Customer Reviews

Prager's Pattern

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fascinating. I found it so personally intense at points I had to stop and then read again later. The characters are captivating in a very real way. Congratulations!

A friend of mine told me I should read this book and I said no because it seemed too creepy. But he gave me his copy and insisted and I'm glad I took his advice. The book was a real surprise because it told what could have been a distasteful story in a very sensitive and entertaining way. There were enough twists and turns to keep me turning the page, and I got to see the story from the viewpoint of several very different characters. Some flashbacks are used to explain the main character, and I particularly enjoyed one where he has a revealing discussion with a psychiatrist. There is a mob boss that I would have liked to know more about but overall I liked the book very much and would recommend it.

I really liked this book. It's got detestable hoodlums, likable hired killers, dead housewives, and page after page of sexual tension. And not "normal" sexual tension either. What more could you ask for?

The writer, John Alvar, is able to take a seriously screwed-up main character, (who has some issues with teenage girls), and make him likable and sympathetic. But at the same time, I kept waiting for the other shoe, or the other dead body, to drop.

The action is fast-paced and kept me reading all the way through. I would recommend this to anyone that likes Elmore Leonard or Barry Gifford.

I can't wait for the sequel, or better yet, the movie.

Aimee, a 14-year-old girl living in a small, New York town, has no idea that her life is about to be forever altered. Instead of a jaunt to the mall with her best friend, she is brutalized and almost murdered, then "rescued" by a pedophile.

Douglas Prager, a computer technician with a genius grasp of medical imagery, is a 40-year-old man who's in love with Aimee. The highlight of his weekend is to sit in his car and watch Aimee walk by so he can use this image to fuel his improper sexual fantasies. On this Saturday morning, however, he sees Aimee get accosted on the street by two strangers who clearly mean to kill her in broad daylight. In response, Douglas risks his own life to charge in and save her.

"Prager's Pattern" is a book of many stories, all entwined into a clear and readable pattern. Hired guns, rats hiding in the witness protection program, the Mafia pulling strings from prison, police officers struggling with stray bullets and an overriding theme of child molestation provide this "chase" story with a surprising amount of depth. The head-hopping is a bit difficult to follow without any clear typographical breaks, but each new point of view sorts itself out within a few sentences.

Douglas is a conflicted man, someone who is torn by his own desires for Aimee and the need to save her from the men trying to kill her. Aimee is caught in a web of death that really has nothing to do with her. She is an innocent wearing the face of a "mark," and her life is completely changed by that fact.

John Alvar uses his debut crime novel to break all the genre's boundaries. The hero is a pedophile, and yet the reader can't help but root for him. Sympathy also bursts forth for two professional killers. One is a big lug who hates killing children but does so as part of his job. The other one is hired to clean up everyone's messes, a job he handles with an admirable efficiency.

"Prager's Pattern" is a unique story, and a fresh breath of air in a genre that often feels stale with recycled plots and characters. I don't know how many publishers passed on Alvar's book, but I'm thrilled he decided to self-publish it. This story left me breathless and clamoring for more.

The premise of the book was strong enough to keep me reading, although I almost gave up on it during a few implausible moments. Coincidences and unlikely occurrences are too frequent throughout the story. It seems strange, for example, that two people who are on the run from unknown killers would accept unsolicited help from a suspicious stranger. Characters occasionally make abrupt decisions that seem to have no basis in reason, but are necessary for the story's progression. Grammatical errors and awkward prose also subtract from the book's impact. Nonetheless, several scenes were effective. If the author's style matures both technically and subjectively, he may be worth looking for in the future.