Customer Reviews

The Blade Itself (Crime Scene)

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

When a first novelist's work is compared to Elmore Leonard, Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos on the jacket cover, he's either exceptionally good or the publisher's marketing machine is churning out unbridled hyperbole. Thankfully Marcus Sakey proves he's the real deal.

"The Blade Itself" is lean, well-plotted, and convincingly authentic in its depiction of the criminal underbelly on Chicago's South Side. Danny Carter, reformed thief, comes face to face with his dark past when Evan, his volatile former partner, is paroled from a prison sentence and shows up expecting payback after taking the fall for his former partner. When Danny turns him down, Evan raises the stakes, cornering Danny into a situation so dire that kidnapping his boss's son seems like the only viable course.

Novels that rely on this sort of premise are incredibly difficult to pull off, as they almost always employ strained logic to convince the reader that there are no easier ways out. Sakey not only avoids clunky turns in the plot but also maintains a blistering pace, getting in late and out early on each chapter, yet finds opportunities to develop a believable hero in Danny and a worthy villain in Evan.

Once in a while a crime novel hits all the rights notes. "The Blade Itself" is that rare example.

Danny and Evan grew up together in the South Side of Chicago where reputation, being tough and street-wise determined whether they stayed out of prison. The two friends earned their living by theft.

On a night, much like many others, the friends rob a pawnshop. When the shop owner shows up with a young woman, Evan pulls a gun and uses it. Danny walks away from the scene and Evan is caught. Evan serves seven years in prison and never talks about Danny's involvement in the crime.

Danny turns his life around, has a great job, a wonderful woman and a bright future. That begins to unravel when Evan, who has become a bitter man, is released from prison and the two men meet in a local bar. Evan believes that Danny 'owes' him and he's determined to collect. Danny doesn't believe he has many choices and must decide how far he'll go to protect himself, his loved ones, and his future.

The Blade Itself is Marcus Sakey's debut novel and it sizzles. His plot is intriguing, his characters are rich, with all the flaws seen in life. The good guys aren't completely good and the bad guy is truly evil. The dialogue is taut and the pacing is impeccable. I love Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane and Robert Crais, and while Sakey's work is no imitation of these authors, he's quickly joined their ranks. I suspect he's going to be a major player in the future.

Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommended.

Marcus Sakey's debut novel has been the subject of advance buzz of such volume that I feared there was no way it could live up to such high expectations. But I am pleased to report that it does --- and even surpasses them.

THE BLADE ITSELF does not merely hint at greatness from the first page; this top-shelf crime novel delivers it. The opening --- a pawnshop burglary that just feels as if it's going to go wrong, even before one starts reading (if such a thing is possible) --- is perfect. Sakey effectively transmits the deep contrasts between the two hooligans about to carry out the deed: the reluctant Danny Carter and the loose cannon named Evan McGann. The opening also introduces the author's attention to minor details --- in this case, how the false bottom of a cabinet drawer sounds different from a real one, and what true vertigo really is --- and continues throughout the book.

It is the story contained within THE BLADE ITSELF, however, that is the star here. The burglary does indeed go badly, at least for McGann, who winds up doing hard time in a hard place. But Carter escapes, and thanks to an ultimatum by Karen, his lady love, he gets out of the life. Seven years after the burglary, Carter has reinvented himself, becoming the de facto manager of a construction company and settling into quiet domestic bliss with Karen.

McGann's return into Carter's life is sudden and unexpected; McGann has been released early for good behavior and, as we see rather dramatically, is eager to pick up precisely where he left off --- with Carter as his partner.

For Carter, McGann's reappearance is a waking nightmare, an all-too-vivid reminder of the life he left behind and to which he promised Karen he would never go back. He initially rebuffs McGann, but McGann is in no mood for rejection. From McGann's point of view, McGann did stand-up time for Carter and is owed big time for the years that were lost --- years during which Carter prospered as a free man. McGann turns up the pressure on Carter, until Carter feels he has no choice but to go along with McGann's scheme, which threatens to upset and destroy everything that Carter has worked toward since turning his life around.

To make matters worse, just when you think that Carter's situation isn't going to go any further south, Sakey plunges him into latitudinal depths heretofore unexplored. Sakey's talent, however, isn't limited to sending Carter deeper and deeper into the concentric rings of his own personal hell. The author sets up a subtle, and troubling, moral dilemma for the reader. There is a legitimate question as to whether or not McGann is all wrong here or, conversely, if Carter is 100% virgin pure. After all, McGann did stand-up time, refusing to implicate Carter in the burglary. And while McGann's impulsiveness brought about McGann's own downfall, it was not as if Carter was unaware of his friend's tendency to go sideways when he agreed, however reluctantly, to accompany McGann on a burglary run.

These issues complement, rather than interfere with, the storyline, which hurdles toward an explosive confrontation, a chance for redemption and, against all odds, a satisfying climax.

THE BLADE ITSELF is far more than an impressive debut; it is a milestone in what is sure to be a marvelous career for Sakey, the mark of a talent that demonstrably runs long and deep. Stick this one on your must-read list.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

THE SETUP
"The Blade Itself" begins when young thug Evan kills the shop-owner of a pawn shop, and is caught by the police. Co-thief Danny manages to run away. Seven years later Evan is released from prison, and wants to go back into "the life" with Danny, but Danny has gone straight. That's the setup.

If you have trouble confusing Evan and Danny, as I did, I suggest a mneumonic device, think "E" as in "Evan" is for "evil". "D" for "Dumbxss" also works---except that Danny is supposed to be bright.

COMMENTS
I am tempted to say that the story is contrived and implausible, but real life is often illogical. Truth is often "stranger than fiction", but nevertheless, readers have the right to expect fiction to be plausible.

Screaming at Dumbxss (oops, I mean "Danny"), "Don't do it you idiot!" for every single page of the novel becomes tiresome. Evan is clearly twisted, but his motivations or "evil" just doesn't ring true.

I did not find the novel enjoyable, because I found no-one to relate to or care about. Danny is supposed to be a flawed hero, but too consistently makes excessively poor judgements. This is particularly inconsistent with the premise that Danny is "the brains", and which is why Evans needs him. Evan is portrayed as a stupid thug, but shows himself to be far brighter and more clever than Evan. Danny is portrayed as a very bright fellow, who can't think his way out of a wet paper bag. It just doesn't track.

The novel also contains disconcerting discontinuities. At several points I said to myself "Opps, I musta missed something" and flipped back several chapters but did not find the events I was looking for, because Sakey simply skips over them.

CRITIQUE
Objectively, the novel is well written with a difficult but interesting premise, and may be "educational" for some sheltered readers. For a first novel, it is a very admirable effort. Too many young authors concentrate too much on "breaking literary ground" rather than writing a story which typical readers will enjoy.

I grew up in a somewhat similar neighborhood. Most of my childhood freinds got their GEDs in prison. But Sakey's characters do not feel authentic to me, and I found no other elements of the novel to be compelling.

I picked up this book as it won best debut novel of the year according to The Strand Magazine. This magazine rarely lets me down, but I think it may have been a little off the mark on this one.

Mr. Sakey is a talented writer and the story itself while not highly original was both fastpaced and exciting. This is a difficult plot to write with the criminals being the heroes, and Sakey instead of letting the characters do it, stopped to preach a little here and there. Then he tied the ending up with a nice pretty little bow at the end like an episode of Law and Order, which I found too neat and too predictable.

I would probably grade this novel four stars had I not expected more. Probably not really fair, but I find it wasn't as good as I feel I was led to believe.

I cannot understand the praise that this book seems to garner. It is the story of two flat, vapid characters: "troubled past guy" and a simpler "bad guy." That's really all you need to know about them; they have no depth, remain unchanging through the work, and are impossible to connect with. In Danny's case (this is "troubled past guy," the protagonist)you'd expect more - Sakey tries hard to bring him to life and includes a few elements into the mix(childhood memories, love interest, emotional determination) but the equation fails to solve. I could not bring myself to care about Danny.

The best explanation, I think, is that Sakey is a poor writer. His writing is always grasping at lyricism but never holding on; it often screams "I am profound!" when there's nothing there. The best example of this is the title: "The Blade Itself" references a Homer quotation that the author includes on its own page before the body of the novel: "the blade itself incites to violence." I guess the author expects us to find the quote provocative, but in the end the quote serves only to make the book's concluding pages more awful than they already are. These pages discuss the poor childhoods of the characters, the neglect of society, the futility of any positive expectations - in other words, the novel's supposedly sophisticated point is just the same depressing, rehashed crap that (no matter how true it may be)has been said a thousand times before.

The "bad writer" hypothesis is consistent with the other problem of this book - a plodding narrative with a predictable ending that leaves you sleeping through the "tense" scenes and skimming pages by the half-way point (don't worry, you can skim half the book and still see everything coming a mile away). This is trash, shop elsewhere.

A few years ago, I read a collection of short stories written by new authors that was put together by Lee Child. That collection of stories was called "Killer Year," and without hesitation, I still say that collection sucked! There were maybe 3 stories that I actually enjoyed out of the entire collection. Marcus Sakey was among the new authors in that collection of short stories. And while I didn't like most of the stories in that collection, I REALLY hated the story that Marcus Sakey presented. My first thought was, "I'm NEVER going to read ANYTHING by that author. Not after that!" Well, while I was in our local library, I saw this book called "The Blade Itself," but guess what? It was by Marcus Sakey! I said I was never going to read him! Should I lie, and go back on my word? Well, it looks like I did lie. I read it and I loved it.

Danny Carter and Evan are best buddies, and they know how to rob a place pretty good and get away with it, ya know? They always made a really good team, and nobody was going to stop them. Right? Well, a job finally screwed up, and while Danny walked away, Evan got caught and did his time.

Now years later, Evan is out on good behavior, that's the good news. The bad news? He's looking for Danny. And when he finds Danny, he's got news for his partner in crime. That news is plain and simple, "You owe me!" What's Danny-boy gonna do about this? Is he going to stay friends with his old buddy? There's just one thing, one big difference, and that big difference is that Evan is not the same, and he's a hardened criminal, ready to wreak havoc! How do you handle this?

I really did go into this with a negative attitude, hoping I was going to dislike the work of Marcus Sakey. And I'm glad he proved me wrong. I'm glad he showed a lot of grit, determination, and more importantly, he showed a lot of heart! He showed me that there is a difference between a short story and a full length novel. So, in the end, I lied. And I'm glad I did for Marcus Sakey! Can't wait to see what he has in store for his fans.

The setting is Chicago, my home town. The descriptions of it are vivid. The anti-hero, Danny Carter, robs a pawnshop with his best friend Evan, a genuine maniacal monster who ends up shooting the pawnshop owner. Danny slipped away while Evan revels in bloodlust. Evan gets caught and does almost eight years. He was stand up and didn't give up Danny. Meanwhile Danny builds a new life for himself in construction.

Of course, Evan wants to get even and all hell breaks loose when he's released from prison. The problem was I didn't care about Danny at all. I was only curious to see what Evan would do next in his plan of vengeance.

At the end of the book, I still didn't care.

This is Marcus Sakey's first novel and an awesome start to what I hope is a prolific career (I've read all of Sakey's books to date).

The protagonist has gone straight and is no longer in a life of crime. He loves his new life, making an honest living and contribution to society. He is deeply in love with his girlfriend, who has one rule - zero tolerance for his old life. He is a flawed character trying to better himself.

Then his past comes back to haunt him. His former partner in crime is back for revenge. He has to decide how far he will go to protect his life and the woman he loves. This book does a great job of depicting the thought process a person would go through in a situation like this. I think the protagonist makes the decision required, even though he may not like the consequences.

The author also does a very good job exploring and describing Chicago. I recognize many of the places even though only being in Chicago once.

I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who likes suspense coupled with character development.

For a first novel this is an excellent effort, and its strength is the breakneck pacing of the plot. Sakey has a real gift for this, and you will find yourself hooked from minute one.

On the down side, the character development leaves something to be desired -- the female characters in particular are flat, uninteresting, and oversentimental. Hopefully a writer of Sakey's promise will improve on this with time and effort, I'm certainly looking forward to the next one.