Cover Image: The Darkest Glare

The Darkest Glare

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Member Reviews

I like true crime and the premise of this one definitely caught my interest, but the rest of the book did not. I love reading but this one felt more like a chore to finish. I don’t know exactly why it didn’t grab me more because the writing was good (although different than most true crime I’ve read) and it was clearly well researched. I think part of what I struggled with is that it felt like nothing happened. I feel like it could have made a decent movie if it went for the comedy angle. Because this book wasn’t so much about grisly crime as badly attempted grisly crime. There were more attempts and failures than anything else. I felt like the crimes themselves felt exaggerated. A murder for hire business sounds a lot worse than saying some guy conned some already shady individuals to kill the man who screwed him over financially. None of the characters invoked any empathy from me and there was a lot of unnecessary and not helpful to the story details about them or random side characters.

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This true crime drama is beyond bizarre! It takes place in 1970s Los Angeles involving a real estate partnership (main characters Richard, Jerry, and Howard) that goes wrong, horribly wrong. There are plenty of plot twists, foiled murder attempts, and outlandish drama, but the writing does bog at times. The author did a great job researching and including little known details, which kept me engaged. Good book for those who like true crime. Thank you, Netgalley, author Chip Jacobs, and publisher Rare Birds Books, for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. 3 Stars

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So this book had a very interesting concept to me when I first read the summary but I found that I really struggled to get into it. It is very well written but there were many points where I felt like it was moving too slow for what was happening in the plot. I generally feel like books that involve some form of murder plot should be more fast-paced to keep the reader interested and this book did not have that. The idea of the story was very entertaining and I did enjoy the plot of this book a lot. This is a book that really leaves you thinking and questioning everything that is happening as you read. I received an advanced review copy for free, and I am reviewing this voluntarily.

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Chip Jacobs' The darkest glare is a bizarre tale of greed, paranoia, double dealings and murder based on a true story and set in Los Angeles at the end of the 70s. It involves a business, a space planning firm called Space Matters and it's peopled with an incredible cast of shady weirdos that keep behaving more and erratically until the situation gets out of hand and everbody goes really bonkers...
I don't really want to get too much into the plot and spoil the pleasure you will probably get from reading this twisty and darkly funny romp but suffice to say that it's tensly written and that it definitely reads like a good crime novel.
Finally it's also the incredible presence of LA in the background at the tale end of the 70s that makes this captivating book a winner. It's noirish, it's fun and it definitely heralds the closing of a strange decade in the city's history. To be enjoyed without moderation before someone grabs this really unsettling story and turns it into a movie.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Rare Birds Books for giving me the opportunity to read this great book prior to its release date

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The Darkest Glare is an interesting, unique noir-ish true crime story. I typically don't prefer to read about true crime as I prefer true crime stories as TV series. That being said, I thought this book was okay. I appreciate that the book was well-researched and well-written, but the author's writing style wasn't for me - too many descriptors for my liking. Perhaps an audio version would be better suited for this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Rare Bird Books for providing an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 stars out of 5 (rounded up to 3).

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The Darkest Glare has moments of greatness. It's deeply researched and well-written on many levels. Sometimes the crazy-but-true story gets a little too much drama from Jacobs, the story is wild enough, it probably doesn't need so many descriptors carrying it along. It was overall an entertaining read but didn't quite suit my style of True Crime stories.

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This book started out as a good read, but went horribly array about midpoint. It is hard to believe the storyline pertaining to Howard being such a dark horse after luring the reader into believing he was being swindled by the company. I had trouble keeping the story in perspective after that.

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"The Darkest Glare" is an obscure true crime story. It begins with Richard Kasparov and Jerry Scneiderman, who created a space planning firm called Space Matters. They then partner up with another guy named Howard Garrett. Long story short, Kasparov steals from them and from there, Garrett sues and then plans a series of assassination attempts on Kasparov.

I didn't exactly finish this one. I read approximately 1/5 of it before skimming the rest. I'm writing this review because I did sink around 2 hours of reading time into this book, so here are my 2 cents.

I lost interest in the narrative but more than that I got bored of the writing; in fact, the writing started to grate on me. Chip Jacobs certainly adds a lot of personality to the story, which is apparent in the first chapter and fine to start with, but it got to be a bit much. There were parts that were detailed to the point of overwriting (e.g. describing a person's physical appearance for an entire long paragraph), and there was so much extraneous detail packed into it. There were also parts I was mentally editing seconds after reading because they didn't sound good to me. I also just stopped caring about the story after a certain point.

The author did an incredible amount of research, though, and I'd recommend this book if it sounds interesting and you like the writing style.

3/5 because I have to give it a rating

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I want to thank Netgalley and Rare Bird books for a copy of this to review for my honest opinion.
I love when an author takes the time to actually research a topic before they write it. This was one of those books. What pulled me into this book was the cover, then I read the synopsis and I knew it was for me. For me sometimes true crime is a hit or miss because sometimes I just need that fiction in the book. For me, it was a book that I was into but couldn't sit and read it in one sitting. I had to break it up into different days. But again that is just how I am with true crime books. If I was able to read this in one day, I would have finished it in one sitting. I would recommend it to those who are intrigued by true crime. One thing that I do love about true crime, is that most of the time it transports you to the actual setting and you feel like you are right inside the book with the characters.

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I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found this to be just OK. I think that as an audio book with a good narrator this could be great. As it is I was not tempted to DNF it at any point and read it in two evenings. I think its a good book for a palate cleanser between different genres.

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This was kind of a mixed bag for me, and not the easiest to review. I found the writing to be very good in a different way. It does grab you and pull you in, and makes you keep reading to see what happens next. I did feel it got rather weird/draggy during the killing attempts. Throughout I see lots of effort in research and plenty of eye-catching descriptions and sentences.

The story is about a unique niche in construction that two men, Richard Kasparov and Jerry Schneiderman partnered up to kick butt in. They hired a third man to handle the construction sites, juggling all the details, supplies, and people necessary to keep things moving forward and on time. Things start off wonderfully and then are followed by many twists and turns. Bizarre true crime you’ll wonder about long after its over. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Chip Jacobs, and the publisher.

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As a major fan of True Crime books/television, I feel that this book is a great addition to the genre. This story was engaging and moved at a good pace. While I would have liked a bit more of a follow-up at the end, I feel that this book delivers most of what it promises. I would recommend this story to any fan of the genre as well as anyone who may be new to it. Four out of five stars!!

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Very interesting and fast read true crime novel. It kept me engaged throughout book. Very well written. Would recommend to someone who enjoys true crime.

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Clunky use of adjectives and adverbs. This use of language in this book is very difficult and I felt no interest in trying.

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The Darkest Glare is an intelligently written, obviously well researched bizarre story involving a real estate partnership that goes haywire. Mostly set in 70-80’s LA, you’d think this book was a work of fiction, with all the crazy characters, outlandish, bumbling murder plots, and family drama that you’d see in most thriller novels. But no, this is the real deal. The writing can get a little melodramatic at times, and I would have like to have seen an update on the main characters at book’s end, but overall it’s a compelling read. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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A very unusual true crime novel, in my opinion. But nontheless, a nice read, probably because of its uniqueness.
The crime was intruiguing and fascinating and it felt much like a fictional novel instead of just retelling a crime.

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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This is pretty well written and engaging. True crime stories are quite popular and this one will likely satisfy fans of the genre. Recommended.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

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