A con brio account of a real-life Double Indemnity murder: a philandering, debtdriven insurance man has his beautiful wife executed for the promise of a cool million and a half in insurance money. On September 7, 1984, Rob and Maria Marshall, an attractive, seemingly happy couple from the shopping-mall-bland "urb" of Toms River, N.J., were driving home from a visit to Atlantic City when Rob swerved the car into a dark picnic area—allegedly to check a soft tire. Minutes later, beautiful Maria was shot dead on the front seat. Rob told local cops that he heard a car pull in behind them, and that he was knocked unconscious and robbed as he knelt by the rear tire. The cops didn't buy it; and even Chris, oldest of Rob's three teen-age sons, instantly suspected his dad. Rob considered himself a pillar of Toms River society, but that cold, consumption-mad society soon spurned him. After all, it turned out that Rob had been planning to dump his wonderfill wife for local sex-bomb Felice; that he was massively in debt; and that he had insured his wife's life for one-and-a-half million. Detectives tracked down New Orleans lowlife Ferlin L'Heureux, who testified that Rob paid him to kill his wife—a task actually accomplished by another mean old southern boy. Kevin Kelly, the tough, idealistic prosecutor, concentrated on nailing Rob. During the trial, as one self-serving lie followed another, Rob stopped being a real human being even to his sons—he became just a bagful of brand-names, soulless and brittle. Found guilty, he now spends his time on New Jersey's Death Row. In a switch from the assiduous, morally ambivalent Fatal Vision (1987), McGinniss here offers a streamlined cautionary tale—airing out his contempt for Toms River's slavish materialism and portraying Rob Marshall not as a monstrous exception but merely as an extreme manifestation of that avarice. A lively true-crimer, then, with a touch of moral fire—and another likely hit for McGinniss.
Pub Date: Jan. 17, 1988
ISBN: 0517061643
Page Count: -
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1988
Not as thematically ambitious as Whitehead’s earlier work, but a whole lot of fun to read.
Another surprise from an author who never writes the same novel twice.
Though Whitehead has earned considerable critical acclaim for his earlier work—in particular his debut (The Intuitionist, 1999) and its successor (John Henry Days, 2001)—he’ll likely reach a wider readership with his warmest novel to date. Funniest as well, though there have been flashes of humor throughout his writing. The author blurs the line between fiction and memoir as he recounts the coming-of-age summer of 15-year-old Benji Cooper in the family’s summer retreat of New York’s Sag Harbor. “According to the world, we were the definition of paradox: black boys with beach houses,” writes Whitehead. Caucasians are only an occasional curiosity within this idyll, and parents are mostly absent as well. Each chapter is pretty much a self-contained entity, corresponding to a rite of passage: getting the first job, negotiating the mysteries of the opposite sex. There’s an accident with a BB gun and plenty of episodes of convincing someone older to buy beer, but not much really happens during this particular summer. Yet by the end of it, Benji is well on his way to becoming Ben, and he realizes that he is a different person than when the summer started. He also realizes that this time in his life will eventually live only in memory. There might be some distinctions between Benji and Whitehead, though the novelist also spent his youthful summers in Sag Harbor and was the same age as Benji in 1985, when the novel is set. Yet the first-person narrator has the novelist’s eye for detail, craft of character development and analytical instincts for sharp social commentary.
Not as thematically ambitious as Whitehead’s earlier work, but a whole lot of fun to read.Pub Date: April 28, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-52765-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2009
BOOK TO SCREEN
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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