Getting Ahead in the Game

I feel like such a slacker. While my friend and colleague, J. Kingston Pierce, has been working his fingers to the bone trying to get a couple of projects behind him while casting longing glances towards his ever-growing to-be-read pile, I’ve been working--sure--but I have also been reading my head off. I don’t really know how I’ve managed it. Though I may not consume books at quite Sarah Weinman’s pace (or maybe I do, but I’m too afraid to count?), I’ve tucked into a significant number of 2009 titles already, including a couple works of crime fiction.

The first of those I actually can’t tell you much about at this point, simply because it’s a March book and it would be rather poor form for me to go blabbing about it this early in the game. I will tell you this, however: the book is Crime of Fashion (McClelland & Stewart), by José Latour, and it’s wonderful. The story takes place mostly in Miami and Toronto and it involves fashion, espionage, and kidnapping. If it happens your way, grab hard and hold on: I finished it in just a couple of days ago and I still haven’t dreamed up any quibbles. Crime of Fashion is the Cuban author’s second book in the English language. It does not show.

Josh Bazell had me with the very first line of his debut novel, Beat the Reaper (Little, Brown): “So I’m on my way to work and I stop to watch a pigeon fight a rat in the snow, and some fuckhead tries to mug me!” OK, poetry it ain’t and it probably won’t win any first line contests either, but it really does let you know about the journey on which you’re about to embark.

Bazell’s tale is as relentless as that frenetic first line implies, too. A mob assassin who has turned over a new leaf enters the Federal Witness Protection program and comes out as medical intern Dr. Peter Brown. Life is good, until Dr. Brown’s new patient recognizes him and threatens to blow his cover if he doesn’t save his life.

OK: clearly kooky stuff, right? And Harlan Coben nailed it in his blurb for the book: “fast, fun, furious, fierce.” Which somehow catches the tone and spirit of Beat the Reaper much better than a whole lot more words would do. I have a feeling this is one of the ones we’ll be talking about all year. (The cover is spiffy, too.)