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Duplicate Keys

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Duplicate Keys

By: Jane Smiley
Narrated by: Ruth Ann Phimister
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Buy for $21.41

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Everyone has keys to Susan's New York apartment: all her friends, and friends of friends. So one afternoon, when Alice unlocks Susan's door to water the plants, she isn't surprised to find two men sitting in the living room. That they are both dead is a shock, however. Now Alice must sort through a tangle of personal connections, schemes, and motives to find the key to who killed them and why. And as she talks with the police, the answer that starts to nag at her is a chilling one.

Jane Smiley's talent for creating emotionally gripping tales of family relationships was celebrated when she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for A Thousand Acres. In Duplicate Keys, she displays her flair for creating a haunting mystery.

©1994 Jane Smiley (P)1998 Recorded Books Mystery Thriller & Suspense Suspense Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic reviews

"A first-rate cliffhanger." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Sharp and memorable....Finely wrought." (Newsday)
"As taut and chilling as anything Hitchcock put on film." (San Francisco Chronicle)

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Most relevant

Would you try another book from Jane Smiley and/or Ruth Ann Phimister?

Yes I would, I have read A Thousand Acres and I loved it.

How could the performance have been better?

It took a while to get over the overly childish voice and narration of Ruth Ann Phimister.

Any additional comments?

Jane Smiley's talent to describe people and places made the book and the simple plot of it very enjoyable.

Beautifully written

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I've read other Jane Smiley books in years past and enjoyed them. Not this one. It is a pointless book where the two most interesting characters, mediocre rock musicians are dead on page one. The rest of the characters drift in and out of pointless conversations. Nothing much happens. There's a hint of drama around the 80% mark, but unless you are a die-hard Smiley fan, it is not worth it. This is an excruciatingly boring book with very little to recommend it. It's not an interesting mystery, there are not compelling characters, very little happens except people eat a lot of lunch. I have never been so let down and angered by a book as this one.

A terrible book by a very good writer

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This was the weakest of several Jane Smiley works I’ve read. A limp attempt at a “murder mystery.” Centered on a cast of self-interested characters you won’t care about, the story is formulaic and rife with cliches. The reader is ok, except for one or two poor—but blessedly brief—attempts at accents (a Rastafarian, for example). I couldn’t wait for this one to end, so when I fell asleep in the middle and awoke to hear the “reveal,” that was quite enough and I deleted it from my library.

Weakest Smiley I’ve Heard/Read

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I love Jane Smiley, but I don't love this book. Jane tries to combine family dynamics with a murder mystery and she doesn't succeed here. Characters are developed, but don't seem to evolve. And, the mystery drags on and on and on.

Neither fish nor fowl

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I had modest expectations for this book that were much more than met. The characters were well developed and original. The book had more depth than your average mystery and still kept me turning pages. Surprising! Well crafted!

Psychologically Intriguing Page-Turner

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