"Elysiana is a departure for Knopf, whose Sam Acquillo mysteries have wonreviewers’ raves, but he nails it. The seemingly shambling plot provesultimately to be sly, and Knopf’s sweet-spirited style recalls memories spurredby faded home movies of long-ago vacations. His bio says that he was a NewJersey lifeguard back in the day, and he captures the zeitgeist of the Shoreperfectly. Every “shoobie” on the beach who eschews MTV’s odious Jersey Shoreshould be reading Elysiana this season."
— Booklist
"Smart dialogue and sharp social observations distinguish this stand-alonethriller from Knopf (Short Squeeze and four other Hamptons mysteries). In thesummer of 1969, life on the sunny New Jersey resort island of Elysiana simmersas town cops feud with the beach patrol, fed-up wives elude their slimyhusbands, local politicians double-cross each other, lots of dope flowseverywhere, and various needy, wounded people—such as a brain-damaged lifeguard,a young woman from Chicago who fled her lecherous dad, and a smalltime criminalwho's also a maniac surfer—look for reasons to go on. Knopf sets up a lot ofcompeting characters capable of semi-clever scheming to get what they want, thenshows a massive hurricane ripping their plans and their island apart. Like JohnD. Macdonald or Charles Willeford in a lighter mood, he's unsentimentally fondof his characters and tentatively hopeful about their ability to salvagesomething from the wreckage around them."
—Publishers Weekly
"It’s not every blood-and-guts action romp filled with hippie dropouts anddegenerate misfits, many of them high on hallucinogens and low in heeding thelaw, that can reference The Bernouilli effect, Jean Paul Sartre and Anais Nin.But Chris Knopf delivers, with ease, wit and humor, never letting arcanainterfere with suspense. The result is Elysiana, named for a fictional SouthJersey barrier island. It’s Knopf’s sixth novel and a breakaway from hisaward-winning Sam Acquillo murder mysteries, featuring the hard-headed,tough-talking, soft-hearted Southampton-based protagonist, though traces ofSam’s character can be detected in one or two of the odd balls who make theirhome on this stretch of land, at once savagely beautiful off shore and oftensavage inland."
—Joan Baum for NPR and The Independent
You can also find out more about Chris Knopf and his work atsameddie.com
CHRIS KNOPF is the award winningauthor of the highly acclaimed SamAcquillo Hamptons mystery series:
TheLast Refuge, Two Time, Head Wounds,and
Hard Stop. As a young college student he worked as a lifeguard in Avalonon the South Jersey shore—a place notunlike the setting for
Elysiana. A sailor,cabinet maker, and advertising executiveat Mintz & Hoke in Avon, Connecticut,Chris and his wife Mary also spend considerable time at their Southampton, LongIsland home.