Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14507 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-29
• Released on: 2009-09-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780312428938
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
In Harrison's entertaining urban noir, which has been revised since the New York Times Magazine ran it as a serial, Manhattan insurance attorney George Young agrees to help Mrs. Corbett, the widow of his firm's founder, with a minor mystery. How did Corbett's son, Roger, spend his final hours before a garbage truck struck him dead? The images a security camera captured of Roger's last moments mesmerize the amateur detective. Young's investigation leads him to Eliska Sedlacek, a Czech hand model, who was Roger's mistress for the last few months of his life. Eliska is eager to get access to Roger's possessions, which his ex-wife has placed in long-term storage. Some mundane items belonging to Roger, including an old phone book bought on eBay and some Christmas ornaments, turn out to be of interest to some unsavory figures. Harrison (The Finder) telegraphs the final reveal early on, but the colorful narrative voice will leave many readers wishing for more. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by by Patrick Anderson Colin Harrison writes sophisticated novels set in New York. They earn excellent reviews but aren't as well known as they should be. Typically in Harrison's novels, a man who operates at the city's more rarefied levels makes a mistake that puts him at the mercy of denizens of its lower depths. In "Risk," his seventh novel, his imperiled Everyman is lawyer George Young. He has a nice wife who works for a bank, a daughter in college and an apartment on the Upper West Side. He likes to come home at night, watch a Yankees game on TV and drink $14 red wine, which he calls cheap wine, proving once again that all things are relative. As the story begins, the widow of the founding partner of Young's law firm asks a favor. Her middle-aged son Roger died recently. He was hit by a truck as he left a downtown bar where he had been drinking alone for several hours. The woman is herself dying, and she wants Young to find out what her son was doing and thinking in the hours before his death. It's an impossible assignment, but she insists, and Young, who was both fond of and indebted to her late husband, accepts. The first thing he learns is that Roger, who'd once made a fortune on Wall Street, had lost his money, been divorced by his wife and was living in a cheap apartment downtown. Roger was a loser, Young decides, "but on Wall Street you can be an inflatable clown and make a lot of money if you are in the right place at the right time, like America in the eighties and nineties." Young starts digging. He talks to a private investigator who'd previously looked into the case and warns him to stay away from it. Another warning comes from the bartender who served Roger on his last night and says that a mob-type character had also been around asking questions. The super in the dead man's building demands a bribe before doling out information. Eventually, Young makes his way to Roger's last girlfriend. She's young and Czech and rather ordinary except that she has beautiful hands: "I am sorry I cannot shake hands. I am hand model and must protect them." Harrison views New York with a cool but compassionate eye. What distinguishes "Risk" is not its plot -- investigation, danger, resolution -- but the people, the digressions, the details along the way. In an East Side apartment building, "the tall bellman was a piece of fossilized Irish timber, and his white hair and stiff blue uniform made him look like a retired admiral." In a Lexington Avenue antique map store, Young meets a former "dentist for movie and television stars" who has lost an arm. Asked for details, he explains, "Subway-car door. My own fault. I was saved by a Japanese tourist who used her dress belt as a tourniquet. Wonderful woman." Here's part of a remarkable description of the Czech model: "She rotated her hands in space, as if each held an invisible fruit. These were ethereal fingers that touched only luxuries: diamonds, gold, watches, the smooth skin of cars that cost more than houses." And this reflection on the city: "After you've lived in New York for a while, say twenty years, you begin to see the unending conflict between the city that was and the city that will be. . . . My mother remembered when they tore down Pennsylvania Station, where Madison Square Garden is now. She used to read about New York, study the history. Canal Street was a canal. Bryant Park was a reservoir. Battery Park is called that because there was a battery of cannons out in the water to protect the harbor. Coney Island was once a real island. The city is always changing, and I find this sad and mystifying." Note also this memory of summer vacations at Cape May: "I like the town's cheesy Middle Americanness. The kids in flip-flops dragging sandy towels, the saltwater taffy, the miniature golf, the landscape of obesity roasting contentedly on the beach. I fit in just fine." Amid these elegant digressions -- I will not soon forget that "landscape of obesity" or the humanizing "I fit in just fine" that follows -- Young learns that Roger had been involved with some very hard characters, and inevitably the well-meaning lawyer falls into their clutches. Predictably, he triumphs over them; then, unpredictably, he discovers secrets that end the story on a touching note. "Risk" was originally published as a 15-part serial in the New York Times magazine. I didn't read it there because if I'm enjoying a novel I don't want to wait a week for the next installment. It's good that it's out in book form now, somewhat edited and expanded. As crime fiction goes, it's a small gem. bookworld@washpost.com
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Review

Customer Reviews

A Strange Search


In Risk, Colin Harrison tells the story of George Young, an insurance company attorney who normally investigates insurance claims for possible fraud. George is asked by the widow of the firms founder to investigate her son's death and determine what was on his mind during the final hours before his death.

Risk is a narrative about a guy who acts out of duty, rather than self interest, and gets into situations that are very dangerous. Where does duty become foolishness? George's main problem is how to get out of challenging predicaments while still doing his duty.

Risk is a very different novel in today's publishing world. It is a detective story without a crime. Risk is an action, suspense novel without shootings, explosions, nudity or passionate sex scenes. Instead of analyzing the causes of the victim's death, Risk inquires into the behavior of the deceased, hoping to learn about his thoughts and feelings immediately before his death. The details discovered during the investigative journey are fascinating to this reader.

The narration in Risk is meticulous and vivid. The characters are mostly cosmetic, except for the main character, George Young. George tells the story and invites us into his thoughts. As George narrates the action he discusses his emotions, shares his reluctance, fears, and doubts.

George is an unusual detective. He talks to his wife about his struggles at work and the problems he has with his investigation. He even listens to her suggestions. George's actions teach us that patience and persistence can lead to a solution, and that solving a problem may uncover facts not anticipated.

In Risk, the story demonstrates that things are seldom what them seem, and that if we are not careful and discreet, our good intentions may lead us into devilish predicaments. I recommend this novel, it is a fun read.

Good Elements
This book has some really good elements. George is a likable guy and a good narrator, sketching in the details of his contented middle-aged life. He and his wife are still happily married, getting used to having their daughter grown-up and away at college. George continues to work at the insurance company where he's been for decades, as a fraud investigator. Life is uneventful.

When the elderly widow of George's long-time boss and mentor asks him for a favor, George doesn't feel like he can refuse. So he starts an investigation into the death of the woman's son. It was clearly an accident, caught on a security camera, but the woman wishes to know what was on his mind in the time before he died. Her mission to George is to figure out her son's final thoughts.

Reading the mind of a dead man proves to be a difficult task, one which takes George all over the city and throws him into conversations with a private investigator, a friendly bartender, a bribeable landlord, and a foreign hand model.

The investigation turns dangerous, and George must rely on his quick thinking to protect himself and his family. And before the air clears, he uncovers surprising information of his own.

I liked much of this story; it was tightly woven together with enough detail to keep me from feeling shocked or cheated at the end. However, it seemed there were two separate climaxes to the story--the resolution of George's danger and the self-discovery he underwent. It felt to me like this story should have chosen to be one or the other; it needed to dedicate itself to either being a man's journey of self-discovery or being a detective story. Or perhaps the two could have been better intertwined. Having two very different pivotal points toward the end of the book diluted some of the suspense that either one of these climaxes, when standing alone, would have had.

'Guy Noir'
Colin Harrison for my money is one helluva' writer. And, money is the root of all evil and this novel indulges in money- who has it, how they got it and how it flows. This 200 page book was one of the better reads. It is a mystery wound around an every day man trying to be a decent man. As the New York Times says, "This is one of those novels that outdoes Garrison Keillor's 'Guy Noir'."

George Young, a simple name for a man all of us would like to know. He is a lawyer in a firm that practices insurance law. He has lived an exemplary life in NYC- worked hard as a young student, got decent grades at a private school, was a good son to his parents, mom and step-dad, went to law school and now has a successful job in his firm. It has afforded him the nice apartment on the West Side, a wife who is smarter than he is, works hard and loves him, and a daughter who went to the best schools.

And, here is his, involved in one hell of a mess. The wife of the founding father of the law firm, Wilson Corbett, has called him to her home. She wants a favor, she needs someone to investigate the reason for her son, Roger Corbett's death. The death was an accident, that she is sure of. But, before Roger was killed in the accident, he spent four hours in a bar. What was he doing there, she wants to know. George is indebted to Wilson Corbett, he gave him his this wonderful opportunity at the firm. So, he takes on this job, much to his wife's chagrin. And, he steps into the mess I have talked about. He meets the ex-girlfriend, a Czech hand model, the ex-wife, several unsavory people associated with Roger only by '6 degrees of separation', and several old friends of Wilson Corbett. This, George Young, is an intelligent detective and has street smarts. He is able to uncover that which he might wish he had left undone. On the way to this discovery, he raises questions about himself and what he is all about. Sounds like an interesting read, does it not?

This novel brings us to many places in NYC, to the Old Print Shop on Lexington, the American Legion fields near J.F.K., an Elizabeth Street bar, the diamond district and the apartments of the rich and the not so well off. It brings us questions we might ask ourselves, and we find some answers we might not have known. It is an extraordinary simple novel that opens our world and our minds. It is a Risk we might not have taken if not for Colin Harrison.

Highly Recommended. prisrob 10-19-09

The Finder: A Novel

Break and Enter: A Novel