The Fall Guy

The Fall Guy by James Lasdun
Published October 18, 2016 by W. W. Norton & Company
Rating: ★★★★

So this review is a bit of an unpopular opinion. The rating on this book has sunk to little over 3 on Goodreads. One of the common complaint is that this book is not riveting. And that's right. This book has a bit of an old-fashioned feel to it, imo. It's slower, less shocking, less sadistic than many modern thrillers. I don't think the thriller label is a good fit for this book, and I think it was slapped into that popular category for marketing reasons. Ok, enough of my rambling, onto the review....

Matthew and Charlie are cousins, more like brothers really, but their lives have gone in very different directions. Charlie is a successful investment banker and a married father. He owns multiple homes, has a million dollars in cash in his home safe, and is the type to be impressed with his own wealth. Matthew lives in a dingy one bedroom and is still striving to make his mark in the restaurant business. Both men are harboring some measure of resentment toward the other, but, like in most families, they keep it bubbling under the surface. That's until Charlie invites Matthew to spend the summer at his vacation home. As the days go on, the cracks between become undeniable.

Maybe things would be less complicated if Matthew weren't enamored with Charlie's wife, Chloe. While he's not in love with Chloe and isn't looking to steal her away from his cousin, Matthew feels both an intimacy and possessiveness over her that he can't quite explain. She's his without really being his. It's a dynamic they've all danced around for the last decade. But as the summer wears on, Matthew starts to suspect that Chloe is hiding something, and he becomes obsessive about it, more or less acting like a stalker. It takes him down the road of no return.

This is a suspense novel, and it might disappoint fans of modern thrillers, but this is the type of book I really appreciate. It's told from one perspective and relies on a slower build up of tension. The writing is good and the plot realistic. It kept me interested, and, while not a true page turner, by the end I was racing through to see what would happen to Matthew. My main frustration was with Chloe and Charlie, who I felt were underdeveloped. What did Charlie really think of Matthew? What were Chloe's motivations? On the whole, though, good book.