In Chris Knopf's third series novel, "Head
Wounds," our
hero, Sam Acquillo, is a 50-ish guy who's been knocked about
by life. An ex-boxer, ex-businessman, and ex-husband, Acquillo
works as a finish carpenter and lives alone with a personable
mutt in a barely winterized summer cottage in wealthy Southampton,
N.Y. Every other word out of his mouth is sarcasm. And though
he's been told by doctors that another blow to the head could
be fatal ("I knew my lifetime concussion limit was all used
up"), he can't walk away from a brawl. A scruffy maverick,
he's surrounded by friends, including a gorgeous, wealthy girlfriend,
Amanda Anselma, who's got her own trail of exes, including a
former husband who's serving a prison term for bank fraud.
The plot involves real-estate schemes, toxic waste, and killer
pool. Oh yeah, there's a murder. A local builder is found staple-gunned
to death soon after he tries to muscle in on one of Amanda's
renovation projects and gets beaten up by Acquillo. Acquillo,
whose fingerprints are on the murder weapon and whose footprints
are all over the murder scene, naturally becomes the prime suspect.
What makes the novel feel fresh is whip-smart,
snappy dialogue and intriguing characters, particularly smart
women who handily skirt cliché. Knopf is also a dab hand at describing settings
and characters. He brings the working-class side of Southampton,
where fishermen and mechanics hang out after work, vividly to
the page. For instance, he tells us that a barmaid at the Pequot,
a "crummy little joint" in Sag Harbor, "looked
like she'd died recently after being trapped inside a dark closet." This
is a hero squarely in the tradition of Travis McGee (John D.
MacDonald called McGee a "tattered knight on a spavined
steed"), fueled by plenty of machismo and colossal amounts
of vodka and beer.
Hallie Ephron is the author of "1001 Books for Every
Mood." She can be reached through www.hallieephron.com.
