Read: "The Last Whisper in the Dark" by Tom Piccirilli

Read: The Last Whisper in the Dark by Tom Piccirilli, 2013, 9780345529008.

I think this novel is better than it's predecessor, The Last Kind Words.  I cannot explain why.  I just think so.  The novel's plot is kind of a hot mess.  Just like Terrier's mind.

Terrier Rand is still with his family on Long Island.  Terrier is still in a mental mess.  He talks to himself without realizing it.  His memory seems to be going and he worries about Alzheimers (he's only about 25 years old).  He does not want to be a thief but is by nature and lineage.  He deeply pines for his ex-girlfriend and the fjords.  He is obsessive.  He is nosey.  He is worried.  He is anchored at home with his family but he is also restless and wandering.  He knows he is making crook mistakes that he shouldn't.  Anyway.

Terry's spree killer brother is dead and buried.  His teen sister is still acting in school productions.  His grandfather is hidden within his Alzheimer's shell.  His dad is restless, prowling at night, and seems to be showing Alzheimer's symptoms.  Terrier comes home one day to a man who looks exactly like Terry's dead Spree Killer Brother.  This is Terry's long-lost cousin from his mom's side of the family.  Mom was kicked out of the family 30 years ago when Mom married Dad.  Cousin John is a glad hander and looks like trouble to Terry.

Terry is shadowing his former best pal Chub's business.  Terry wants to convince Chub to stop lining up burglaries and robberies for other people because Terry does not want anything to happen to Kimmy, Terry's ex-love and Chub's wife, and Chub and Kimmy's daughter.

Terry takes up with a part-time hooker and starts to fall for her.  Terry is creeping his sister's room and looking through her phone.  Terry has boundary issues.

More things happen.  Terry's newly introduced grandfather wants him to burglar the granddad's motion picture company.  Cousin John wants to recruit Terry's sister as an actress.  Terry worries about where he buried his dead uncle in the backyard (last novel, don't worry about it).  Chub set-up a score that leaves three people dead and the local mob looking to kill the crew and Chub.  Terry wants to save Chub.  Terry wants to save his sister.  Terry wants to the hooker to be with him.  Terry wants to protect his father.  His mother.  His grandmother. His dog. His sanity.  Terry cannot see beyond his obsessions.

Comments:
1.  Long Island love.
2.  '60s and '70s muscle car love.
3. Late nights and cracked ribs.
4.  Tough guy posturing.