-5
Category: FICTION

When an ice storm isolates a small Maine town, a serial killer runs amok.
In 1959, Dunston Falls suffers a devastating ice storm that wreaks havoc on power lines and roads. With his few deputies, rookie sheriff David Peck sets about checking on local residents as Deb Robertson, who runs the local diner, helpfully offers to stay open extra hours. In a trailer on the outskirts of town, Peck finds the body of Doris White, tied to her bed and sexually assaulted before being brutally murdered with a knife from her own kitchen. Peck wants to inform the locals, but he relents when mayor Ed Kranston, who gave Peck the job 18 months ago, convinces him it will cause an unmanageable panic. That evening, he checks in on Deb at her home. Their intense attraction leads to physical intimacy, the first Peck has shared in a long time. Next day, Deb doesn't show up at her diner, and Peck fears the worst. Later, he finds her at home, murdered in the same fashion as Doris White. The arrival of the FBI offers more official help but the usual procedural disagreements. Inexplicably, Peck begins to suffer violent, debilitating headaches that neither he nor his doctor can predict or prevent.
A debut novel written with a quiet authority that should engage readers, but the 90-degree turn midway through the story could also baffle them.

The Mystery Gazette

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Dunston Falls- Al Lamanda

Dunston Falls
Al Lamanda
Five Star, Mar 2008, $25.95
ISBN 9781594145865

In 1959 the ice storm of the century cripples New England and isolates communities like Dunston Falls, Maine. Electricity is limited, and food supplies and heating are dwindling. Fifty-three years old Sheriff David Peck understands the crisis and with his deputy Jay Bender and the mayor Ed Kranston begins to bring people to the only safe spots left: the church and hospital. Diner owner Deb Robertson provides food.

Peck and Bender search for stranded residents. When they reach Doris White’s home, they find her dead; she was raped, knifed, and strangled. Peck quietly investigates the homicide, but heeding the advice of top officials to avoid a panic tells no one. However, he begins suffering severe headaches for no apparent reason and keeps envisioning a fatal fire that looks so vivid, but has no recall of such. The murder of Deb follows; since he just made love to her and was very attracted to her, a shook up Peck vows to find the killer.

This exhilarating police procedural thriller takes a wild twist into science fiction territory that works very well although surviving the storm and a serial killer is an exciting story line in of itself. Readers will receive two shocks; first the spin from mystery-suspense to sci fi, which explains the headaches; and then the identity of the killer and why. Even as fans will enjoy this entertaining tale, the audience will also wonder if the spin was needed as the survival saga was a powerful hook.

Harriet Klausner

REVIEWS FROM MARION E. CASON
Look for Marion's review of GUILT
by G. H. Ephron in SPECIAL FEATURE .
MARCH - APRIL  REVIEWS
DUNSTON FALLS   AL LAMANDA
Five Star March, 2008
ISBN No. 13-978-1-5944-586-5
David Peck, retired Baltimore detective, accepts a job as Sheriff of Dunston Falls, Maine. He has one deputy and there are about 311 residents in this rural community. In 1959, the winter weather blanketed the town with a major snowstorm that turned into freezing rain with golf-ball sized hail covering everything in sight. Electricity was out, telephones were out, and roads were impassable: Dunston Falls was cut off from the rest of the world.
Peck realized the town had to go into disaster mode to survive and rallied the leaders in town to discuss plans. The town manager, church minister, hospital director, and Deb of Deb's Diner all agreed with Peck's ideas. By pooling their supplies the town could survive a couple of weeks before food supplies ran out, candles dwindled to nothing and wood for the wood stoves would run low. The hospital and diner both had generators that would help with keeping food hot and with giving a little light for the residents. Peck and his deputy used old snowmobiles to notify the residents. Everyone was to evacuate their homes to a shelter in town. They were to bring with them blankets, warm clothing, food and any gas they had for the generators.
Then, Peck discovers a murder victim in one of the trailers isolated from its neighbors. Peck told the town leaders they would have to keep it quiet or people would panic. When Peck finds additional victims murdered in the same way, he realizes there is a serial killer amongst the residents.
Tempers flare, supplies dwindle, and restlessness settles in. The state police finally get through with some supplies. Peck starts getting headaches and then he starts to hallucinate -- to the point that he resigns his position. Peck turned from being the hunter to being the hunted.
The surprise ending leaves the reader wanting a few hints dropped earlier in the
story. DUNSTON FALLS is Lamanda's first mystery. This thriller would be a great read sitting at the ocean on the hottest, sunniest day of the year. Lamanda captures the human predicament of a rural town isolated by snow and ice. I look forward to more exciting novels from Lamanda.

DUNSTON FALLS – Al Lamanda
ROMANCE REVIEWS TODAY

Five Star
ISBN-10: 1-59414-586-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-59414-586-5
March 2008
Thriller

Dunston Falls, Maine – 1959
Sheriff David Peck awakens to the sound of ice pelting his windows; all electricity and telephone service is down in the small town of three hundred. On a short wave radio, he hears that the ice storm will last one week to ten days leaving people stranded in their homes. Concerned about the community, Dave sets up emergency shelters in the church and hospital. He and his deputy, Jay Bender, take their snowmobiles to notify everyone. Deb Robertson runs the small diner in town and has a generator; they are hopeful that everyone will bring food and blankets so they can survive until power is restored. Huge hailstones continue to fall, as well as the trees laden with ice, sounding like rifle shots as they fall to the ground.
The men who run the town include Ed Kranston, the City Manager; Father Regan; and Doctor McCoy. Dave goes out looking for people who are at risk without heat or power, and he finds a woman who has been raped, stabbed, and strangled. A tree had fallen on her home and no clues are evident. The city officials hope to keep the murder a temporary secret so that the inhabitants won’t get frightened, but when a second murder occurs, they inform everyone that there is a killer in their midst. When power is restored, the state police are called in to help. Dave begins to have some horrific headaches and frightening hallucinations, but Doctor McCoy can find nothing wrong with him. Several other people are also complaining about terrible headaches. What is happening in the small town? Is everything as it seems?
DUNSTON FALLS is a page-turner, well written, and a thriller to keep you on the edge of your seat. With a frightening killer on the loose, Dave tries to catch him, but because he is incapacitated by his excruciating headaches, he decides he must resign as sheriff. But why can’t he leave town? Everyone begins to look suspect -- are the pills safe that the doctor gives to Dave? Do the headaches and hallucinations have anything to do with the killer on a rampage? I recommend that you do not read the back blurb on the book cover which gives way too much information and could spoil the ending which is especially memorable. DUNSTON FALLS is an excellent book, very original, and I highly recommend it to thriller fans. It is a frightening story that I will have on my mind for weeks to come.
Marilyn Heyman