‘He tried to remember his
insurance deductible, but that felt too regular and he crushed the thought like
an insect.’
Jess Forsyth is the kind
of character I love to read about. There was no silver spoon in his mouth when
he was born and life’s been against him from the start. He’s made a lot of
choices along the way and not all of them have been wise. Even so, he wants to
do the decent thing. If only he had a stronger will and a little more in the
way of luck.
An encounter with gun
peddler Mikey at some point before our main story begins, landed Jess in
prison. He was lucky though, because the woman (Kersey Sims) who put him in
prison senses something about him and has become a kind of a mother/grandmother figure.
She’s given him a second chance and he’s happily living life on the straight
and narrow as a pool cleaner to some of California’s wealthy folk when we meet.
All might go well, only
another encounter with Mikey sets things on a new course.
Mikey invites Jess to come
along on a job. The aim is to shake down a drug dealer, Griffin, at his
mansion. As they carry out their crime, a young woman is killed and there’s a
lot of mopping up to be done and this is where things
really start to spiral beyond anyone’s control.
Griffin wants his money
back. Mikey isn’t sure about what’s going on. Jesse has fallen for the dead
girl’s friend Shawny. Shawny knows there’s more money in the house and she wants
it. Jess wants Shawny and the money. And there’s a loose cannon called Rimbaud
who, like the poet he’s named after, just loves to explore life and find new experiences.
What I like about this
book is the way the gears change so smoothly. You have a really good balance between
the build up of tension and action scenes that always serves the plot well.
More importantly, the whole series of crime capers has the secure foundation of
strong characters. We get to know Jess through his interactions with the
criminals mentioned earlier, but also through more tender and complex
situations with one of his pool owners, with Shawny and with Kersey Sims. We
also get to ride with him through his dreams and watch them as they spill out
into his reality.
Three
Kinds Of Fool (US)
offers plenty of nourishment for the reader. You can get your kicks from the
adrenaline-fuelled deeds or you can savour the thought-provoking elements and
let them twist up your thinking for a while. There’s no real room in here for
good or bad and black and white have swirled together to make a new kind of
grey, which is just the way I like it.
