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Sunstroke
When businessman Carl Perreira disappears during his vacation in Mexico, it’s his loyal assistant Gloria who makes call after call to find out what happened. After all, she’s been secretly in love with him for years.
When she’s told that Carl has died in a car accident, it’s Gloria who tries, to no avail, to track down the next of kin or a copy of Carl’s will. And it’s Gloria, heartbroken, who finally decides to journey across the border herself to retrieve his body.
But the deeper into the desert she travels, the more shocking the discoveries she makes. About Carl. About herself. And about how elusive and dangerous the truth can be.
When she’s told that Carl has died in a car accident, it’s Gloria who tries, to no avail, to track down the next of kin or a copy of Carl’s will. And it’s Gloria, heartbroken, who finally decides to journey across the border herself to retrieve his body.
But the deeper into the desert she travels, the more shocking the discoveries she makes. About Carl. About herself. And about how elusive and dangerous the truth can be.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
81 people are currently reading
696 people want to read
About the author
Jesse Kellerman
52 books277 followersJesse Kellerman was born in Los Angeles in 1978. His award-winning plays have been produced throughout the United States and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Most recently, he received the Princess Grace Award, given to America’s most promising young playwright. He lives with his wife in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 124 reviews
July 25, 2014
Read as part of book club. Not something I would normally pick up. Premise was interesting -- guy disappears, possibly dead, and the only person who goes looking for him is his secretary who has a bit of a love obsession over him. The resulting twists and turns, coupled with flashbacks, were intriguing (and a bit confusing), but by the end I found I really didn't care much because 1) I forgot which version of the back story was the real version and 2) I really didn't care about any of the main characters and therefore, really wasn't cheering for them. (There was a kid working at a gas station I liked, but alas, he didn't get enough page time).
The author's use of words was pretty masterful. The visual image created was almost poetic. But this was marred by the needless and continuous use of F-bombs, sex, and borderline stereotypes passing as characters. And of course, there was violence, which was pretty descriptive.
Speaking of characters - I appreciate the authors use of minority characters in the main roles, but wish they were better developed. They were borderline stereotypes. The Mexican looking for a quick buck, the African-American cop with attitude (and big penis), the Jewish lawyer with the bimbo wife. It just seems, given how well crafted the foundation of the book was, Kellerman has the skills do more for his characters.
All in all, a good read that could have been a great read.
The author's use of words was pretty masterful. The visual image created was almost poetic. But this was marred by the needless and continuous use of F-bombs, sex, and borderline stereotypes passing as characters. And of course, there was violence, which was pretty descriptive.
Speaking of characters - I appreciate the authors use of minority characters in the main roles, but wish they were better developed. They were borderline stereotypes. The Mexican looking for a quick buck, the African-American cop with attitude (and big penis), the Jewish lawyer with the bimbo wife. It just seems, given how well crafted the foundation of the book was, Kellerman has the skills do more for his characters.
All in all, a good read that could have been a great read.
April 27, 2011
What started out as quite a good idea didn't turn into a good book! I felt it was just me but the book dragged in the middle and to be honest I didn't care if the guy who might or might not have been murdered, was alive or dead!
I had to force myself to keep on reading, the author must believe that detailed descriptions adds to the athmosphere of his book whereas I just wanted to charachters to grow. They seemed one dimensional.
The ending was a mess, there had been so many misdirections and twists that went no where it was a job unravelling them all. The story concluded and we discovered most of what happened with a few loose ends left hanging for the reader to think about. Normally I would like that style, it makes it seem more real and interesting if you have some input into what happened, but I didn't care in this case!
A disappointing read.
I had to force myself to keep on reading, the author must believe that detailed descriptions adds to the athmosphere of his book whereas I just wanted to charachters to grow. They seemed one dimensional.
The ending was a mess, there had been so many misdirections and twists that went no where it was a job unravelling them all. The story concluded and we discovered most of what happened with a few loose ends left hanging for the reader to think about. Normally I would like that style, it makes it seem more real and interesting if you have some input into what happened, but I didn't care in this case!
A disappointing read.
June 20, 2018
It started off well enough. The backstory we were fed to develop Gloria's backstory was believable. Unfortunately, I found myself agreeing with the majority of the characters in the book in that I didn't care what really happened to Carl. I can suspend belief enough in the various explanations of what "really" happened, but to develop Gloria's character as the author did and then abandon ship is an unforgivable offence in my eyes. I'm also as stunned to learn the author has a wife, as how he wrote his protagonist would suggest he thinks of women as mythical creatures that have no consistencies in their retelling. Overall, this was a disappointing book, with few really well-developed minor characters.
August 22, 2019
This is Jesse Kellerman's first published novel - I've read his others but missed this one until now. He's a great talent - he writes well, his characters are complex, and the plots... well, hoo boy, you never know what's coming. Very unexpected. First you think, oh yeah, this thing is going to happen, and then, no, we're doing a hairpin turn here, folks. He's also not afraid of twisty people - "Sunstroke" not so much, but first one out of the gate, I guess he was just warming up. In this book I particularly enjoyed that the main character was female, and not a silly one either. I think Mr. Kellerman got her just right. The story takes its time getting moving - some initial dragged out pacing - but stick with it.
January 20, 2023
While the premise was intriguing, this was one of the most boring books I’ve ever read. Slower than slow, the plot just meanders about with little to show for it. Even the few parts where there is some action were subdued and it just felt like the author was phoning it in. I didn’t care for any of the characters & should have DNFd it. Thrillers are supposed to be thrilling or have some sort of payoff if they are slow; this was a nepotistic snooze-fest.
April 17, 2009
Very different style from his father... plots more intiguing and characters more complex
May 25, 2019
When an earthquake hits Los Angeles, Gloria Mendez checks there’s no damage to her apartment then heads off to drop in on her friend Barb before going to the office to see what damage has been done to her boss’s collection of china figurines. It sounds like an unlikely scenario, but Gloria is more than a little obsessed with her boss Carl Perreira. Carl’s out of town on a trip to Mexico, and Gloria wants to make sure that everything’s fine at the office where she helps Carl to run his joke-shop supplies empire.
The china figures are bashed, battered and broken, but the biggest worry is waiting for her on the answering machine – a series of garbled messages from Carl that indicate there’s been an accident. Despite the final message telling her that everything’s fine and he’ll call her, it’s clear that something’s wrong. For one thing, he hasn’t called but when she speaks to the police, nobody seems to want to help her. Gloria hops in her car and heads off to Mexico to try to get to the bottom of Carl’s disappearance.
Gloria is lonely and lovelorn. At 36 she has a short marriage and an amicable divorce behind her, her early dreams of a medical career were dashed by a sick mother, and she’s suffering from a general sense that there ought to be a bit more to life. Working on little more than a hunch, she finds herself in the god-forsaken ghost town of Aguas Vivas, trying to make sense of what happened. With a ‘fill-it-in-yourself’ death certificate and an urn full of ashes, she’s got to decide whether to accept the word of the local police chief that Carl’s dead or do her own investigation.
By turns increasingly unlikely, Gloria soon discovers that Carl’s financial affairs are a bit more complicated than she expected. Who is the mysterious and wealthy Mr Gerusha whose name appears on the deeds to Carl’s house? Why has Carl been making big donations to local children’s charities? How was money taken out of Carl’s bank account after he was allegedly already dead? And are things what they seem with the attractive stranger who turns up claiming to be Carl’s son? Nobody else seems to care what happens and the more she digs, the clearer it is that Carl Perreira has been hiding a lot of secrets and if Gloria doesn’t try to make sense of the situation and find out what’s really happened to Carl, nobody else will.
Jesse Kellerman (it’s a he, not a she) has a great pedigree. He’s the son of thriller writers Jonathon and Faye Kellerman and does appear to be a bit of a chip off the old block. This is his first novel and was released in 2006. Whilst the twists and turns of the plot aren’t up to the complexity of his father’s work, and he sensibly avoids the psychobabble and fixation on Judaism that is common to the work of both his parents (though apparently young Jesse also has a degree in psychology), he’s put together a perfectly acceptable debut novel. Personally, if my name was as gender-ambiguous as Jesse, I might have chosen to start with a male protagonist and avoid the obvious questions of whether I could write a good novel from the point of view of the opposite sex, but on the whole, I was quite impressed by Sunstroke. It’s hard to see that Gloria could be a potential serial-character because her involvement is too tied up in the personal relationship (or lack of it) with her boss, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Both of the senior Kellerman’s have protagonists that get a bit wearing after a few reads.
Kellerman paints some vivid images of the unlovable little town of Aguas Vivas with its record-breaking cemetery, its run down cinema and its competing monumental masons. I could feel the fetid air of the old cinema, see the cockroaches on the filthy floor of the motel and imagine the shimmer of the heat haze on the lake. He creates a police chief so offensive as to be almost endearing in his sheer unpleasantness, and in Gloria we get someone that many of us will recognise and relate to; who hasn’t met a secretary with a slightly unhealthy and unrequited obsession with her much older boss? In Carl’s son Carlos, he provides us with a way to soften Gloria’s hard edges and most of the rather small cast of players are quite well fleshed out. There are some weaknesses, most obviously the way in which Gloria stumbles across the location of Aguas Vivas a little too easily and on only the most scratchy of phone messages, and some plot turns are just a touch too convenient for their own good, but on the whole, the story is easy to follow and doesn’t require us to suspend our disbelief too greatly. Key aspects of the plot are not sign-posted in advance so badly that you know exactly where you are going. I didn’t know – but I did care – about whether Carl was really alive or dead and whether Gloria would get to the bottom of his past. On the whole, I’d have to say this was an entirely acceptable first novel and I’ll certainly be looking out for his other two published novels. The only mystery that remained at the end of the novel was the title – I have no idea why it was called Sunstroke.
The china figures are bashed, battered and broken, but the biggest worry is waiting for her on the answering machine – a series of garbled messages from Carl that indicate there’s been an accident. Despite the final message telling her that everything’s fine and he’ll call her, it’s clear that something’s wrong. For one thing, he hasn’t called but when she speaks to the police, nobody seems to want to help her. Gloria hops in her car and heads off to Mexico to try to get to the bottom of Carl’s disappearance.
Gloria is lonely and lovelorn. At 36 she has a short marriage and an amicable divorce behind her, her early dreams of a medical career were dashed by a sick mother, and she’s suffering from a general sense that there ought to be a bit more to life. Working on little more than a hunch, she finds herself in the god-forsaken ghost town of Aguas Vivas, trying to make sense of what happened. With a ‘fill-it-in-yourself’ death certificate and an urn full of ashes, she’s got to decide whether to accept the word of the local police chief that Carl’s dead or do her own investigation.
By turns increasingly unlikely, Gloria soon discovers that Carl’s financial affairs are a bit more complicated than she expected. Who is the mysterious and wealthy Mr Gerusha whose name appears on the deeds to Carl’s house? Why has Carl been making big donations to local children’s charities? How was money taken out of Carl’s bank account after he was allegedly already dead? And are things what they seem with the attractive stranger who turns up claiming to be Carl’s son? Nobody else seems to care what happens and the more she digs, the clearer it is that Carl Perreira has been hiding a lot of secrets and if Gloria doesn’t try to make sense of the situation and find out what’s really happened to Carl, nobody else will.
Jesse Kellerman (it’s a he, not a she) has a great pedigree. He’s the son of thriller writers Jonathon and Faye Kellerman and does appear to be a bit of a chip off the old block. This is his first novel and was released in 2006. Whilst the twists and turns of the plot aren’t up to the complexity of his father’s work, and he sensibly avoids the psychobabble and fixation on Judaism that is common to the work of both his parents (though apparently young Jesse also has a degree in psychology), he’s put together a perfectly acceptable debut novel. Personally, if my name was as gender-ambiguous as Jesse, I might have chosen to start with a male protagonist and avoid the obvious questions of whether I could write a good novel from the point of view of the opposite sex, but on the whole, I was quite impressed by Sunstroke. It’s hard to see that Gloria could be a potential serial-character because her involvement is too tied up in the personal relationship (or lack of it) with her boss, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Both of the senior Kellerman’s have protagonists that get a bit wearing after a few reads.
Kellerman paints some vivid images of the unlovable little town of Aguas Vivas with its record-breaking cemetery, its run down cinema and its competing monumental masons. I could feel the fetid air of the old cinema, see the cockroaches on the filthy floor of the motel and imagine the shimmer of the heat haze on the lake. He creates a police chief so offensive as to be almost endearing in his sheer unpleasantness, and in Gloria we get someone that many of us will recognise and relate to; who hasn’t met a secretary with a slightly unhealthy and unrequited obsession with her much older boss? In Carl’s son Carlos, he provides us with a way to soften Gloria’s hard edges and most of the rather small cast of players are quite well fleshed out. There are some weaknesses, most obviously the way in which Gloria stumbles across the location of Aguas Vivas a little too easily and on only the most scratchy of phone messages, and some plot turns are just a touch too convenient for their own good, but on the whole, the story is easy to follow and doesn’t require us to suspend our disbelief too greatly. Key aspects of the plot are not sign-posted in advance so badly that you know exactly where you are going. I didn’t know – but I did care – about whether Carl was really alive or dead and whether Gloria would get to the bottom of his past. On the whole, I’d have to say this was an entirely acceptable first novel and I’ll certainly be looking out for his other two published novels. The only mystery that remained at the end of the novel was the title – I have no idea why it was called Sunstroke.
February 22, 2019
Leuk boek.
October 10, 2024
I thought this book was decent, I kinda got lost in the end but maybe that’s just bc I was tired
July 20, 2025
FIRST EFFORT!
This story is the author’s first effort at writing a novel, and it shows. Written by Jesse Kellerman and published by Jove Books, New York in 2006, this novel is a mystery thriller about an American woman of Mexican heritage who works as a secretary to the owner of a retail shop in Southern California called Caperco Mask and Novelty. That business sells masks, jokes, tricks and other amusement-oriented novelty items. Gloria Mendez calls herself a secretary, but she is more of an administrative assistant than a secretary. She uses the “Quicken” computer application to track the company’s cash and bank statements, but she does not keep the company’s books. (Quicken is not an accounting or bookkeeping program.) Her boss and owner of the business is a man named Carl Perriera, and Gloria has clearly fallen in love with him. Gloria had a brother named Jesus Julio who fell in with a bad crowd and started using and dealing drugs until he was murdered at a young age.
The opening scene of the book comes in the middle of the night when a Level 6+ earthquake strikes the Los Angeles Basin. It wakes almost everybody up, including Gloria. The earthquake seems to have little or nothing to do with the rest of the story, so it isn’t clear why the author wrote it into the story. Gloria has just returned from her vacation, taken when Carl took his. He drove to Mexico to get away for a while. He hasn’t returned, and Gloria is worried. Uncertain as to what it means, she decides to walk to the office to survey the damage there. She has given Carl a number of glass figurines that he treasured, and she finds a number of them to be damaged. She finds a couple of messages on the answering machine, and she is able to make out Carl’s voice saying the name of a very small village in Mexico. Having neither seen nor heard any other sign from Carl, she contacts LAPD, but they are not able to help her. Then she has breakfast with her former husband of three years, Reggie Salt, who works as a police detective for LAPD. He is busy with earthquake-related issues and can’t help Gloria. Finally, she calls the police station in the Mexican village Carl told her about on the answering machine, and she is told that Carl is dead, that he had been killed in a car accident.
From this point, the story devolves into a chaotic and confusing story line that is very difficult to follow. Adding to the confusion is too much Spanish language comments and blurbs. The ending of the book left loose ends dangling, and I found it to be quite unsatisfying. Hopefully, the author’s next work will be better. I will soon find out, because I will begin reading it in a few minutes. Unfortunately, I am able to award no more than two of the available five stars for this book.
This story is the author’s first effort at writing a novel, and it shows. Written by Jesse Kellerman and published by Jove Books, New York in 2006, this novel is a mystery thriller about an American woman of Mexican heritage who works as a secretary to the owner of a retail shop in Southern California called Caperco Mask and Novelty. That business sells masks, jokes, tricks and other amusement-oriented novelty items. Gloria Mendez calls herself a secretary, but she is more of an administrative assistant than a secretary. She uses the “Quicken” computer application to track the company’s cash and bank statements, but she does not keep the company’s books. (Quicken is not an accounting or bookkeeping program.) Her boss and owner of the business is a man named Carl Perriera, and Gloria has clearly fallen in love with him. Gloria had a brother named Jesus Julio who fell in with a bad crowd and started using and dealing drugs until he was murdered at a young age.
The opening scene of the book comes in the middle of the night when a Level 6+ earthquake strikes the Los Angeles Basin. It wakes almost everybody up, including Gloria. The earthquake seems to have little or nothing to do with the rest of the story, so it isn’t clear why the author wrote it into the story. Gloria has just returned from her vacation, taken when Carl took his. He drove to Mexico to get away for a while. He hasn’t returned, and Gloria is worried. Uncertain as to what it means, she decides to walk to the office to survey the damage there. She has given Carl a number of glass figurines that he treasured, and she finds a number of them to be damaged. She finds a couple of messages on the answering machine, and she is able to make out Carl’s voice saying the name of a very small village in Mexico. Having neither seen nor heard any other sign from Carl, she contacts LAPD, but they are not able to help her. Then she has breakfast with her former husband of three years, Reggie Salt, who works as a police detective for LAPD. He is busy with earthquake-related issues and can’t help Gloria. Finally, she calls the police station in the Mexican village Carl told her about on the answering machine, and she is told that Carl is dead, that he had been killed in a car accident.
From this point, the story devolves into a chaotic and confusing story line that is very difficult to follow. Adding to the confusion is too much Spanish language comments and blurbs. The ending of the book left loose ends dangling, and I found it to be quite unsatisfying. Hopefully, the author’s next work will be better. I will soon find out, because I will begin reading it in a few minutes. Unfortunately, I am able to award no more than two of the available five stars for this book.
February 14, 2019
When Gloria Mendez gets the call from her boss, she is concerned. As far as she knew, Carl had gone for a vacation, giving her time off as well as his secretary. But his message says that he is in trouble and even worse, she didn't get the message immediately so she has no idea where he is or what has happened to him.
Gloria is thirty-six, a divorcee with a policeman ex-husband. She has worked for Carl for several years and always felt that a romance would eventually happen with them. There has never been any overt action by Carl that would make one believe that but self-delusion is common and Gloria couldn't believe that her crush wouldn't one day lead to a relationship between them.
Now she feels that she needs to go find Carl. He has no one else and she feels responsible. She goes to Mexico which was his destination but finds little answer except that he has died in a car crash. She is sent home by a disreputable law officer with a vase of his cremated ashes. When she gets home, however, she discovers that the urn doesn't contain human remains. Then a mysterious stranger shows up and he is also looking for Carl. They decide to join forces and as they search, Gloria learns things about Carl she would never have suspected. But will her new knowledge help her find him?
This is the debut novel for Jesse Kellerman. He comes from a writing family; his father and mother, Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, are both writers in the mystery genre. Prior to this novel, Jesse Kellerman has written plays and found success in that field. Readers will be interested to read his first entry into the mystery genre. This book is recommended for mystery readers.
Gloria is thirty-six, a divorcee with a policeman ex-husband. She has worked for Carl for several years and always felt that a romance would eventually happen with them. There has never been any overt action by Carl that would make one believe that but self-delusion is common and Gloria couldn't believe that her crush wouldn't one day lead to a relationship between them.
Now she feels that she needs to go find Carl. He has no one else and she feels responsible. She goes to Mexico which was his destination but finds little answer except that he has died in a car crash. She is sent home by a disreputable law officer with a vase of his cremated ashes. When she gets home, however, she discovers that the urn doesn't contain human remains. Then a mysterious stranger shows up and he is also looking for Carl. They decide to join forces and as they search, Gloria learns things about Carl she would never have suspected. But will her new knowledge help her find him?
This is the debut novel for Jesse Kellerman. He comes from a writing family; his father and mother, Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, are both writers in the mystery genre. Prior to this novel, Jesse Kellerman has written plays and found success in that field. Readers will be interested to read his first entry into the mystery genre. This book is recommended for mystery readers.
November 29, 2019
Gloria's worked for her boss for years and has loved him and hoped they could grow old together despite a 20 year age difference. Carl Perriera runs a small company dealing with gag gifts and it's just the two of them in the office.
Carl goes on vacation and tells Gloria to take the time off as well. She gets a broken up voice message on the company phone, Carl saying there's been an accident but he's okay.
And then no Carl.
Gloria goes hunting for the love of her life, tracing his trip to Mexico and uncovering a long story of love, loss, death and confusion....
Carl goes on vacation and tells Gloria to take the time off as well. She gets a broken up voice message on the company phone, Carl saying there's been an accident but he's okay.
And then no Carl.
Gloria goes hunting for the love of her life, tracing his trip to Mexico and uncovering a long story of love, loss, death and confusion....
December 7, 2020
Not an action-packed novel. The story moves along fairly slowly. It is an interesting premise, but does not really live up to its promise. None of the characters are very likable or provoke the reader to really care about them. There are some twists and turns in the last part of the novel that make the reading almost worth the time spent reading it. I can see promise in Kellerman as a writer, but he still has a ways to go.
July 17, 2021
De schrijver is de zoon van Faye en Jonathan Kellerman. Beide ouders zeer goed gekend maar dit is geen zekerheid tot succes.
Het is een debuut dat goed was en dat is het dan.
Soms langdradig met de dialogen. Dit zeer goed zijn want hij heeft de ervaring als toneelschrijver.
Wel spannend met een zeer kort einde.
Ongeacht de geweldige reclame op de kaft van het boek blijft het toch maar gewoontjes en is het niet iets bijzonder.
Het is een debuut dat goed was en dat is het dan.
Soms langdradig met de dialogen. Dit zeer goed zijn want hij heeft de ervaring als toneelschrijver.
Wel spannend met een zeer kort einde.
Ongeacht de geweldige reclame op de kaft van het boek blijft het toch maar gewoontjes en is het niet iets bijzonder.
August 14, 2017
Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? In this book it's hard to tell. A mystery within a mystery, Gloria's boss has a secret past of which she is unaware - until she learns of his death. She journeys to Mexico to find answers, but finds instead more questions and intrigue. How well do we really know anyone?
May 5, 2019
2.5 stars. Not bad for a debut novel, and OK as a mystery, but I wouldn't call it a thriller. Slow paced to start with, it didn't get really interesting until more than a third of the way in, when I was about to call it quits. Even towards the end there's only about 20 pages where the tension really ratchets up, and that has a 10-page flashback in the middle. So overall, meh.
August 11, 2018
Enough plot twists and turns to make for a good vacation read. A heroine who is less than perfect is a welcome touch. I understand this was Jesse Kellerman's debut novel; I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed his later ones.
Want to read
March 18, 2023The twisting trail Clay follows will lead him into the darkest corners of the human soul. It's his job to listen to the tales the dead tell. But this time, he's part of a story that makes his blood run cold.
October 30, 2025
Ok, so I've worked out with JK that my issue is that he pads too much. Second story of his I've read and they were both a tad long due to, IMO, too many unimportant descriptions and extra snippets of info. Decent idea for a story though.
June 5, 2017
I was very excited about this book since it came recommended to me. The premise sounded very good and intriguing, but turned out to be very boring, dragged out & confusing.
October 10, 2018
stylish
February 21, 2018
Zeker geen topthriller en zeker niet briljant. Met moeite uitgelezen!
May 1, 2018
Some parts felt unrealistic as characterization was off pace.
May 18, 2019
Clever, but better than I expected.
June 9, 2019
Kept me interested.
February 18, 2020
Loved this character. Great ending. More more more!
Read
September 28, 2020Slow, a stretch.
December 25, 2020
What a disappointment. Could have been a good story line but got lost with so many unimportant details in the book that just did not want to end
May 20, 2021
The writing style was not to my taste and this was hard to get into so I ended up skimming lots.
Read
April 21, 2022Entertaining
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