COMPLICITY

The author sent a copy of his novel to me to read and review:

Since I’m a reviewer that believes in limited characters per novel (aka Cormac McCarthy novels), I had no chance of liking this somewhat mishmash of a novel by L Dalton White. In the first twenty one pages, the author will present, or mention to the reader the following characters in this sequence: Natalie, Rich, Rodriguez, Pete, Perry (a Jack Russell Terrier), Parker, Bobby, Linda, Pat, Morrison, Ben, Henry, A big man dressed in black, Molly, Haley, Beverly, Rock, Weasel, and Jimmy. That’s nineteen characters in the first twenty one pages with many more to come. And the reader is supposed to remember them? If you are going to have a ridiculous amount of characters, then provide the reader with a dramatis personae in the beginning of the novel. Then the author makes the novel dicier, by alternating chapter dates to and fro. It’s just not a well thought-out novel. The author calls the novel a thriller, I call it a clunker.
  
I just couldn’t get into this novel about a college student (Natalie) from Connecticut chasing her boyfriend’s father across the country in order to find his lost backpack and journal only to be beaten up and threatened throughout the story. First she is roughed up in Vernon, California looking for Pete’s knapsack and journal with Rodriguez (who gets stabbed three times) and Natalie is warned, “I’ll be back for you.” She is later manhandled by a jogger while walking her sister’s dog and warned, “Don’t scream, you gotta take me to Pete Shines.” Natalie responds, “I don’t know where he is...nobody does.” That’s the general theme of this novel...get Pete Shines. For some stupid reason I kept thinking about the old Peter Sellers’ movie, After the Fox.

On page thirty-five, Natalie meets with detective Gregory to understand why she is being bullied and followed, “What I want to know is what this has to do with Pete Shines. I went to the warehouse looking for Pete’s stuff. This other guy, yesterday, wants me to tell him where Pete Shines is. What’s the deal with Pete? Why after eight weeks (he is missing) is he suddenly so popular?” Detective Gregory advises her to give up the chase and go home...will she? Well, if you care to find out if Natalie goes home and where Pete Shines is, you will have to buy your own copy, because my review ends on page thirty-five. I didn’t like this novel (is it obvious?), but you might. I’m too set in my ways to appreciate a work so nebulous and pointless. I have no idea why other reviewers rated this novel so high.

RATING: 2 out of 5 stars

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