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A review by bunnieslikediamonds
Orient by Christopher Bollen
4.0
Barely out of his teens, modern day hobo Mills is rescued from the streets of New York by homely Paul. Paul takes him along to the small town of Orient on Long Island, as a foster kid or maybe a stray dog. Folks are naturally suspicious, Mills included, but he does his best to adapt to village life. For Mills, that means giving the neighbor's son a blow job and teaming up with another neighbor, Beth, to solve some murders. Which is what we'd all do, considering there isn't much else to do for fun in Orient unless you're an artist, in which case you'd be busy being self-important and dramatic.
Beth is a former artist, now an artist's wife, and she too is bored out of her mind, despite her colorful husband (not ze GARAGE! Diz iz where I worrrk! It iz a SACRED space!). She and Mills make a friendly, if not terribly efficient, team of amateur sleuths. To be fair, the village has too many murders and hidden schemes for two laymen to figure it all out, but they still do a better job of it than the police.
This being a literary thriller, the going is slow and character development takes up a fair chunk of pages. This was perfectly all right with me, but a reader expecting unbearable suspense may find it drags. The mystery part was intriguing for sure, although the killer's confession at the end was so elaborate I felt like the book abandoned realism and veered into Sideshow Bob territory. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
The writing is good and there are some terrific scenes I'll remember for a long a time (that fire, jeez). I'm a sucker for amateur sleuths and artists' colonies, so that worked out great for me. Finally, what sealed the deal were the mutant animals à la Dr Moreau, washing up on shore in an incongruous mixture of body parts. Just wonderful.
Beth is a former artist, now an artist's wife, and she too is bored out of her mind, despite her colorful husband (not ze GARAGE! Diz iz where I worrrk! It iz a SACRED space!). She and Mills make a friendly, if not terribly efficient, team of amateur sleuths. To be fair, the village has too many murders and hidden schemes for two laymen to figure it all out, but they still do a better job of it than the police.
This being a literary thriller, the going is slow and character development takes up a fair chunk of pages. This was perfectly all right with me, but a reader expecting unbearable suspense may find it drags. The mystery part was intriguing for sure, although the killer's confession at the end was so elaborate I felt like the book abandoned realism and veered into Sideshow Bob territory. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
The writing is good and there are some terrific scenes I'll remember for a long a time (that fire, jeez). I'm a sucker for amateur sleuths and artists' colonies, so that worked out great for me. Finally, what sealed the deal were the mutant animals à la Dr Moreau, washing up on shore in an incongruous mixture of body parts. Just wonderful.