The Last Talk with Lola Faye
by Thomas H Cook
(Quercus, R184,95)
Luke Paige is a historian and writer signing his latest book in a bookstore when he sees Lola Faye in the queue. She is the person whom he believes ruined his childhood. Her husband shot his father because he believed she was having an affair with him.
She wants to talk and even though he would rather not, they end up having more than one drink and then dinner, while they talk about the past. Some things are not as they seemed; memories differ and events changed because of things suspected.
Luke finds out things about his mother and father he never knew. His own life is in a mess, his wife has left him and his career is not what he hoped for. Her life is also not what she had planned.
The novel is the conversation between the two people and goes from the present to the past and corrects all the misunderstood events.
Can knowing what happened in the past, change what will happen in the future?
An enjoyable book, it made me want to read it quickly and then I wished I had read it much more slowly.
Cook has won the Best American Crime Writing award nine times in the past 10 years.