Head Wounds by Chris Knopf (Permanent Press, $28, 9781579621650/1579621651,
May 2008)
Sam Acquillo—ex-boxer, ex-corporate executive—is now
a carpenter living on Little Peconic Bay in the Hamptons. In fine
traditional mystery fashion, he smokes, drinks Absolut as if a
Swedish embargo is due tomorrow, drives a 1967 Grand Prix, reads
Beckett and Camus (O.K., semi-traditional) and has a dog named
Eddie Van Halen. "I didn't like to think of myself as a middle-aged
guy who sat drinking alone in the dark, talking to his dog about
his fears and uncertainties. But I'd been doing that since saving
him from the pound, so he must have assumed listening to a bunch
of worthless crap was part of his daily work product."
He also has a beautiful girlfriend with commitment
issues, a couple of guys who want to beat him to a pulp and local
cops who want to pin a nasty murder on him. Aside from preventing
his arrest, Sam would like to prevent the beating, since he's
on the verge of brain damage because of his boxing career (and
a bit of extralegal activity). He doesn't remember why he got
into boxing, but he stayed with it for the gyms, where he could "always
find the comfort of anonymity and the solace of organized brutality." Violence
has been a large part of his recent past, starting with a delicious
revenge on his then-wife and her boyfriend involving a ski hideaway
and a Caterpillar, moving on to Jack Daniels benders and an inconveniently
dead body he wakes up to. But now he tries to avoid trouble and
tends to sit on his porch at night with his tumbler of Absolut
and a pack of cigarettes. "I turned out the light and smoked
quietly, looking for signs of something more than indifference
from the bay. Some justification for bearing endless witness
to the moonstruck water, the black and smoldering sky."
Of course, trouble finds him, coupled with a convoluted
story of money shenanigans and revenge. The mystery is solid,
but the real pleasure is in the dialogue, the characters, the
sharp prose and the sly, dry wit: "I never underestimate
English majors. The allusions alone are enough to bring you to
your knees." Or
a mention of the NBA playoffs, a
yearly contest the New York Knicks seem committed to boycott…despite
the gentle encouragement of their fan base." This
is a fine book, enough so that if you haven't read
the first two Sam Acquillo novels, The Last Refuge and Two
Time, you will.
