The Last Good Day

The Last Good Day (2003) by Peter Blauner. Lawyer Barry Schulman and his wife, Lynn, have moved to the bedroom community of Riverside. Waiting for the train to Manhattan one day, Barry witnesses a headless body wash up on shore. To Lynn's shock, the body is identified as her old friend Sandi. Thus begins a book that is less a murder mystery than a meditation on the state of middle-class America post-9/11 and post-stock market crash. Blauner goes into intimate detail about several of the families in Riverside, and finds most to be rotten to the core. The book ends in a spasm of violence which seems oddly appropriate, given what has gone before. At any rate, it makes for a good, entertaining and thought-provoking read. Grade: B+