The Richmond Times Dispatch, Sunday,
May 25, 2008
MYSTERIES
By Jay Strafford
He's a former boxer with an injured brain and a
former corporate hotshot whose life went off the rails. Now he's
in his 50s, living quietly in Long Island's Hamptons, working
as a carpenter and drinking too much.
And in Head Wounds (309
pages, The Permanent Press, $28), Chris Knopf's third book in
his literate and witty series, Sam Acquillo is fighting for his
freedom.
Sam and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, neighbor
Amanda Anselma, are having a quiet dinner when an old flame of
Amanda's, Robbie Milhouser, barges over to their table. After
a testosterone-fueled encounter outside, Robbie and his pals
storm off. That night, a house Amanda has been rehabbing catches
fire, and soon after, Robbie is found dead, a victim of Sam's
hammer stapler. Can you say frame-up?
With a little help from his friends, Sam sets
out to clear his name. And in doing so, he exposes the ugly underbelly
of the handsome Hamptons.
Knopf has created a remarkable series that appeals
not only for its plots and insights but also for its striking
prose, such as this: "A reminder that we're really only
animals after all. Inflicted with the curse of cognition. Capable
of moral reasoning, but prone to mindless violence. Mindless
in its heedless ferocity, but also in its lunacy."
"Head Wounds," indeed. This is a genre-bending, page-turning triumph.
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