After Her

Rachel and Patty Toricelli were sisters utterly devoted to each other. they were pre teens, Patty two years younger than Rachel. Their father was Anthony Toricelli a handsome homicide detective.. and the girls absolutely adored him. and he loved them. They were the most important people in the world to him. Mother was Lillian. Tony loved the women and one in particular, Margaret Ann. The family lived at the foot of the mountains in a modest house. The girls had vivid imaginations and would act them out. Their mother and father divorced. Detective Toricelli had the challenge of his life when a string of murders began , taking place on the hiking trails in the mountains. These were all pretty girls with dark hair. His MO was to strangle them with piano wire. He was called the (can't remember the name now) Strangler. Anthony could not get any leads and the girls saw their father grow thin and haggard as he appeared on TV . He often came by the house at night and discussed the case with Lillian. They would smoke and have a drink. He ended with lung cancer and long after he was gone Rachel tried to figure things out to redeem her father's reputation. Here is where many twists occur. Rachel becomes a writer...... Great story. I never did figure out why the title was "After Her" .

A great book that covered a few genres. Sisterhood, growing up, fitting in, a parents divorce, entangled under the umbrella of murder mystery.The father was, to me, a lovely soul but like all humans, had his faults. The mother was disappointing in that she was so self immersed that she was rather neglectful, yet her daughters accepted her, perhaps more so than their father and his often neglectfulness of his daughters.I fell in love with the humanity of Patty, and was angered by the actions of Rachel, during her young teen years as she did everything to fit in, albeit for a brief time. My only wish was that I would have liked to hear something positive come about, after the fact, for their fathers input. I was surprised that Tis wasn't brought into the story. However, all in all, I truly enjoyed Joyce Maynard's book. I will always believe that she is one of our greatest writers. ( A certain man has absolutely nothing on her, nor anything to do with her natural art of writing).

I would have given this book 3 ½ stars if that were an option.I thought the relationship between Rachel, the narrator, and her younger sister Patty was excellent. The dialogue, the games they played, their adoration for their flawed father and their damaged mother, all felt very real.I think this could have made a pretty good YA novel.I have to agree with some of the other reviewers who have pointed out that there is an inexplicable amount of details that are repeated over and over and over again. And then over again just in case we forgot that Patty has buckteeth. I read this in one sitting on a long flight so the repetition was really annoying. Probably would have been less so, if I was reading intermittently.The serial killer in the story kills 15 girls and we get a chapter on each one and more. It is oddly a page turner and a drag at the same time. I really was invested in the characters and I wanted to find out what happened next, but because of that, I found myself skimming sections where I more or less knew what was going to be covered.The big climax reminded me of something that would have been written for a TV movie – a good TV movie, but still sort of conventional implausible action.

This was a book club selection - if it hadn't been, I don't think I would have finished it. I can see that the book got some rave reviews (some of the ladies in my book club loved it), and I do think the subject had potential, but it was so drawn out and repetitive! This story could have easily been told in 100 pages; it was a chore to get through 300. While I was reading I often wondered if the story was a collection of memoirs the author wrote at different times and then strung them together for a novel...but if it was, it needed some serious editing! So many scenarious, subjects and thoughts were repeated again and again; her mother was reclusive and spent eons at the library, her father was her hero (in reality, a deadbeat dad), her sister was quiet but loud (??) and liked basketball...and that annoying diatribe about the absence of her period! Sheesh! Enough already! By the time I finished the book I was tired of the story and everyone in it. I also found it odd that the story was kind of true, but not true. It prompted me to do some research on the Trailside Killer, but the killer and circumstances in this book are entirely fictional - very different from the actual story of David Carpenter and the murders he committed on Mt. Tam 30+ years ago. I think I may have read other books by this author and enjoyed them, but IMO, this one was a waste of time.

I really liked it. I picked it up not knowing what it was about or reading any of the reviews, but I liked Labor Day so I figured I'd like this one too.It takes place in SF/Marin and is the story of a teenaged girl and her sister growing up over a couple of years with a serial killer on the loose and their father being the lead detective on the case.It's much more the story of family and growing up than a police procedural but it does have a bit of mystery and suspense to keep it interesting. I found the characters interesting, relatable, and sympathetic and I enjoyed the mellow pacing of the book. I read it in 3 days so I was obviously really engaged in the story.It did bug me that the father could take his daughters out for dinner and he wore tailored clothes and had a lot of fancy shoes while the girls were hungry, ate crap food, and wore worn out shoes and clothes. Didn't he pay child support? He was written as a very kind, loving, sincere father yet he didn't care if his kids went without necessities? That seemed kind of weird to me.

The perfect story, syncronised to perfection. Read it.

Loved this book... The exploits the sisters get up to... The love for the father, the realistic angst of teenagers. The tension of the strangler...very well written. Highly recommended!

This was a really nice story on childhood, father and daughter relationships, really moving. I had a great time reading it and I definitely recommend it. It made me think of my own childhood, and the way Joyce Maynard describes teenagers will remain in my mind for long. I also enjoyed the subtle description of the Marin Headlands. I just found that the end of the story was a bit 'too much', as also read in another comment. But it is still worth reading! Enjoy!

The story started out very well and promised an interesting read. It's a story about relationships. Another coming of age story. Another teenager trying to do good and messing up the lives of those around her. Predictable, drawn out. Very repetitive. The late 1970s reads more to me like the early 1960s especially the TV thing. It wasn't totally utterly boring, but it goes no where fast.

Wonderful book, wonderful story. This will keep you interested (to say the least) until the very end. One of these can't put it down stories.

I don't hate it but it's the only way(clicking on one star) to get the little box opened. Haven't read it yet!