Compound Fractures, Stephen White
2 Rating(s)
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Compound Fractures

Author: Stephen White

Narrator: Dick Hill

Abridged: 8 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/20/2013


Synopsis

For more than twenty years, in nearly a score of bestselling crime novels, Stephen White's stories of Boulder psychologist Alan Gregory have captivated millions. Now, Compound Fractures provides a riveting last chapter to the series.In Line of Fire, Dr. Gregory found himself assailed by danger from every direction as he struggled with circumstances beyond his control. Authorities were closing in on Alan and his friend Sam Purdy for their roles in a woman’s death years earlier. Alan was struggling to deal with the emotional breakdown of his longtime friend Diane after she discovered evidence of her husband’s infidelity. By the end, Alan’s personal life and his career were in danger of complete collapse.But Line of Fire merely set the stage. In Compound Fractures, Alan is forced to acknowledge that the perils that may bring him to his knees are not the dangers he recognizes, nor are they orchestrated by the nemesis he has long feared. Instead he is confronted by unexpected threats from unanticipated adversaries and by intimate betrayal from those who have been closest to him. He is compelled to reconsider what he has long believed about trust and about love while he is trying to cope with overwhelming loss and grief.To protect himself, Alan must revisit the cruel ethical dilemma that turned his life upside down as a young psychologist. He has to judge whether the people reentering his life after long absences are friends or foes. He has to make sense of echoes of distant tragedies while he decides if there is anyone he can really trust. And as the clock ticks down, he must solve a deadly mystery in Eldorado Springs that has been brewing for more than a decade.At times full of pathos, at other times replete with White’s distinctive wry humor, Compound Fractures delivers the entrancing characters, the suspense, the intricately plotted story lines, and the unexpected twists that readers have come to expect.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Laurie on 2013-12-03 22:34:31

Ive read/listened to thank you Dick Hill! all of the Alan Gregory books, and each one has been its own small masterpiece. Like many Alan Gregory/Sam Purdy fans, I was reluctant to bid farewell to some of my favorite fictional friends. But this final episode was a spectacular way to say goodbye. I found the ending imminently satisfying, not in spite of, but because of its ambiguity. Obviously life is not over for either Alan or Sam. The mystery woman in the epilogue? I could make some guesses, but it wasnt any of the women who appeared in the final book. That just makes Alan complicated, and we already knew that. Me, Im thrilled by this final sign that his marriage to Lauren is over. It never felt comfortable to me. But that, too, makes this long lifestory an honest one. Most of our marriages arent particularly comfortable. That Frederick continues to hang over Alans and Sams heads is reality. It is never going away. Like Ivy Baldwin, they are suspended over a deadly secret that might kill them if they dont pay attention to the tiny wire that spans the chasm. That is, after all, the entire metaphor for this book. Not innocence or guilt, but rather balance. Edges blur, the black and white of morality turns gray, life becomes a succession of tradeoffs. The ultimate straightshooter Alan blackmails the DA. The honest cop Sam picks locks. Life is survival. And trust. The fact that Sam and Alan find their friendship strengthened after so much mistrust is affirming. They are not just friends because Frederick has tied them together forever. They are friends because they have finally learned how to trust each other.That, to me, is a fine story of redemption.