Writing style
Atmospheric · Direct · Lyrical · Witty
Apple BooksThe Last Good Kiss
Mystery and thriller · Noir
- First published
- 1978
- Print length
- 244 pagesVintage Books, 1988
Description
Montana private investigator C. W. Sughrue is hired to find a failing author. During that assignment, he becomes involved in the search for Betty Sue Flowers, a woman who has been missing for a decade in Haight-Ashbury. The Last Good Kiss therefore places Sughrue between two searches: a professional job with an immediate target and an older disappearance whose answers have remained out of reach. The novel’s central setup is spare but compelling, following an investigator as his work expands beyond its original purpose and draws him toward a mystery that has resisted resolution for ten years.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Brisk
Tone
Bleak · Dark · Irreverent · Melancholic
Structure
Linear
Focus
Character · Mystery · Plot
Emotional intensity
4 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 3 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
Themes
Book details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Vintage Books
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780394759890
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