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Cruisers
A Novel
by Craig Nova


10.0

based on 10 reviews
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based on 6 votes
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Official Publisher Site

Nova's 11th novel centers on two main characters, who are fated to cross paths three times: Frank Kohler, a damaged and increasingly violent loner who sends for a mail-order bride from Russia, and Russell Boyd, a state trooper in love with a special-ed teacher.

Shaye Areheart Books, 320 pages
07/13/2004
$24.00

ISBN: 1400045363

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Ben Spier

Nova displays an uncanny flair for evoking his characters' innermost fears and desires through sensuous details.

Los Angeles Times Tom Nolan

With a poet's sensitivity, Nova renders nuances of mood, complexities of character. "Cruisers" is like a poem, at once hard-boiled and lyrical -- a poem of and for our time. [19 Sep 2004]

Publishers Weekly

Nova again demonstrates his control of character, sense of place and ability to create grim worlds that readers might be reluctant to experience at first, but then find hard to resist. [5 Jul 2004, p.39]

Booklist Donna Seaman

Like the best of noir, Nova's unsettling novels, serpentine in their structure, speed, and toxic bite, remind us that while dark forces are always present, we must embrace love. [1 June 2004, p.1704]

Boston Globe Eliza R. L. McGraw

The pacing of "Cruisers" is compulsive and relentless.

Chicago Tribune Alan Cheuse

Though "Cruisers" is not his broadest canvas, he does make up in intensity, especially in the scenes of naked violence, what he gives up in breadth.

Washington Post Peter Straub

Subtle, understated and humane... Cruisers demonstrates that the boundary between literature and genre fiction, once fiercely maintained, has grown tissue-thin.

Kirkus Reviews

Like a depressing tale of crime and woe from the evening news but shorn of tabloid extravagance--and with an uncommonly human sensibility. [15 May 2004, p.465]

San Francisco Chronicle Brenn Jones

If the novel falls short on characterization, it doesn't lack for forceful storytelling.

The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Lee Henderson

The layers of sympathy cast upon the players finally make the novel blandly palatable. I see no point to reading a murder contrived to save us from mortal anxiety.

The average user rating for this book is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

T Wright gave it a10:
Cruisers is a heart-stopping literary thriller - I coudn't put it down. Craig Nova is a brilliant writer and Cruisers is Nova at his best. I just saw that Cruisers was named a best book of 2004 by the LA Times and I couldn't agree more.

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Cruisers A Novel by Craig Nova

Cruisers
A Novel
by Craig Nova