I was out in a nearby monster bookstore Monday, picking up
PULP MASTERS
(edited by Gorman and Greenberg) which so many people have
talked about here. It looks great--the three anthologies
those guys have done are very nice. Wandering around the
stacks, what did I see, for the first time ever, but Jason
Starr's first novel, COLD CALLER (1997)? I grabbed it and
read it yesterday.
It's as good as I'd hoped, an excellent first novel. He's
really got the noir stuff. It's about a guy working at
telemarketing, Bill Moss, who's after the American Dream like
the others in Starr's books. He seems like a normal fellow,
but like Starr can do so well, he tells the story
straight-forwardly and gradually reveals things that show the
guy's a complete maniac. He's having an argument with his
girlfriend, say, and all of a sudden his arm is cocked and
his fist clenched. There's no description of how angry he
felt, or of consciously getting ready to punch, his first is
just there, and you realize there's something to him you'd
never have guessed before. As in Starr's other two books it's
a pretty swift descent into hell, and each step along the way
I was cringing. Moss's evil hurts practically everyone he
meets.
Starr's next book, HARD FEELINGS, will be out from Black
Lizard in January, and on his web site he says they'll do
another within a year after. I've said it before, and so have
others, but if you haven't read anything by him, check him
out. You'll like him. NOTHING PERSONAL and FAKE I.D. are his
two other books.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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