Portsmouth Herald (New Hampshire)
Hamptons Noir, July 7, 2006
Reviewer: Lynn Harnett
In the
first few pages of his second appearance (after "The
Last Refuge"), Hamptons native and recent returnee Sam Acquillo
nearly gets blown up while sipping Absolut on the deck of a dockside
restaurant in East Hampton.
Sam's skills and powers of observation as an ex-boxer and engineer
save him and his lawyer friend Jackie from the fate of the other
patrons when a car bomb kills its target and five others. Alerted
by the color of the roiling fire inside the car after the initial
blast, he vaults the deck railing and manhandles Jackie to relative
safety before a second blast - a lot stronger than the fire explosion
Sam expected - all but vaporizes the fellow drinkers he'd been
casually denigrating just moments before.
Sam, a bit of a brooder and misanthrope, doesn't like too many
people but he's loyal to the few he calls friends. He's been
back in the Hamptons for five years, licking his wounds and drinking
to the sunsets over Little Peconic Bay behind the cottage his
mean-drunk father built when Sam was a kid.
A couple months after the blast, with Jackie still undergoing
surgeries to repair her face and Sam's hearing slowly returning,
his cop friend Joe Sullivan asks Sam to help out in the stalled
investigation. The dead guy was an investment analyst with a
roster of fancy clients and Joe thinks Sam, with his corporate
background and MIT education, might have a better idea what questions
to ask than the local cops.
From the wealthy agoraphobic wife and her controlling lawyer
to the unhappy mob-connected client and the flamboyant artist
brother, Sam follows a few false leads and attracts a fair amount
of violence before wisecracking his way to a clever conclusion.
The plotting and the dry, witty repartee evoke shades of Raymond
Chandler while the glitz and grit of the Hamptons new and old
provide a salty, vivid setting and Sam Acquillo is a likable
fellow in his deadpan way. A must read for fans of noir and good
writing.
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