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A review by nampahceitac
A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bollen
3.0
This book establishes from the first page that it could be a thriller—but what follows is a metered, lush, high-stakes romance. Nick and Clay, betting their lives on the promise of Venice with nothing to lose, attempt to con their way out of youthful debt and into freedom, something that the two gay, American, millennials desperately crave (other than eachother, of course).
The world building alone is a detailed love letter to Venice, bolstered by Bollen's own experience of the city, and too of New York. It's one of those geography-specific reads that doubles as a story and an almost-vacation.
Some favorite quotes;
• "He wondered how many miles Ari had read in his life when the lines were totaled up. How many times around the world?" pp. 55
• The use of the world "chiaroscuroing" pp.52
• "It seems sometimes, in coming here, I've traded in for the daydream full time. Try as I might, I can't seem to shake myself into a lucid thought. It's all just drift and beauty." pp. 338
3.5/5, but for the beauty of Bollen's prose as he approaches a thriller/crime novel, a 4
Hardcover bought at the Oxford Exchange bookstore in Tampa, FL.
The world building alone is a detailed love letter to Venice, bolstered by Bollen's own experience of the city, and too of New York. It's one of those geography-specific reads that doubles as a story and an almost-vacation.
Some favorite quotes;
• "He wondered how many miles Ari had read in his life when the lines were totaled up. How many times around the world?" pp. 55
• The use of the world "chiaroscuroing" pp.52
• "It seems sometimes, in coming here, I've traded in for the daydream full time. Try as I might, I can't seem to shake myself into a lucid thought. It's all just drift and beauty." pp. 338
3.5/5, but for the beauty of Bollen's prose as he approaches a thriller/crime novel, a 4
Hardcover bought at the Oxford Exchange bookstore in Tampa, FL.