Michael Kardos

This is a very entertaining and well-written literary crime novel. Four friends from their college days at Princeton have an annual tradition of getting together for a weekend of golf and reminiscing. This weekend will be the last such, you can be sure. It begins with a kidnapping of a convenience store clerk by one of the men, dragging his friends into a battle between morality and personal preservation. Playing into this current day narrative in a deep way are certain events that may or may not have taken place while they were at school together, leaving one of the men with a strong thirst for revenge.

The host of this weekend and narrator of the story is Will, a recording studio engineer and wanna-be founder of a record label in suburban New Jersey. Nolan is running a campaign for Senate back home in Missouri. Jeffrey is a dot.com millionaire in California. Evan is a high-flying lawyer making deals among the Fortune 500.

The possible stumbling block for the reader will be buying into the setup. Kardos works to convince us, through Will, that the confusion and urgency of the initial moment, followed by a sense of panic and then hope that, given some time to think and come up with a plan, together they can find a way out of this circumstance that doesn't land them in jail, could legitimately happen. I bought it.… (altro)

This was not the worst book I’ve read, but certainly not one of the best. The story is told in the first person by Natalie Webb, a failing magician deep in debt. She meets Ellen, a card shark, and the two team up to rig a high stakes poker game.

I won’t spoil the story, but things go horribly wrong.

The issues I had with the story is there is too much reminiscing and too many flashbacks. I understand flashbacks are necessary to fill in details from the past, but this book has too many of them and they last too long. The story literally bogs down and grinds to a halt for a lengthy flashback to end. Also, there are too many characters in the book. Every insignificant character is named. This was not necessary.

I disliked the ending. The ending was not satisfying and wrong things happened to the wrong people. Ellen really gets off scot free, despite setting up her friend. The ending is a little open ended and could certainly lead to a sequel to tell us what happens next. If the author decided to write the sequel, I would invest the time to read it.

Overall, I give it two stars. It’s not a bad story, but could stand improving.… (altro)