Trouble [Hardcover]

Jesse Kellerman (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons; 1ST edition (2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316732257
• ISBN-13: 978-0316732253
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Jesse Kellerman is the author of three previous novels, The Genius, Trouble, and Sunstroke. His plays have also won several awards, including the 2003 Princess Grace Award, given to America's most promising young playwright. He lives in California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unnerving and haunting novel, January 25, 2007

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trouble (Hardcover)

Within a short time, Jesse Kellerman --- the son of bestselling authors Jonathan and Faye Kellerman --- has established a solid reputation for quality and unpredictability. His debut novel, SUNSTROKE, was an enigmatic tale played out mostly in rural Mexico. TROUBLE, his sophomore effort, is even more disturbing than its predecessor, an accessible work that treads uneasily across dangerous if familiar ground.

The book takes place primarily in New York City, though the locus of the events that propel it could occur in any large or medium-sized city. Jonah Stem is a medical student who has just begun a surgical rotation; he is so exhausted that he barely can keep one foot moving in front of the other. He's in the middle of a late-night errand when he encounters a woman being attacked on the street; his intervention is impulsive, reactive and successful. The victim is saved, and the attacker somehow winds up dead. Stem gets his 15 minutes of fame, and life goes on --- but suddenly it becomes very different for him.

Eve Gones, the young lady Stem rescues, shows up to thank him. Her gratitude takes on a more intimate form, and there are layers to her that Stem cannot imagine. As she begins to reveal herself, he decides that he wants no part of her. Unfortunately for Stem, Gones will not go away so easily. She begins insinuating herself deeper and deeper into his life, and the more Stem finds out about her, the more he realizes that he's in a situation that can only end badly. The family of Gones's attacker wants their pound of flesh as well, and when Stem discovers the terrible truth about everything that's happening, he is convinced that his future --- if indeed he has one --- is in jeopardy.

Kellerman's narrative is unnerving and haunting. While his pacing falters just a bit in spots, the quiet, disturbing unreeling of Stem's life leaves the reader unsettled from practically the first page to the last. And, as bad as Gones is, Stem isn't wound too tight either. Soon enough we learn that there is something about him that isn't quite right --- something in his personality makeup that draws disturbed women to him like a moth to a flame.

The trappings that Kellerman provides Stem with --- the loving but quiet father, the somewhat overbearing mother, the trustafarian roommate --- make him all the more realistic and the horrors he encounters all too possible. The result is a novel that is nothing short of mesmerizing. Recommended with caution, due to graphic descriptions of violence and sexual situations.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Completely absorbing, chilling page-turner, January 28, 2007

By 

Zachary Shrier (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trouble (Hardcover)

Jesse Kellerman's wonderful second novel, "Trouble," is graphic, edgy, chilling, and fully absorbing -- even more so than his fine debut Sunstroke. In a sense, Trouble picks up one of Sunstroke's more unsettling themes and runs like hell with it: namely, how little we really know about the people who inhabit our lives. In the case of Trouble's hero, a third-year med student named Jonah Stem, the beautiful, sexually insatiable woman who appears abruptly in his life may not be exactly who & what she represents herself to be. Kellerman pulled rug-after-rug out from under me and never let my feet touch the ground. A tight, gripping thriller right through the end.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't read this alone at night, February 18, 2007

By 

Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trouble (Hardcover)

Kellerman constructs a contemporary urban psychological suspense novel, featuring overtired Jonah Stern. He's totally plausible: a nice young man who's so deeply immersed in his studies, he's naive about life and love. As another reviewer suggests, he may have personality quirks that draw disturbed women to him.

Stern meets Eve Gones when he hears her screaming for help on a deserted street. Judgment impaired by fatigue, he rushes to help her and learns all too well the meaning of, "No good deed goes unpunished."

Readers will sense Eve is trouble long before Jonah. But once he catches on, we realize he's caught in a nightmare with no escape. It's a sub-genre of suspense: a hero finds himself in the grip of an evil person who's determined to destroy him.

What sets Trouble apart are the three-dimensional characters, the scenes from Jonah's life as a medical student, and the juxtaposition of bizarre horror with everyday urban life. We're encouraged to think about the power of accusations.

I didn't find any of the scenes implausible. Unlikely, perhaps, and definitely bizarre. But they could happen.

If this book gets popular, I'd be tempted to buy stock in a background checking service. Eve could be anybody.