Risk

This book begins as a great little noirish story, short (174 pages), and develops into a mystery with a really cool character study in the mix. It is written in first person, which adds to the mood, almost as if you are sitting by a fire on a rainy night, listening to your favorite uncle tell you a tale. I discovered from reading the acknowledgments that the book was originally commissioned as a fifteen part serial for the New York Times Magazine. Oddly enough, however, there are only twelve chapters, each one with a name. I like that. In fact, I liked just about everything in this book. Even its length, which, under normal circumstances would have been way too short for me. For this book, it works. Anything more would have diluted the show more excellent flow of the story.

The main character, George, is a married, middle aged attorney for a high risk insurance fraud investigations firm. George and his wife live in and own a nice apartment on the upper west side of Manhattan. They have a daughter in college. George is good at his job, and life proceeds in an orderly, evenly paced fashion until one day he is summoned to the Park Avenue apartment of the wife of his now deceased mentor. George is asked to look into the actions of the son of his mentor, who was recently killed in a freak pedestrian/truck accident late one night in lower Manhattan. And so the tale begins.

The story is evenly paced and very New York. There are sprinklings of the Yankees, the Verrazano Narrows bridge, Brooklyn, old maps, a hand model, and other quirky elements that add just enough spice to this very well written short novel. The surprise ending fooled me, but I tend to get lazy with a great read like this one. My questioning mind shuts down and I let myself be carried along by the story, which is exactly what happened while reading Risk. This book won‘t take longer than an evening to finish, but it is a very satisfying read. Highly recommended.. show less

I received a copy of this book as part of the early readers program, the first time I’ve gotten one. If you’ve never had the experience, know that the books don’t come from The Library Thing, or at least mine didn’t. It came from the publisher. Neither my husband nor I could figure out where this book came from; neither of us recognized it as one we had ordered. It finally dawned on me what it was. So, on to reading.

Risk is about an insurance fraud investigator. He is an attorney who feels a debt of gratitude for being hired many years ago by the owner of the firm, so when the owner’s mother asks him to look into a matter for him, he honors her request. The matter seems personal (what was on her adult grandson’s mind in the show more hours before his clearly accidental death), but the investigation ultimately threatens the investigator’s life (well, we do need a plot here).

In tone, this book reminded me of John D. McDonald’s Travis MeGee series (except the main character doesn’t eat sandwiches described in great detail over the sink, so you won’t get so hungry). It caught my interest right away, seemed somewhat ordinary for a while, then my interest built, and I found near the end I couldn’t put it down.

Many readers are going to figure it out midway, the clues are there, although I didn’t. I have a relative who claims there’s never been a mystery written that he’s hasn’t figured out before the end of the book; I hardly ever do. I suspect this book falls a little more towards him that me.

In hindsight, two of the side-plots involving rare metals and hand models seem unnecessary to the main point of the story, but if the details concerning these areas are true, it was interesting and informative. (And there’s that plot thing again.)

I was unacquainted with this author (Colin Harrison), and this book made me interested in trying another of his books. I enjoyed the book, and am glad I read it, so while I can’t give it 5 stars, which I reserve for “OMG, you have GOT to read this book,” I can give it 4, especially if you enjoy contemporary mysteries with a bit of action. show less

Got this as a freebie from Picador.

Another reviewer described this book as "modern noir." Wish I had thought of that. George Young works for a law firm with one client, a large European insurance company. The firm's role is to investigate suspected fraudulent claims. The founder's widow asks George, who has a reputation for tenacity, to look into the death of her son, a man killed in an accident. There was no question it was an accident, the man had been drinking for hours before before he inadvertently stepped in front of a garbage truck. She wants to know why he had been imbibing for so long, behavior totally uncharacteristic.

At first glance, Roger Corbett appears to be the normal, middling level, investment banker, whose career began show more optimistically, but then moved from one job to another as vapor-ware financial instruments and desire for instant riches began his downward spiral. Divorced, struggling to hold things together, Roger meets a Czech hand model (did I mention ordinary?) who has been bringing little Christmas figurines into the country.

Young begins asking questions, discouraged initially by the ex-cop detective Roger's mother had originally hired to investigate. He soon finds himself learning a lot about rhodium, a precious metal worth $9,000 per ounce.

Harrison writes well. It's a good novella, reminiscent of the better Block and McBain, and I discovered it was difficult to put down despite the lack of murder, sex or violence. It's to Harrison's credit that he can build such a fascinating story from a combination of otherwise ordinary people living ordinary lives who find themselves caught up in extraordinary situations.

My congratulations to Picador the publishers of this short novel for the binding, a combination dust jacket, trade paperback, and nice design. It's light and will stand up under use. Makes a lot more sense than hardcover as we know it. Love to see more like this. It seems to me, if my memory serves me correctly, this kind of binding was relatively common in Europe years ago. Of course, ebook format works even better.

I've ordered several other titles by Harrison. show less

This is a quick read, not only because of the short length but because of the action and twists along the way. Believable characters with understandable motivations made for a satisfying experience. Colin Harrison adds some dry humor and witty asides. Interesting plot idea (although I have no idea how realistic the smuggling is). George and his wife enjoy an easy relationship and it was nice to see a middle-aged couple interacting. All-in-all an enjoyable read. This was my first Colin Harrison title and I will look for others by him.

Interesting idea. Likable, well fleshed out characters. But the gotcha was too heavily foreshadowed, and sometimes by having the characters step out of that well fleshed zone.

I really enjoyed George's wife, Carol, and their relationship. She's smart, and they have a believably normal life.

Spoilers:

Taking the dead man's shoes and hat? What? Normal, risk adverse guy does what? There were enough hints to the gotcha without laying that on.
Taking the money at the assayers also seemed like a crazy risk. He was very aware that it wasn't his. That one I might be able to chalk up to the allure of immediate money, but he seems to have a healthy fear of the mobsters the rest of the time. "I'll just take $20k of their money! No big deal"

The show more writing and characters make me interested in looking for more by this author - but he really blew the storytelling in this one. show less

An insurance lawyer's everyday life is interrupted when he is called to the house of his firm's founder's widow. Awaiting her own death, she has recently suffered the loss of her son in a hit-and-run accident outside a bar on the streets of New York. She wants to know what happened and, playing on her deceased husband's respect for the lawyer, entices him into trying to find out what happened. His searching brings him to discover not only a international theft of millions in a rare, precious metal, but to discover his own identity.

I loved the "film noir" style of this tightly-plotted, fast read.

'Risk' is a short novel by Colin Harrison about a New York insurance lawyer who's taken outside his comfort zone to investigate the last moments of a person involved in a fatal accident outside a bar. George Young, our hero, is drawn into the action at the request of the victim's mother, the widow of the law firm's founder, who also happens to have hired Mr. Young long ago. He feels he has a debt to re-pay, so he takes it on. For a while it seemed like it was a poor decision to take the case, but it turned into a fine one at the end.

Risk was originally published as a series of articles in a magazine, but it doesn't seem disjointed as a result. There's not much character development involved, but Harrison's writing is top notch and the show more dialogue and interactions between characters are realistic. The plot, though, is pretty narrow so the whole thing seems like a very long short story. That's not a criticism, just an observation. It moves quickly, which is usually a good thing.

What I liked the best about Risk was the roster of 'odd' characters (a Czech hand model, for example) that quickly entered and left the story. Unfortunately, probably because of the way the novel was originally published, there wasn't much development done so their contribution to the story was episodic at best.

Risk is worth a read, if for nothing else than to appreciate Harrison's writing. show less