THE SAG HARBOR EXPRESS
ISSUE DATE: 06/05/08 June 2008
Knopf's Head Wounds
By Annette Hinkle
As anyone who spends a substantial amount of time
on the East End knows, there are two Hamptons. The first is the
world of mega yachts, oceanfront mansions, croquet on the lawn
and south of the highway cocktail parties were everyone wears
white.
Then there's the other Hamptons. This is where
most of us live and work more than one job. The houses are smaller,
and so are the boats, if there is a boat at all. The views can
be good, but only if your parents or grandparents were smart
enough to buy a summer cottage on the bay half a century ago.
And this is the Hamptons of Chris Knopf - or rather,
Sam Acquillo, the protagonist in Knopf's series of mysteries
published by The Permanent Press in Sag Harbor. Knopf's first
Sam Acquillo mystery "Last
Refuge" (2005) followed by "Two Time," (2006) garnered
much critical acclaim. Fans of Sam will be pleased to know that
he returns this summer in "Head Wounds" along with the
characters and locales that have earned Knopf a reputation for
writing about the "other side" of life on the East End.
"I wrote about what I knew," says Knopf. "I've
known rich people - but not around here."
Sam Acquillo is an ex-boxer and a former corporate
hot shot who has gone off the deep end and burned most of his
bridges. He's divorced from his wife and estranged from his daughter.
But has found comfort in vodka and solace on the back porch of
his late parent's small cottage on the water in North Sea where
he has retreated since dropping out of society.
Now a year rounder who cobbles together an existence
as a finish carpenter, Sam has a knack for finding trouble -
or is it trouble that keeps finding him?
In "Head Wounds," it's Robbie Milhouser,
a local builder and former Southampton High School bully, who
ends up dead. This time, Sam's the prime suspect and it doesn't
help that the dead guy always had a thing for Sam's girlfriend,
Amanda. Now in an effort to clear his name, Sam has to call on
pretty much every friend (and several enemies) he has.
Though Knopf, who lives in Connecticut and has
a home in Southampton Village, has been coming to the East End
for years, that "other
side" of Hamptons life depicted in his books was first introduced
to him by his wife, Mary Farrell, who spent summers here as a child.
"Her dad built a little cottage in North
Sea back in 1952," says
Knopf. "It's about a block off the bay. The lot was cheaper
- $500 versus $750 for waterfront."
"The very idea that
these little settlements were there intrigues me," he
adds. "When Mary was growing up, it was regular folks -
tradesman from the Bronx and Brooklyn. I'm intrigued by that
notion. All her friends and cousins who are regular people."
"It
was North Sea, no one even noticed it was up there," says
Knopf. "There's
a house at the end of her street that looks out on the Peconic.
I had this notion of putting this character, this corporate burnout,
in the house and that was the genesis. It's a beautiful and spectacular
place for me."
Throughout the books, Sam occasionally leaves
his cottage to visit friends or frequent a series of bars and
restaurants, including the seedy Pequot in Sag Harbor. There
is an urban, grittier quality to the drinking establishments
and the crowd in his books than one might normally encounter
in real life on the East End, a nod to Knopf's own upbringing
in Philadelphia.
"I took that from my checkered youth," he
says. "Philly's a
tough town. I grew up in the suburbs, but spent time on other
sides of the track. I hung with criminals. I tended to associate
with people who do not have entirely spotless records with law
enforcement. I feel lucky I got out alive."
Knopf also draws on his own professional experience
in the corporate world and his knowledge of carpentry in rounding
out Sam's character.
"I think it's true of most writers - everything
is a combination of what you know, your own life experience," he
says. "I don't like to do
a lot of research. It's too hard. Because I know carpentry and
cabinetry making it's easier for me to have Sam do that."
Knopf
acknowledges that there's also a bit of his father - a mechanical
engineer who was prone to fist fights - in Sam as well.
"My dad had those two sides to his personality.
In retrospect I drew on him," says Knopf. "You take
what you know and mix it up with your imagination and whatever
happens on the page as you're going along. There's this notion
of never belonging in either world. The Hampton's regular folk
and other half. There are a lot of people who live here, who
grew up here but wonder, 'Where do I fit?' It's that strange
identity crisis."
Whatever the inspiration, in his Sam Acquillo
series, Knopf has found an audience. It may be the clever plot
twists or the intelligent writing that makes the books popular.
Or maybe it just has to do with giving people a chance to get
a glimpse at how the "other
half" lives.
"People out here like them a lot," says
Knopf. "They feel I've
captured the mood, which I like. In the world at large, mystery
readers want to have more than just a who done it. They want
something three dimensional. I don't suggest it's literary, but
you're getting more for your money than with some others."
And
will there be a fourth Sam Acquillo mystery forthcoming? Knopf
says yes, but don't expect him to be the same Sam he is in this
book. Part of the appeal for Knopf in writing the books is having
his characters evolve over time.
"Not everyone likes that," concedes Knopf. "I never wanted him
to stay the same. It wouldn't make sense to me. If there's redemption, he can't
go back to being this mess."
"The way things are can change. His world stays in his world."
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