Criminal Paradise

CRIMINAL PARADISE starts off sounding like an unusual story about the workings of a small-time criminal's brain. Soon we realize that Robert Rivers may be a thief, but he's also a pretty good guy, a hero. Patrick Lawlor sounds a little young for the 40-something lead character, but he's suitably menacing as the real villain and totally convincing as the "hero's" two henchmen. Lawlor does justice to Thomas's story of conscience and crime, lending a solid storytelling style to a disturbing tale. In a case of a semi-bad guy versus a really, REALLY bad guy--guess who wins. This is one of those books for which a happy ending seems impossible, but the author pulls it off. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

December 3, 2007
This California noir, Thomas's first novel, fails to deliver on its promising opening. When smalltime crook Robert Rivers and his partner, Switch, rob the Cow Town, a restaurant owned by Orange County entrepreneur Lewis McFadden, they discover more than a lot of cash in the safe. A photograph of a naked Vietnamese girl who looks like an underage teenager suggests McFadden is into the flesh trade. While Switch is out of town, Rivers and his biker friend Reggie England break into McFadden's house, where they find the Vietnamese girl, Song, tied to a bed. After they bring Song back to Switch's place, England rapes her while Rivers is gone. Soon afterward, Rivers has sex with Song, who's actually 19, that might or might not be consensual. These scenes not only undermine sympathy for Rivers, they also conflict with the subtlety of earlier chapters. From then on—through Song's recapture by McFadden, a sex slave auction and an unconvincing final chapter involving the revelations of Rivers's landlady—overblown sex and violence hijack the plot. 5-city author tour.