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The Dark Page |
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| 18/11/2008 |
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Friday, December 5
Marcus Sakey, The Blade Itself
Danny Carter, reformed thief, comes face to face with his dark past when Evan – his childhood friend from the streets of Chicago’s treacherous South Side and volatile former partner – is paroled from a prison sentence and shows up expecting payback after taking the fall for his former partner. When Danny turns him down, Evan raises the stakes dangerously high.
The Blade Itself is a novel where social classes and conditions, action and introspection blend in the form of a thriller, giving way to suspense as well as sociological analysis. It is an “ethical” noir, whose questions are existential and whose perspective on human nature lucid. Ben Affleck bought the rights to make a film produced by Miramax.
Richard Price, Lush Life
(Film Jury)
Thirty-five year-old Eric has a bit of talent and a few skills – he is one of many living on New York’s Lower East Side. He starred in an underground play and had a story published in a now obsolete literary magazine. But ten years have passed since then, and with them his dream of a lush and successful life. He now writes screenplays on commission and manages the Berkmann restaurant. Lush Life begins with a murder and ends with an arrest and a guilty confession. Yet the book only appears to be a crime novel, just like Price only seems to be a noir writer. Russell Banks called Price a modern Balzac for his ability to create a contemporary human story that confronts reality without every lowering its gaze.
Saturday, December 6
Sharon Bolton, Sacrifice
Tora Hamilton works as a gynecologist on the Shetland Islands with her adoring husband. The accidental discovery of the dead body of a woman on her property sets Tora on an increasingly more complex and dangerous investigation, to a dramatic conclusion. To uncover the victim’s identity and the mysterious circumstance of her death, Tora will have to shed light on the secrets of the inhabitants of the Great Britain’s northernmost islands. And she will have to decipher the meaning behind the symbol that murderer carved on the woman’s back before killing her: three runes, ancient signs that no one seems to know anymore.
Liza Marklund, The Red Wolf
The fifth installment of the Annika Bengtzon series sees her traveling to the north to meet with an invaluable source with information about an old terrorist attack that is still being investigated. When she arrives, however, Annika discovers that her colleague is dead and she starts investigating the case, which sets her on the trail of a mysterious man. The Red Wolf blends journalistic investigation with an analysis on the reasons and consequences that individuals’ choices and ideals have on society.
Sunday, December 7
Don Winslow, The Winter of Frankie Machine
(Film Jury)
At 62, Frank Machianno, alias Frankie Machine, is a peaceful businessman still full of energy. He runs a bait shop on Ocean Beach Pier in San Diego, works as a real estate manager and supplies restaurants with fish and linens. He has a daughter he’s putting through college, an ex-wife on alimony and young and beautiful girlfriend who loves to have fun. As well as a cop friend whose life he saved and who knows everything about Frank’s past in the mob. When his old “employers” and ask him to mediate a fight between two mob families, Frank cannot refuse. Even if it means spiraling back into the mafia world and someone ordering a hit on him. To survive, Frank must go back to being Frankie Machine and in the meantime search through his past to discover who among his old “friends” is so anxious to see him dead.
Tom Rob Smith, Child 44
A Soviet thriller set in the Stalin era but based on the case of Andrej Chikatilo, the “Monster of Rostov,” who in the 1980s killed over 50 people, almost all of them children. Secret service agent Leo Stepanovic Demidov upholds the regime and its desire to keep the murders under wraps until his wife become involved in the investigation.
Monday, December 8
Victor Gischler, Gun Monkeys
Charlie 'The Hook' Swift, senior gun monkey/enforcer for senile Orlando mob boss Stan, is quick with a gun, strong on loyalty, and great at tidying up annoying loose ends. When Stan faces loosing his Orlando territory to the younger and meaner mob boss from Miami, Charlie's loyalty compels him to make the gallant effort to do the right thing rather than simply the smart thing, which would be to run for his life.
Francisco Gonzalez Ledesma, Una novela de Barrio
Four characters, four different worlds. Inspector Méndez, a cop nearing retirement who still dreams of saving the world. David Miralles, a father who lost his son and love of life. Eva Exposito, born in the wrong place at the wrong time, who seems to always do the wrong things. And a murderer. As well as hookers with hearts of gold, sexy female police officers, anguished lawyers and seemingly secondary characters who prove fundamental to the stories’ evolution. All set against a sordid, rough, “castigated,” according to the writer, Barcelona.
Patrick Fogli, Il tempo infranto
Set against a real backdrop, like his first two books. Everything begins one November morning, when six armed men enter a bank. A routine hold-up, however, that leaves one person dead will suddenly change the life of Francesco, a good young man born in 1975 and peaceful bank employee. He lost his mother and thinks he lost his father in the Bologna Massacre, about which has never been solved. It’s been years since then but today Francesco receives a package containing a book, an address and a page of his father’s diary. And an invitation…
Tuesday, December 9
Delacorta, Nanà
The beginnings of the most unusual and fascinating couple of French noir. The ascetic, sensual, 40-year-old Serge Gorodish seems to be taking a short vacation in a sleepy little French town but is actually planning a huge hit. And who better to help him than the 13-year-old, angelically beautiful Alba, a kleptomaniac and pickpocket who dreams of stealing the Eiffel Tower.
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