Head Wounds
A Sam
Acquillo Mystery
Chris Knopf
Permanent Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-57962-165-1 (1579621651)
ISBN-13: 978-1-57962-165-0 (1579621650)
Publication Date: May 2008
List Price: $28.00
Synopsis (from the publisher): Sam Acquillo can hide in his
windswept waterfront cottage all he wants, but the demons of
his past are going to find him. Worse, they've teamed up with
some pretty nasty demons of the present, including a very determined
Chief of Police whose top detective has Sam caught in the crosshairs.
Part-time carpenter, full-time drinker and co-conspirator with
an existential mutt named Eddie Van Halen, Sam tries to lead
the simple life. But as always, fate intervenes, this time in
the form of Robbie Milhouser, local builder and blundering bully
who shares at least one thing with Sam — an irresistible
attraction to the beautiful Amanda Anselma.
Peel back the glitz and glory of the fabled Hamptons and you'll
find a beautiful place filled with ugly secrets. This is Sam
Acquillo's world. Moving effortlessly across the social divide
with wry pal Jackie Swaitkowski and rich guy Burton Lewis, the
ex-boxer, ex-corporate infighter seems doomed to straddle the
thin red line between envy and love, hate and forgiveness, goodness
and greed.
And sometimes life and death. Only this time, the life at stake
is his own.
Review: Independent carpenter Sam Acquillo is accused of murdering
a Long Island real estate developer with his own staple gun in
Head Wounds, the third mystery in this series by Chris Knopf.
Ex-boxer Sam, who's had his head knocked around too often and
is in danger of permanent damage with just one more fight, tries
to avoid just that one evening after dinner with his neighbor
and sometime girlfriend, Amanda. Robbie Millhouser had been hitting
on Amanda earlier and Sam put him in his place, hardly without
lifting a finger himself though not without some minor damage
to Robbie. A couple nights later Robbie is found with considerably
more damage, his head bashed in with a staple gun belonging to
Sam. Worse for Sam, he was reportedly seen in the vicinity of
where the victim was found. Means, motive, and opportunity are
all the police need to arrest Sam for murder. Out on bail, Sam
begins a quest to determine who else may have had the means,
motive, and opportunity to kill Robbie, and to his regret, Amanda
seems to have all three.
Head Wounds is an exceptional novel, in both character and setting,
but most importantly in how the plot develops. There are only
half dozen or so principal characters, but the author deftly
links them in relationships that make the story sufficiently
complicated without making it confusing. A surprising suspense
element is introduced early: Sam was, in fact, out and about
and in the vicinity of where Robbie, the murdered man, was found,
but he vehemently denies it later. Is he, in fact, Robbie's killer
and is trying to find an alternate reality for the police to
believe? Or is he simply a victim himself, of being in the wrong
place at the wrong time?
Many of the chapters in Head Wounds end with marvelous examples
of literary engineering, sentences that could in another context
seem over the top but here simply add to the mystique of the
story. Consider the following. From the first chapter, "I
let it stand at that and finished my drink, then one or two more
to be on the safe side before letting the encyclopedia of irresolvable
quandaries that continually cycled through my consciousness shift
into a dream state, thereby maintaining continuity of torment
from wakefulness to sleep." And from late in the book, "For
them it was a simple meal, for me a type of last supper. Or maybe
just a welcome distraction, depending on how the next few days
would turn out, which version of the truth would emerge from
the tangle of potentials, the competing sets of assumptions,
all paradigms - shifting and otherwise - up for grabs." Like
a great wine, some of these passages are meant to be savored.
The plot is carried along in such a way that the denouement,
while in retrospect is not surprising, surprises nonetheless.
It's all exceedingly well done. Head Wounds is definitely one
of the best mysteries of the year and is highly recommended.
Special thanks to Chris Knopf for providing
an ARC of Head
Wounds for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden
Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Mysteries in this series ...
The Last Refuge
Permanent Press (Hardcover), May 2005
ISBN-10: 1-57962-118-X (157962118X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-57962-118-6 (9781579621186)
Two Time
Permanent Press (Hardcover), May 2006
ISBN-10: 1-57962-129-5 (1579621295)
ISBN-13: 978-1-57962-129-2 (9781579621292)
Head Wounds
Permanent Press (Hardcover), May 2008
ISBN-10: 1-57962-165-1 (1579621651)
ISBN-13: 978-1-57962-165-0 (1579621650) |
