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LIGHTS OUT
by Jason Starr
Orion, April 2006
304 pages
10.99GBP
ISBN: 0752873474


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Ryan Rosetti is not happy. He is a house painter, earning the magnificent sum of $10 an hour, a far cry from his former friend and baseball rival Jake Thomas's status as a millionaire. Ryan has one advantage, as he sees it, over Jake in that he has won the heart of Christina, Jake's fiancee of six years.

Right now, though, Ryan has to take requests from workmates to obtain Jake's autograph when Jake returns to Canarsie, Brooklyn, where he will be feted by family and friends and, at the same time, find a convenient out from a small problem his dallying has caused.

Jake has slept with a 14-year-old Mexican girl. He is being threatened by the girl's blackmailing father: pay a small fortune or be accused of statutory rape. Jake thinks that such a trivial story will pale into insignificance if he announces he is to be married, so he plans to tell Christina that they must set a date. Christina wishes to break up with Jake so she can be with Ryan but when Jake tells her he will buy her father a condo (a promise he has no intention of keeping) Christina changes her mind, setting in motion a chain of events that will threaten the lives and well-being of both her suitors.

Meanwhile, Saiquan Harrington is visiting his mate Desmond Johnson in hospital. Desmond has been shot and is almost unable to communicate but manages to convey to Saiquan that the man who tried to kill him is fellow gang member Jermaine. Saiquan swears vengeance on Jermaine but must proceed carefully, since other Crips members would be severely displeased should they discover he is intent on murdering one of their own.

Marcus, another Crips member but a severe crackhead, keeps a stock of guns and always has a car at the ready. Saiquan has neither car nor gun, twin disadvantages for a drive-by shooting that cause him to turn to Marcus for help. Marcus insists that Saiquan take him along for the kill. Dubiously, Saiquan assents.

The paths of Jake and Ryan and Saiquan and Marcus intersect, with violent consequences for all concerned. Ryan, on a dejected bender, provides the means for Marcus and Saiquan to track Jake, seen as a wealthy pheasant ripe for the plucking.

Don't expect any fully realised characters in this series of misadventures. Caricatures are the order of the day: the feckless, spoiled, philandering baseball hero who believes his own publicity, determined to avert ruin by marrying his high school sweetheart, despite what he sees as her enormous bum; the constantly disappointed, failed rival, always cast into the shade by his successful contemporary, turning to drunken excesses when given his marching orders; the disaffected lover wishing to escape but captured by wealth and her perceived duty to her father; the bumbling, incompetent gangbangers determined on vengeance and getting rich in the fastest possible way and, not the least, the ambitious parents.

The writing is hardboiled and slick, the pace is fast, the dialogue ventures into the territory of dialect and the humour, as already mentioned, cruel and black.

Reviewed by Denise Pickles, July 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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