"Mark Sullivan"
> I also recently got (from Terrill's new store) and
read Ice Harvest by
> Scott Phillips. This is a nice, contained narrative,
with everything
> happening in one night, as the lead character's scam
comes to a head.
> Although I still haven't decided whether or not a
small twist at the
> very end was a bit too O'Henry, the book would have
made a very nice
> Gold Medal paperback
I read ICE HARVEST a couple weeks ago and really *wanted* to
like it. A harkening back, a homage, whatever you want to
call it - to the old Gold Medal pbs - just the kind of stuff
I like. But I found HARVEST too meandering as he goes from
bar to bar to strip club to homes to etc etc - it seemed to
be a loss of central focus and became a bit tedious. The
motive for his flight (and meandering) didn't become known
until halfway through the book - fine if you're building up
suspense to that point, not-so-fine if you're having your
protagonist meander around and expecting the reader to follow
along with interest. And, yes, the ending was much to
O'Henry'ish and way over the top - all in all, a
disappointing read. And that's too bad - since they don't
publish too many of these types of book anymore...and I doubt
ICE HARVEST will be the spark that ignites public interest in
this type of work.
On the other end of the quality spectrum, I just finished
FAKE I.D., the newest one by Jason Starr - now *that's* a
stunner!
Ron Clinton
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 01 Feb 2001 EST