Cuddle up with The Last Refuge
By Marlene Eisner, The Suburban
Author Chris Knopf is much like how he writes — a
slow revelation, an intricate plot revealed as each layer is
peeled back and exposed.
Knopf, in Montreal last week to launch his first book The Last
Refuge, took time out for lunch to discuss his love for writing.
“I’ve been writing books since grad school,” said
the 55-year-old Knopf, who admitted to having five unpublished
manuscripts under his belt.
A graduate of English Literature from Ohio’s Antioch College,
Knopf went on to work toward a masters in creative writing at
the school’s campus in London, England.
While successive jobs in public relations
and advertising paid the bills (in a very successful way so
that now he and his wife are part owners of the Mintz & Hoke
marketing communications agency in Avon, Connecticut), he has
never stopped writing fiction.
“I’ve never not written,” said
the soft-spoken, self-effacing, six-foot-two Knopf.
“I’m always trying to write a
book.”
In The Last Refuge, Knopf has come up with a winning formula
that will surely put him on top of the heap of murder/mystery
writers.
Too many of today’s author’s
have screenplay in their minds as they churn out fast-paced,
dialogue-dense whodunits.
Then there’s Knopf, whose writing is
a deliciously comfortable read, where all is presented in a
graceful, continuous motion of events and description.
Along the way, he masterfully develops each character and weaves
them into the plot, allowing the reader the luxury of working
alongside protagonist Sam Acquillo as he tries to figure out
the truth surrounding the death of his neighbour, Regina Broadhurst.
Acquillo as a character is as enigmatic and
lovable as Peter Falk’s TV persona in the detective series
Columbo.
In The Last Refuge, engineer, former boxer and generally all-around
angry man Acquillo has a breakdown, burnt out from living a life
he hates.
After divorcing his wife, trashing his house and alienating
himself from almost everyone he knows, this man, who supposedly
has no heart and shuns the world, takes refuge at the rundown
Hampton cottage of his deceased parents. He is determined to
drink himself into oblivion as he watches the sun set over the
Little Peconic Bay.
Well, that’s what he wants everyone
to believe. But as the story unfolds, Acquillo reveals the
heart buried under all his psychological debris, and we get
to see him battle his personal demons to right a wrong done
to an old (although crotchety) woman.
Along the way, we meet a host of interesting characters, all
of whom move the intricate story along at a comfortable pace.
Knopf’s short stint writing technical papers and documents
for Union Carbide helps with the accuracy of Acquillo’s
engineering knowledge, while Acquillo’s overall character “has
got a lot of my father in him, probably some of myself and the
rest is made up,” said Knopf.
Both Knopf’s father and grandfather
were engineers.
“My father was a real clever mechanical engineer and I
grew up around that. My grandfather was a champion boxer... the
fact that he [Acquillo] is an engineer is critical. He’s
analytical and intuitive. That’s the rationale for being
able to figure this out.”
While Knopf says he always finds time in
his busy full-time ad agency schedule to write fiction — doing so on weekends
and evenings — the biggest sticking point he used to struggle
with was finding an ending.
“I did learn after my failed manuscripts
to know my ending. I try to figure out the conclusion.”
He has apparently learned that lesson well. The Last Refuge
is a delight to read, from its reflective beginning and complicated
plot, to its well-thought out end and everything in between.
Mystery lovers will not be disappointed and I predict one day,
Sam Acquillo and his troupe of characters living in the town
of Southhampton will make their way to a weekly television show,
with story lines as interesting to watch as they are to read.
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