Customer Reviews

Risk: A Novel

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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

George Young is an attorney for a New York insurance firm. His job involves the analysis of suspicious insurance claims.

He's called to the home of Mrs. Corbett, widow of his company's founder. Mr. Corbett gave George his start and he feels indebted.
Now Mrs. Corbett is in ill health and wants George to investigate what her son was doing, sitting in a bar for four hours and then walking outside and being hit and killed by a truck.

In a story that "The Washington Post" compares to "The Bonfire of Vanities" George finds that Mrs. Corbett's son, Roger, had a girlfriend, Eliska Sedlacek. Eliska had a prior relationship with a Russian man and had carried items into the United States for him. In his last trip, he asks her to carry more than she had been doing. This man is later killed and Eliska is informed that the man took something that didn't belong to him and the people want it back.

Through his investigation, George learns things about himself that are significant. Harrison has written a story that was originally commissioned as a fifteen-part weekly serial.

George is a likable character, sincere and with a sense of commitment. He continues his search, even when danger builds. The plot was interesting and the story was a quick and enjoyable read.

I read all the Ross Macdonald Lew Archer stories as they were published. "Risk" leaves a similar taste in my mind, and it is one that I like to remember.
I gave it 4 stars, not five, because I guessed the answer to the puzzle about half way into the book. But it still was an enjoyable read. No big violence,
no spectacular fights, no super weapons or world-shaking threat. Some hints of possibles in one of those directions, but they were all red-herrings.

Like a Lew Archer mystery, it all comes down to family secrets and family responsibilities. But the resolution was satisfying. I enjoyed the time I spent
with the characters in the book. They were mostly likeable and I cared about them. The book is brief. But then again so were the old Gold Medal original
paperback mysteries of the 50's

Attorney George Young has a good job, a nice wife and a daughter in college. He lives in an apartment on the Upper West Side. He has a good life. He comes home to his wife at night, watches the Yankees on TV with a bottle of red wine. But his life is going to be put to the test.

The dying wife of his law firms founding partner asks him for a favor and he can't refuse. Her son Roger was run over by a truck as he left a bar and she wants to know if it really was an accident. She also wants George to find out why her son had been in that bar, drinking alone for so long.

During his investigation George finds out that Roger was kind of a loser. He'd made a bundle on Wall Street, but lost it. He lost his wife to divorce and was living in a cheapo apartment. George is warned off the investigation by both a P.I. who had given up the case and by the bartender who'd served Roger those drinks on his last night alive.

But does George quit the investigation? What do you think? And there you have the setup of this short, only a hundred and seventy-six pages long, thrilling mystery that had me glued to my chair. I read it in one sitting. Colin Harrison writes about New York, the good and the seamy sides of the city and he does it in a way that keeps you wanting more.

I bought this book to read on the plane, and it did not disappoint. The plot
and characters held my attention, and I found it to be well written. I will
definitely buy the author's previous books.

The writing is generally tight and of high quality but to me this book reads more like a descent short story (that runs a bit long) than a fully engaging novel.

As a novel, Risk is quite brief (174 pages). The brevity provides a quick and mostly enjoyable read but comes at the expense of many things I expect in a good novel. For me there is too little development of setting(s), character relationships, and supporting story. I also expected more suspense.

Suspense builds slowly here and there (and gives some interest and intrigue to the book) but overall the sections of suspense are too weak or incomplete to keep me turning the pages. Much of the book hints that the main character is headed for danger but when he finally does find himself and his family in immediate danger (¾ the way through the book) he seems to act too decisively (out of character) and the danger is resolved too quickly and neatly to be believable. The last two chapters expose any unanswered questions and the main character gets to have those questions answered as well as heal some of his emotional wounds and make sense of both his recent journey and his life.

This is a good book to read when you are so busy or distracted that it is better to have an easy and brisk read than a fully engaging and more complex novel.

"Risk" is a light snack of a book, less than 200 pages in length. It begins when lawyer George Young is asked by the widow of his mentor, Wilson Corbett (also the former head of the law firm that employs him), to do a favor for her. George feels that he cannot refuse, given how much his success owes to Wilson Corbett. Still, the request is very odd -- Mrs. Corbett has just lost one of her adult children, Roger, who was run over by a truck, and she wants George to find out what Roger was doing on the night he died. (Someone should tell her that she needs a PI, not a lawyer.) So George sets off on his quest, and the mystery for the reader is "What is Mrs. Corbett really after?"
I gave this book three stars because, although it is well written, the story is thin. It brings to mind a short walk in the park--pleasant, but not exciting. The level of tension is flat, rather than increasing, and then it ends. I'd recommend "Risk" as an evening's entertainment, but it is not the right choice for a moment when you want to sink into a novel and forget the outside world.

Risk starts off making you feel like you're in the swanky 40's, the era of private eyes that talked fast and used a lot of clichés. For me it moved swiftly, kept me entertained and I walked away feeling fully satisfied. Our protagonist is George Young, a 40 something dealing with life as it comes, much like me and many others. He's an average guy, married, satisfied with life. There is no high intrigue here, no James Bond gadgets, and no horror and gore. Just a straight up detective type novel that you should thoroughly enjoy.

It's a compact book that sticks to the facts, "just the facts". You can plow through this book in a couple days and if you're like me, you'll do some digging into more Colin Harrison novels.