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The simplest and possibly the best way to open this review is to lean all over author Andrew Gross's description of the elements he wove together in EVERYTHING TO LOSE:
-- how far a mother might go to protect her handicapped child
-- doing serious wrong for a seriously good reason
-- the existence of psychologically callous and unemotional kids (pre-psychotic)
-- the unveiling of an old, hidden murder which reveals the clues to present-day killings
-- all in the environment of the disastrous aftermath of Superstorm Sandy's havoc on Staten Island.
I will also thank him for the quotation with which he opened the novel: ". . . every life is the story of a single mistake, and then what happens after."
Hilary Cantor has been let go from her job, a victim of the economic downturn that has trapped her in an upside-down mortgage on a too-big house that her deadbeat ex-husband has stuck her with. Sole support of their handicapped son, she suddenly sees no way to keep him in the school where he has been making such strides in functioning in spite of his Asperger's syndrome. She can't sell the house and what funds she has won't last over another month -- no chance at all of making missed back payments on anything. On her way home from getting the bad news at work, she's sees a car right in front of her slip off the road and go tumbling down a very steep and long hillside in the woods. She stops and rushes down to help but realizes the driver is dead and also realizes that the satchel in the front seat with him is filled with large bundles of money. The sudden temptation is overwhelming and she gives in to it, at least to the extent that she fastens the satchel closed and heaves it as far as she can further into the trees and underbrush before anyone else can get down the hill to the wreck.
Home again, she reconsiders her financial situation and realizes that her only legitimate choice is to go to her ex and beg him to man up and at least support their son. Unfortunately, all the funds in his new family are his wealthy wife's and he responds to Hilary by simply whining about ho hard his life is now (with the Porsche he drives and their imminent trip to Vail). It takes the better part of a week for Hilary to cave in and go back to the scene of the accident and retrieve the money -- the whole half million in cash that it turns out to be.
Now the fun starts.
A twenty year old murder is discovered when remains are found at a new building site. We've already had a glimpse of that murder in the prologue: a probably sociopathic teenager killed his girlfriend and hid her body. The son of the dead driver turns out to be a policeman trying desperately to resurrect his father's all but destroyed house and neighborhood on Staten Island after the storm Sandy and long before FEMA dreams of chipping in. And gradually, steadily, Hilary realizes that she is being stalked by a hitman who demands the money and "the rest" -- and about what "the rest" could be, Hilary is clueless.
Maybe this of the many, many thrillers Gross has written could be accused of being formulaic but that's a pretty dumb complaint. Gross is an absolute master of this genre and weaves together disparate threads as if he held a magic wand over them. For those who like a fast and scary ride, EVERYTHING TO LOSE is a darned good bet.
§ Diana Borse is retired from teaching English at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and savoring the chance to read as much as she always wanted to.
Reviewed by Diana Borse, April 2014
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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