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Hold Me Down Hardcover – October 19, 2021
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPolis Books
- Publication dateOctober 19, 2021
- Reading age18 years and up
- Dimensions5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-101951709519
- ISBN-13978-1951709518
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Editorial Reviews
Review
With HOLD ME DOWN, Simon "stakes her claim as crime fiction's foremost purveyor of tales that blend mystery with music. ... this is a character that demands to be invested in." — BOLO Books
"Hold Me Down is terrific. Its power lies in the vitality of Clea Simon's prose and her insider savvy."— ArtsFuse
"Lyrical, layered, and full of surprises. Simon has penned a raw and emotional thriller with a heartbeat, about lost dreams and missing friends, regrets and buried memories, the final note reminding us that it's never too late to start again. Provocative, moving, and suspenseful."
-Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of Last Girl Ghosted
"Gripping and intense, a darkly suspenseful dive into friendship, fame, murder, and the thrilling power of rock music. I couldn't put it down." —Meg Gardiner, author of the UNSUB series
"This devastatingly powerful mystery hits like a punch to the heart." —Caroline Leavitt, author of Pictures of You
"Simon perceptively illustrates the sacrifices one makes for art. Simon's tour of the Boston music scene will make readers wish "Hold Me Down" included a link to iTunes." —Oline Cogdill, Sun-Sentinel
"A mystery that expires character motivations ... For fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Janet Evanovich." —Library Journal
"Simon draws on her career as a journalist, in particular her reporting on Boston's music scene in the 1990s, for the setting, concert scenes, and flashbacks, bringing a gritty reality to this dark suspense tale." —Booklist
"A flat-out, stoked-up, red-alert blistering justice-gets-done story that you can't put down." —E. Jean Carroll, author of What Do We Need Men For?
"The big mystery in this exquisite novel is not the one in the story but the one in the way Clea Simon tells it. We hear music that never existed, pine for memories we couldn't have, and mourn for the survivors." —David Hajdu, author of Lush Life and Positively 4th Street
"This pitch-perfectly dark psychological suspense underscores the price of fame, the price of friendship, and the temptations of success. Sharp and insightful, and written with exquisite detail, this story has a soundtrack that will linger long after the final page." —Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today-bestselling author of Her Perfect Life
"HOLD ME DOWN is a joyous novel about friendship and survival, but what dark, bitter joy. Simon has gone deep into a world many women know all too well, where pride, guilt, and pain do battle inside the stories we tell. A cracking plot in a rich setting round out this important, timely book to perfection." —Catriona McPherson, Edgar-nominated author of A Gingerbread House
"Powerfully written and compulsively readable. Part murder mystery and part wistful history of a one-time rock star and her deeply buried secrets." —Dave Zeltserman, award-winning author of Small Crimes, now a Netflix film
"A hard-rocking riff of a novel, HOLD ME DOWN explodes with a passion for music while also probing the intimate betrayals buried under a haze of alcohol and pills. Simon expertly explores how music seeks to embody truth, even when musicians hid their own pain behind the melodies." —Joanna Schaffhausen, winner of the MWA/St. Martin's Minotaur first crime novel award for The Vanishing Season
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Polis Books (October 19, 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1951709519
- ISBN-13 : 978-1951709518
- Reading age : 18 years and up
- Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,996,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10,546 in Hard-Boiled Mystery
- #32,313 in Murder Thrillers
- #89,373 in Suspense Thrillers
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Hi! Welcome to my Amazon Connect page. I'm thrilled to be celebrating TO CONJURE A KILLER, a Witch Cats of Cambridge cozy mystery. "If you enjoy feline-centric mysteries, fantasy, and a touch of magic, you will love this book" – Purrs of Wisdom. Coming in 2024: BAD BOY BEAT, which follows a tough rookie reporter as she investigates a series of killings in Boston.
Also the author of HOLD ME DOWN, a novel of psychological suspense. This "devastatingly powerful mystery"* "shines a light on tough, struggling, and brilliant women"** brings me back to the rock and roll underground of my Massachusetts Book Award "must read" WORLD ENOUGH. The Massachusetts Center for the Book has also labelled HOLD ME DOWN a "must read," and NYT bestseller Lisa Unger calls this psychological thriller "Provocative, moving and suspenseful. Don't miss it!"
*NYT bestseller Caroline Leavitt, **Kingdom Books,
Or maybe you prefer an academic setting (my Dulcie Schwartz series). You'll find animals in all of them - and in my Blackie & Care mysteries, "The Ninth Life" and "As Dark As My Fur," which take a darker turn than any of my previous books, too (with a black cat, naturally). Maybe you remember me as a rock music critic – I used to write for everyone from the Boston Phoenix to Rolling Stone.
You might be wondering about my "Dogs Don't Lie." Yup, it's got a dog in it, and many of the Pru Marlowe books feature other animals. But Pru, an animal psychic, couldn't function without her sidekick, an irascible tabby named Wallis. They both appear in "Cats Can't Shoot," "Parrots Prove Deadly," and the latest Pru "Panthers Play for Keeps," and "Kittens Can Kill." (Look for "When Bunnies Go Bad" in March 2016! All from Poisoned Pen Press) Meanwhile, I hope you are enjoying my Theda Krakow series - "Mew is for Murder," "Cattery Row," "Cries and Whiskers," or "Probable Claws" - and my Dulcie Schwartz series (think cats AND ghosts!) with "Shades of Grey," "Grey Matters," "Grey Zone," "Grey Expectations," "True Grey," "Grey Howl," "Stages of Grey," and "Code Grey" (all from Severn House). Or perhaps we share some family issues, and you're looking at "Mad House" or "Fatherless Women." Or maybe you just love cats and are interested in my "The Feline Mystique." At any rate, good to meet you! I'm a writer and journalist, an avid reader, and am looking forward to making this page lively and fun.
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This story is a race to find the killer who is framing bartender, Franklin Davis, nicknamed Clay. The setting is in oceanside Avalon, CA. This is a murder/crime story, so there is obviously violence.
Emily Parker is an occasional patron of the Gryphon bar where Clay works. She's unhappily married to wealthy, arrogant Henry. Her murder sets off a chain of events all pointing to Clay as her killer. The overwhelming evidence against him has detective Mendez ready to arrest him early in the investigation. Even his friend and Co-worker, Katie, will begin to doubt his innocence.
Clay adamantly proclaims his innocence and attempts to prove it by finding the real killer. The murders don't stop with Emily and they all lead back to Clay as the perpetrator. He's now hiding and running from the law and a killer. I read lots in the fictional murder/suspence genre. It can be disappointing to figure the plot out early on. I got so caught up in this psychological thriller that I must have missed clues. I didn't guess the twists or see the surprises coming. It was fast-paced and easy to read, while full of secrets, deceit, lies and drama.
Thanks to Netgalley, HQ Digital, and Steve Frech for the advance digital copy. The opinions stated here are mine alone, given voluntarily.
After twenty years, Gal is on stage again, playing a tribute concert to Aimee, her drummer and best friend who has passed. As she looks out over the crowd, she is shocked to see one face, a man from her past.
The following day, Gal receives the news that the man from the crowd was beaten to death. She is shocked to hear that Aimee’s widower, Walter is a suspect in the murder. What possible motive could he have? As Gal tries to help Walter, she must open up wounds from her past.
I have to admit, at times, I was a bit confused. But I think this may have been due to the “hangover” feel (for lack of a better term) that the story had. Like when you know the party was great, but the details are slow in coming back.
The story has a lot of Gal’s flashbacks to her time with the band. When she drank, they all drank, and nights were a crazy blur. But this present-day act of violence causes Gal to focus on her past and realizes she was not alone in her pain.
TW: rape, alcohol abuse
Gal, now middle aged, was once a rock and roll star some twenty years ago. After the death of her best friend and bandmate she returns to Boston for a benefit reunion concert. When she sees a face from her past in the crowd it causes her to lose focus while performing. When this same person is found murdered behind the venue and her friends ex-husband is charged with the crime, Gal finds herself reliving her past, trying to help however she can to find the truth.
This is one hell of a journey. Powerfull and gripping, this well written novel takes you inside the life of a touring all girl band. With plenty of drink, drugs and sex along the way, (we're talking about a rock band after all) it's a compelling read from start to finish. With well drawn characters and accessable prose I found myself invested in said characters with a need to know what happened and why.
This one will appeal to both music lovers and psychological suspense fans and as such I highly recommend it.