Overall Performance: Narration Rating: Story Rating:.

But there’s plenty more to this excellent debut novel.” - Rocky Mountain News “Take one hard-boiled burnout, add an eastern Long Island setting and a cynical sense of humour, throw in a sweetheart of a dog and you’ve got The Last Refuge.

Expect to hear more from Knopf he is definitely a writer to watch.” - Booklist (starred review)

“Though the mystery drives the plot, it’s Sam’s rediscovery of himself in middle age that is the real focus in this accomplished debut novel, which also boasts outstanding dialogue and a vividly rendered setting. “Knopf’s effortless narrative style and sense of humor bode well for the further adventures of Sam Acquillo.” - Publishers Weekly “The spare, emotionally eloquent style of Chris Knopf’s first novel, The Last Refuge, gives shapely form to the confessional story narrated by Sam Acquillo.the characters are such original oddballs and their conversation so bracing you want to kick off your shoes and spend some time on the porch with them, just taking in the view and enjoying the talk.” - New York times A new and different kind of protagonist in a story artfully told. I loved this one and now I have a whole new author.

Meanwhile, a procession of quirky characters intrudes on Sam’s misanthropic ways, the likes of which you never knew inhabited the hidden corners of the storied Hamptons: the haves, the have-nots, and the want-to-have-at-all-costs-some of them deadly. Despite himself, burned out, busted up, and cynical, the ex-engineer, ex-professional boxer, ex-loving father and husband finds himself uncovering secrets no one could have imagined, least of all Sam himself. A middle-aged corporate dropout living in a ramshackle cottage in Southampton’s North Sea, Sam has abandoned friends, family, and a big-time career to sit on his porch, drink vodka, and stare at the Little Peconic Bay.īut then the old lady next door ends up floating dead in her bathtub, and it seems that Sam is the only one who wonders why.

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