Master craftsman and ex-corporate executive
Sam Acquillo is "asked" by
the CEO of his old company to look into the disappearance of
a former colleague in Hard Stop, the fourth mystery in this series
by Chris Knopf.
When Sam finds someone snooping around his house, he takes it
personally, taking the guy down and finding out who hired him.
It turns out that the head of Con Globe, a massive energy company
and, not coincidentally, Sam's former employer, is behind it.
When Sam confronts him, it's all about getting leverage on Sam
to do a job for him, namely, find Iku Kinjo, a hot shot analyst
and his secret lady friend, who has gone missing. Sam agrees
to find her, and does, but she's dead in an apparent suicide
that clearly wasn't. Though Sam's responsibility ends here, he's
troubled by her death and continues to dig. And his digging stirs
up all sorts of attention, mostly of the unwanted kind.
The best mysteries are all about character, plot, and setting,
and Chris Knopf excels at all three. Hard Stop sets a breathtaking
pace right from the start and doesn't let up. In fact, it may
be a little too brisk as the intricate plot involving corporate
mischief doesn't really start to come together until the final
few chapters. In a way, though, that's part of the appeal, disparate
pieces of a puzzle that have no apparent connection, suddenly
coming together to form a picture of what really happened ...
and why.
The characters are all fully realized, even the
minor ones, but none more so than Sam and his dog Eddie, giving
the story a depth and richness that fans of the genre will relish.
The setting is not the Hamptons of the ultra-wealthy, though
they are present and accounted for here, but of everyday people
who live and work on the island.
Knopf has a marvelous way with words, making
Hard Stop a real pleasure to read. Here's a passage that gives
the book its title: "I'm
always offended by the arrogance of people who think killing
other people is a legitimate undertaking. I wonder, how do you
get up in the morning and think to yourself, gotta do some errands,
wash the car, and if I can fit it in, permanently snuff the lights
out of someone's beloved husband, brother, mother, sister, son?
I've never considered myself more deserving of life than the
next guy, probably less, but at least take a second to think
about it. Altruism doesn't come naturally to me, but it was easier
to apply this line of reasoning to Iku Kinjo than to myself.
No willful murder is justified, but hers felt less like an act
of butchery than a surgical elimination. A tactical execution.
Maybe that's all it was, a simple transaction. A line item on
a profit and loss statement. Case closed. Meeting over. The ultimate
hard stop."
Chris Knopf is among the most literate mystery authors writing
today, and Hard Stop is a terrific example of his work. It is
not to be missed.
