Richmond Times-Dispatch July 2, 2006
MYSTERIES: Sleuths and secrets, gardens and genes
By Jay Stafford Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
The disaffected hero has a long history in detective fiction,
so it takes a great plot and high-level prose to win readers
to a new series.
Chris Knopf did that in 2005's "The Last Refuge," the
first in the Sam Acquillo series. Packed with action and sarcasm,
it's entertainment for the thinking reader. Sam returns in “Two
Time” (261 pages, The Permanent Press, $26), an even better
novel.
This time out, Sam, who lives frugally in
a small house in the Hamptons after telling corporate America
to shove it, is having a drink on a restaurant deck with lawyer
friend Jackie Swaitkowski when a car bomb goes off, killing
the intended victim, as well as four customers and two employees.
Sam manages to save Jackie and himself, but the close call
-- and the urgings of a cop friend—kick
his curiosity into high gear.
Sometimes accompanied by Jackie, sometimes by his lovable mutt,
Eddie, Sam sets out to look into the affairs of the dead guy,
Jonathan Eldridge. Along the way, Sam meets Jonathan's agoraphobic
widow, two clients unhappy with his financial advice, and his
brother, a cutting-edge performance artist. The truth comes out,
of course, and Knopf lays out enough clues so that the stunning
ending seems, in retrospect, perfectly logical.
Knopf writes with the grace of an angel and the intensity of
a demon, and his stories are perfectly plotted. Though he owes
a debt to Raymond Chandler and Co., he's his own man. His books
are part of a distinguished heritage, but this is noir for now. |
