Rob Roberge - More Than They Could Chew (2005)
With the torrent of books that publishers unleash on the reading public each month, it’s impossible to keep up with even a fraction of the volume, and thus it’s inevitable that some real gems will get overlooked along the way.
Such is the case with Rob Roberge’s More Than They Could Chew (Dark Alley, $13.95), the wonderful, darkly comic, gritty and entertaining story about a down-at-the-heels loser trying to make one big score.
Nick Ray works as the night man at a fleabag hotel in Long Beach, California, a job that requires the least of him while still maintaining his meager existence. When Nick buys a used government computer (so he can secretly email his lesbian girlfriend without her lover knowing), he stumbles upon a treasure trove of blackmail material: a list of the new identities of relocated Witness Protection subjects.
Knowing his limitations, Nick teams up with a fashion-challenged Russian gangster, and a disbarred attorney named Maggot-Arm Joe in order to exploit the list’s potential. (How Joe got his name is one of my favorite parts of the book.) Things actually look promising for the trio for a while, too, but then things start to go horribly wrong, as they inevitably do in situations like this.
On balance, the plot of More Than They Could Chew is not quite as finely crafted in parts as it might be, and it fizzles out towards the end, just when it should be revving up to a juicy climax. When the other elements of the story are this good, though, it’s easy to overlook what amounts to a minor flaw at best.
The characters and the setting are the real strengths here. The soon-to-be-demolished Lincoln Hotel and its environs, a location Charles Bukowski would have loved, are ripe with possibilities, and the eclectic collection of one-of-a-kind characters is the match of masters of the genre Robert Ferrigno and Elmore Leonard.
Most crime novels read, at least to some extent, like echoes of other crime novels, but this is a boldly original book that clearly conveys the knowledge that there is a unique, gifted talent behind it.
With its passages of cringe-worthy violence, and elements of laugh-out-loud humor, More Than They Could Chew is a confident and fresh story that can’t help but make the reader hunger for more. It’s one of the best books of the year so far.
Posted by David J. Montgomery in Book Reviews | Permalink
Comments
Yeah, I love this book. Some pretty weird sex stuff in this book. More Sergio!
Posted by: Aldo | Jun 12, 2005 8:18:26 PM
