Replay

April 7, 2014
A riveting paranormal premise propels this thriller from French author Levy (If Only It Were True). Andrew Stilman, a New York Times reporter, awakens two months before someone fatally stabs him while jogging along the Hudson, determined to find and stop his killer. Suspects abound. On his wedding night a week before the murder, Andrew revealed his obsession with a mysterious woman to his wife, leaving her devastated. His recent exposé of Chinese child trafficking has drawn death threats and a bat-wielding attacker, whose estranged wife could be even more dangerous. An ongoing investigation of Argentine war criminals triggers dicey Buenos Aires encounters and leaves him with merciless enemies. A rabidly jealous, coke-snorting coworker hacks his computer, breaks into locked desk drawers, and maintains a vitriolic Web presence. Levy’s page-turner—as much about war crimes, children stolen from their parents, and generational secrets as about Andrew’s fate—builds with satisfying suspense, but some readers will feel cheated at the end. Agent: Laura Mamelok, Susanna Lea Associates.

May 15, 2014
An existential thriller, translated from the French, about a New York Times reporter with one hell of a deadline.This is the 13th novel by the wildly popular Levy (If Only It Were True, 2000, etc.). While it's less syrupy than his previous books, discerning readers will find plot holes you could drive a tank through. Thirty-something Andrew Stilman is working as the obituaries editor for the Times when one night he drunkenly stumbles into Valerie Ramsay, an attractive classmate from days gone by. Their affair blossoms quickly into love and a marriage proposal. But days before the wedding, Andrew meets a mysterious woman who obsesses him to the point that he confesses the emotional betrayal to his new wife, ruining his marriage in less than a day. This is when things get weird. A few days later, Andrew is running along the Hudson when he's viciously stabbed in the back. When he wakes up, it's 60 days earlier. Over the course of the next two months, Andrew pounds the pavement, trying to figure out who wants to kill him. Somehow, instead of obits, he's now doing investigative reporting that has attracted the ire of many. Could the would-be killer be connected to the parents who lost their adopted children, who turned out to have been stolen from China? Or Maj. Ortiz, the Argentinean warlord whose atrocities Andrew uncovered? Or could it be someone closer to home, like Valerie? It could even be Andrew's philosophical tailor. "There's no going back," he warns the young reporter. "And some actions can have irreparable consequences-like falling for some total stranger, however mesmerizing she may be, right before your wedding." It's worth making the leap of metaphysical faith to enjoy Andrew's dilemma if you can buy into the setup. Unfortunately, Levy can't seem to decide whether he's writing a ghost story, a geopolitical thriller or a spy novel, and the story never really coalesces enough to satisfy.An eerie premise, indeed, but this murky thriller can't quite stick the landing.

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