The Last Kind Words

Having never read anything by Tom Piccirilli, I had only the dust jacket to go off as I started this book. I thought it would be a thriller, with some family drama…but a basic sort of mystery. Not. Even. Close.

It’s hard for me to explain why I was so drawn into this book. There is a mystery – an element of “whodunit” – but it was so much more than that. There’s the layer of the ULTIMATE dysfunctional family, as seen through the eyes of a lost soul. Terry Rand comes from a family of thieves, was a thief, has tried to escape that label…and yet is drawn back into the family fold when his brother faces execution. It sounds like it would read as tarted up drama, but it is absolutely not. These voices, these characters, ring show more true.

“We were a family of thieves who knew one another very well and respected one another’s secrets. It was dysfunction at its worst.”

Terry, who provides the reader’s view into this world, is fascinating. He is the ultimate shade of grey as he leaves the honest(ish) life he’s built out West and rejoins his family. He finds himself unable to refuse his brother’s wishes, unable to stay out of his younger sister’s life, unable to keep from helping when he can – even if he uses less than honest means to do so. He seems fearless when he acts – but is also grappling with his past – where one of the biggest decisions of his life was made entirely from fear. He’d abandoned the love of his life, Kimmy, and being in the same town again with her wracks him with emotion. The choice he made then haunts him – yet not enough to deal with the consequences now.

“Whenever some image hit me, I pressed it away. There seemed to be no good memories. Everything brought pain. A man should be composed of more than his heartaches, his failures, his missed opportunities and regrets.”

The dramatic tension in this book grabs the reader from the very beginning and never lets go. I found myself wondering what would happen to every character I was introduced to, even if it was only a minor one. Piccirilli’s writing style masterfully adds depth to the plot, with no discernable traces of having tried to do so.

I suppose what I found most interesting is that the moral dilemmas that Terry wrestled with the most weren’t the ones that seem most obvious when reading about criminals. Breaking in, stealing, violence against others…didn’t cause as much internal debate as those sins that didn’t make the Ten Commandments. Love, loyalty, dedication…those were the issues that were tearing him apart.

Having never read another of his books, I fully intend to see if this was a one time stroke of brilliance or if I should add Tom Piccirilli’s name to my “to be read” list. show less

First in series, but unfortunately there are only two books in this series due to the untimely demise of the author. This is a hard-hitting noir novel, with unrelenting violence mixed with enough human kindness to make it palatable. I love Terrier Rand, and his family, even though the family was known to be accomplished cat burglars. As an interesting anecdote, all the boys in the family for four generations were named after dog breeds. We meet Shep(herd), the grandfather who is suffering from Alzheimers, and his three sons, Malamute, Grey(hound), (Doberman) Pinscher as well as Pinscher's two sons, Collie and Terrier. That was enough to hook me, and then I met the family, Such a conglomeration of scoundrels like you've never seen before show more Terri has been gone for five years pursuing his dream of escape from the family legacy while working as a cowboy on a western ranch. Collie, his older brother, has asked him to come back. Collie admits to killing seven people in one night on a nonsensical killing spree, but he says to Terri that he did not kill the young teenager. Fighting demons of his own, Terrier tries to get to the root of the problem and finds himself caught in a crime web that he can't fight through. It all hits close to home, and the family legacy is at the root, so Terri must try to unravel the strands with much danger to himself. I couldn't put it down, and the unique storyline held me enthralled throughout. Loved the book and it was like nothing I'd ever read before I want to read the second and last book about Terri Rand ASAP. Perfect crime fiction at it's noir best-you don't know who to root for and who to hate and as you read it doesn't matter. show less

Review of “The Last Kind Words”
Disclosure: I received a free advance copy of this book with the expectation that I would provide an honest review.
“The Last Kind Words” is an engrossing story of a family of thieves dealing with life in the two weeks before the execution of their oldest son for murder. All the members of the family are named after dog breeds—as they have been for generations in the family.
The plot itself moves rather slowly, but the characters are vivid and real. In a rare meeting with his convicted murderer brother Collie, Terrier (who goes by Terry) is convinced to investigate one of the murders Collie is sentenced to die for. Collie claims he didn’t kill one of the people he was convicted of murdering.
Over show more the next couple of weeks, Terry investigates the murder and along the way, we get to meet various people in his life and from his past. The characters are vividly described and are unique enough to really seem real—unlike the simple caricatures that often passes for character development these days.
The author and Terry succeed in asking a number of profound questions in a way that never feels heavy-handed, yet are compelling for us to ask ourselves: how many of our choices are driven by our family and our upbringing, where is the line of depravity in each of us, why do we decide to do things which we know are wrong and harmful to ourselves?
This is one of those books where you find yourself desperate to find out how the story ends, yet simultaneously wishing the story could go on since you’re so engrossed in the lives of the characters.

I look forward to reading other Tom Piccirilli books. show less

Very original story with believable but not always likeable characters. Terry Rand was raised by a family of small time grifters; his brother Collie goes on a killing rampage one night and kills an entire family and is now on death row. The unfolding story is of a close-knit, dysfunctional family with deep secrets. Terry is desperately trying to avoid following in his brothers and uncles fates. He tries to protect his younger sister. He is afraid he will become just as ill and violent as his family. His struggles are the more intriguing since he is a good person "at heart" but he wonders if he is good only at heart. No neat, warm fuzzy endings here.

Terry Rand is back from out West after a five year absence--just in time for his brother’s execution for killing 8 (or was it 7?) people in a single night, then calmly returning to a bar, laying down his weapon, and waiting for the police. What caused the killing spree? Terry fears it is “the underneath”, some sort of creeping evil that lives in his family’s veins. Of course, it isn’t your average family. It is a family of thieves, going back several generations. The household Terry returns to includes his Grandfather, deep into Alzheimer’s and watching children’s cartoons most of the time, his father and his father’s two brothers, his mother, and his 15 year old sister Dale. And, of course, the cop who hangs around all show more the time trying to be part of the family, even more so now that he is separated from his wife and children. And one more thing--all the Rands are named after dogs (except for Terry’s--Terrier’s--mother, who got in by marriage.) His uncles are Malamute and Greyhound, Mal and Grey for short. His father is Pinscher; his condemned brother is Colley; and so on.

Piccirilli paints a painful picture of a very dysfunctional family. The Rand house is full of hidey holes of cash, but also tons of bric-a-brac they were unable to fence and have kept around for years. No one communicates very well. The two uncles seem intent on getting themselves killed by a gangster for cheating at cards. The gangster is an old childhood friend of Terry who has now taken over for his deceased father, and appears to be bringing in some outside muscle to help him out. The sister is dating a 21-year old hoodlum and would-be armed robber, though in other ways she seems to have her head together, and is even auditioning for the part of Blanche in her high school’s production of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. And of course, with the execution coming up, there is a media circus outside the house, which debonair Uncle Grey has taken advantage of by romancing a pretty TV reporter.

And Terry has a few personal problems of his own (not) to deal with, such as his enduring pain over leaving Kimmy, whom he planned to marry, in the aftermath of her miscarriage with their child. Kimmy is now married to another old friend of Terry, who runs a body shop and offers getaway advice as a side business. Terry also discovers he still has a knack for breaking into houses, and these “creeps” as he calls them, are an important part of the book.

Terry visits Colley in prison, and Colley claims he didn’t commit one of the eight murders he is about to die for. Terry doesn’t believe him, but is compelled to investigate anyway, which leads him into a number of encounters, some violent, and a deepening sense of fear about his own dark urges. All of this is told in what is a rather slow-moving, though never boring, story. There are lots more characters that I won’t mention. The thing that most of them have in common is their strangeness; most of them seem a little removed from reality.

Piccirilli has tossed a lot of balls into the air, including some I haven’t mentioned, but he doesn’t do such a great job of juggling them. I realize that the author is trying to achieve something well beyond what the normal noir or pulp fiction novel strives for, but the end result isn't an intentionally incomplete experience that encourages the reader to fill in the gaps or add his or her own interpretation. Rather, it is a collection of pieces that don't quite add up to a coherent whole. Each time Terry starts contemplating “the underneath” again and how it could have driven his brother to murder, it all seems more than a bit contrived. As does the ultimate “solution” to the murder Colley claimed to have not committed. The story builds slowly to its cataclysm, but there are too many scenes that appear to be attached with Bondo, such as an unlikely one involving a gunman and a frozen turkey. On occasion, Piccirilli seems to even want to inject a bit of humor into the story, but it is a bad fit. In the end, the Rand family and its problems were never brought to life in a believable enough way to make me really care--although I got a kick out of staring at them, as if they were circus freaks. show less

This is the first of Piccirilli’s novels that I have read, so I came in with no preconceptions. First, let me say I really enjoyed it while I was reading it. I finished it in 2 evenings and appreciated that the plot moved along smoothly and although there were plenty of characters, the relationships were laid out clearly.

The Rand family is, to put it charitably, dysfunctional. For generations…three of which are living together under the same roof…the offspring have been named for various dog breeds (Collie, Terry (Terrier), Dale (Airedale)…) and raised from the cradle to the “bent life” of crime. They have always made a comfortable living from grifting, cons, cheating at cards, breaking-and-entering aka:”creeping”, but show more have steadfastly drawn the line at violent, confrontational crimes.

Which is why it is such a shock when one of the sons, Terry’s brother Collie, apparently commits a heinous act of mass murder, then calmly returns to his favorite bar, confesses and waits to be arrested. On death row for five years, and now only two weeks from his date with the executioner, he summons Terry to the prison, claiming that he is not guilty of one of the murders, begging Terry to investigate and find the real killer.

In a family unable to demonstrate their love for one another in any meaningful way, with silence and secrets a daily way of life, Terry is conflicted about whether or not to commit to this investigation. Is Collie guilty? Covering for someone else? Just plain mad-dog crazy? Realizing that Grandpa is suffering from Alzheimer’s, albeit with momentary sparks of unexpected lucidity, and the uncles have recently been seen behaving oddly as well, Terry understands that “crazy” is a definite possibility. He begins to second-guess his sometimes dark thoughts and is haunted by the prospect that he may in fact be witnessing his own future descent into the same madness.

“The Last Kind Words” is an enjoyable read. Like most such novels however, it weaves an intricate web that requires some level of suspension of disbelief. Because it’s difficult to tie *all* the loose ends up into a perfectly neat bow at the end, you should probably just go with it and enjoy it for the ride more than the destination. show less

I was caught up in the book from the very first chapter. Terrier Rand comes from a family of thieves - burglars, second-story men, con artists and grifters. (All named after breeds of dog, for reasons that are never fully explained.) His brother, Collie, is on death row after a killing spree that included an elderly couple and a nine-year-old girl. Terry hadn't planned to come home for the execution, but his brother has a last request.

The Last Kind Words by Tom Piccirilli is the story of that last request and the story of Terry coming to terms with his family. After his brother's conviction, in the midst of his own personal crisis, he left town, ran away from his problems. Coming home, he can't make things right; it's just too late to show more be there for the one person who really needed him. He has to face the fact that other people suffered for his cowardice. His brother can still push all his buttons -- he knows just what to say to get Terry to do what he wants. It's really not all that difficult: Terry wants to understand what Collie did, wants some sort of explanation. First, though, there's a question of the one murder that Collie swears he did not commit.

You can't help but root for Terry and love his family just a little. The names -- Terrier; Collie; their father, Pinscher; their uncles, Malamute and Greyhound; his grandfather, Shepher -- are enough to draw you in. The open and honest way they approach their completely dishonest living is kind of charming and everyone in town knows who and what they are. Terry makes some terrible decisions, but there is enormous pressure on him, with the upcoming execution, concerns about his sister, his ailing grandfather and an uncle in trouble with the mob. He's clearly trying to do the right thing, even without a clear idea of what the right thing might be, but he's torn and fighting his instincts to run, like he did before. This time, he has to see things through to the end.

I really enjoyed the novel, over all. I was really engrossed in Terry's family struggles, particularly his dealings with his teenage sister. It's got to be tough growing up in such a notorious family, and a 16 year old does not want her runaway older brother coming home, trying to save the day. The failing health of his grandfather and uncles is disturbing, as it is for all of us who are watching family members grow old. For men like these, what do you do when you can't do the thing you've done all your life? Most of all, Terry's final words to his brother surprised me. It was one of those scenes where you don't know what you were expecting, but this wasn't it. Overall, a very good read. show less