Icarus Book

People keep dying around Jack Keller, the central character of Russell Andrews' second thriller Icarus, and he finds it difficult to be sure that it is nothing to do with him. His mother was thrown from a window by a maniac; his wife was shot on the opening night of their new restaurant; his protégé and therapist Kid fell to his death--even his mentor Dom lost an arm to the Mob for refusing to fix a fight. Jack starts investigating Kid's life and finds out more than he wants to know about the women Kid only ever referred to by aliases--the Murderess, the Mistake, the Mortician, the Destination. Kid lived in a bleak world of sexual opportunism and trade-offs, and Jack, who liked him, has to follow his trail there. For both Jack--and the policewoman whose investigation he constantly criss-crosses--the trail is one of endless legwork and painful discoveries. This is an inventive thriller about how little we really know about anyone, even those to whom we are closest. The story takes us to a vividly realized New York of high, cold places, literal and metaphorical, from which the agoraphobic Jack is perpetually tempted to take that last fall. --Roz KaveneyRead More