February 18, 2007

Book of the Week: THE BLADE ITSELF by Marcus Sakey

Marcus Sakey’s THE BLADE ITSELF has gotten such good buzz in the mystery community that I had to check it out myself. I had the pleasure of meeting Marcus at LOVE IS MURDER, the Chicago convention I attended early this month. He seems like a nice guy, and I hoped his book lived up to its word-of-mouth recommendations.

It does. Set in Chicago, the book deals with what happens to Danny after his old pal Evan gets paroled. Danny has reformed since his days on the street with Evan. Evan’s taken the fall for a burglary they both committed, and Danny, though feeling guilty, also feels not-so-bad about that, since Evan was the one who brought a gun and shot the store owner. During the years Evan’s been in prison, Danny has gone straight. He’s become a construction foreman, he’s got a committed relationship with Karen, and they live in a decent apartment among decent people.

Evan has no intention of going straight, from the moment he hits the streets. He begins to menace Danny, reminding Danny in subtle and not so subtle ways that Danny owes him. Their mutual friend Patrick finds out that Evan is trying to draw Danny back into the criminal life, and Patrick decides to kill Evan first to save his friend. But Evan’s spent his years in prison getting stronger and harder, and he kills Patrick first. Then Evan stages an incident with Karen so Danny will know how easily she can be hurt.

Evan needs Danny to help kidnap Danny’s boss’s son. Danny resists, tries to think his way out of it, but in the end he is forced to participate in the crime. Danny works hard to stay one jump ahead of Evan, to minimize the fear the child will feel, to minimize the financial disaster his boss will suffer, to cushion the impact of the crime on everyone, but nothing works.

THE BLADE ITSELF is as cinematic as a novel can be. It’s easy to see Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Ryan Phillippe in the three main male roles, with maybe Maria Bello as Karen. Just in case this doesn’t get made into a movie, enjoy the book experience. The suspense is incredible.

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Sometimes it’s hard to decide what to write for this space. I never know what people want to hear. I just sit at the keyboard until a topic occurs to me. The past week, my life’s been such a tangle of little issues there hasn’t been a main theme.

My husband’s been in a play, and the rehearsals have eaten up every evening for literally months. There’s one more performance, and then he’ll be a civilian again. It’s been fun seeing him in a different light, but it’ll be great to have our lives on a less complicated schedule.

I’m the senior warden at our church this year, and we don’t have a regular priest. I have to help arrange for a priest to come from time to time so we can have communion. Also, our Lenten Soup Luncheons are about to begin. Every Wednesday in Lent, we serve soup to whoever comes to the church, in exchange for a donation. This is our big church fundraiser, and almost all the proceeds go to charity. This is five weeks of hard work, believe me, and our church is not large, so everyone has to work.

And the Softball Booster Club is having its big fundraiser next week. So we have to sell tickets for that, try to increase everyone’s awareness that we actually HAVE a softball team, and then work that night serving a fish dinner to whomever comes to the restaurant. Somehow, I’m president.

I’ll be glad when these events are over and I can crawl back into my shell. There’s a reason I work by myself. I love to see people, interact with people, and help out – from time to time. But this is a big dose of togetherness all in one month, for someone who usually doesn’t talk to more than ten people in a week.

Next year, I’m not going to be president of anything. And if I can swing it, I won’t belong to anything -- or at the most, one organization. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Charlaine Harris