The Fall Guy

Starred review from August 8, 2016
At the start of this terrific novel of suspense from Lasdun (Seven Lies), Matthew, an unemployed chef, and his cousin Charlie, a successful Wall Streeter, drive from New York City to Charlie’s vacation house in the Catskills. Charlie has invited Matthew, who’s almost like a brother, to spend the summer with him and his wife, Chloe. Matthew believes that the summer will be restorative, but the pastoral retreat is anything but as the gap in social status between him and Charlie becomes more pronounced. The tension rises when Matthew, essentially a private chef for the couple, begins to suspect Chloe of infidelity. The verboten topics of class and money hover over this literate tale of love, jealousy, and revenge. As one character notes, money is “inextricably linked to the one source of guilt and shame... the sense that you’ve stolen another person’s labor.” An undercurrent of menace and threat finally erupts, and Lasdun presents the inexorable turnings of fate in a subtle and disconcerting way. Agent: Irene Skolnick, Irene Skolnick Literary Agency.

Buried resentments and obsessive attractions drive three vacationers way over the edge.When Matthew was a boy in London, his American cousin, Charlie, was sent to live with his family, and they became "brothers in all but name." But when Matthew's father was disgraced and he himself was expelled from high school for selling drugs, something went wrong between them which has never fully mended. But things are looking up in the summer of 2012, when Charlie invites Matthew to spend the summer with him and wife Chloe at their luxurious New York state vacation home. Since Matthew is down on his luck and could use the money he'd make subletting his Brooklyn apartment, and also since he is very, very fond of Chloe, he accepts. He moves into the guesthouse on the property and attempts to earn his keep by hunting down gourmet ingredients and preparing lavish four-star meals. Turns out Charlie is still a boring, self-righteous fat cat and Chloe is as delightful as ever; Matthew is self-aware enough to realize that the mystical kinship he feels with her is basically a fancy way of coveting his cousin's wife. But knowing that doesn't make it one iota less dangerous. Lasdun's (Give Me Everything You Have, 2014, etc.) controlled, devious storytelling style infuses every tick of the clock with tension. Nothing feels innocent, whether it's a summer afternoon ("The heat merged with the constant sounds of insects and red-winged blackbirds to form its own throbbing, hypnotic medium") or a pretentious entree ("a Catalan seafood dish that matches a firm white fish with a mixture of blood sausage and sea urchin roe, seasoned with chorizo"). Fava beans with a nice Chianti, anyone? A nasty piece of work, well done. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2016
Lasdun serves up another complex psychological thriller, this time set in the summer of 2012 in a Woodstock-like community in the Catskills. Despite the appearances of calm at a sumptuous mountaintop retreat, complete with sunken living room, central air, and swimming pool, as the weeks pass and the temperature rises, so do long-simmering resentments and desires. There are both outright deception and subtle self-delusion. Charlie, who has orchestrated a fateful trio, is a successful banker who seems to be holding himself together with Buddha breaths. The butterfly gardenplanting Chloe appears to be an ideal wife and mother. Troubled cousin Matthew is earning his keep in self-abnegating kitchen duty. When Wade, a film producer, evens out their number, one of them is murdered, in a scene that explodes amid a festive fireworks celebration. The reader must ultimately decide just who is the actual fall guy. A gripping, often unnerving page-turner perfect for fans of Thomas H. Cook, Ian McEwan, and Joyce Carol Oates.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2016

As evidenced by novels like Seven Lies, an Economist Book of the Year that was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and the multi-best-booked It's Beginning To Hurt: Stories, Lasdun is an acute and elegant observer of human behavior. Here he has lots to observe, with wealthy, conscientious banker Charlie inviting troubled cousin Matthew for a stay with him and his wife at their lovely mountain-top home. Issues of guilt and betrayal soon start to simmer, rising to a full boil as a fourth character arrives. Throughout, Lasdun investigates who's really to blame in the morally complex web he's woven. Comparisons range promisingly from Ian McEwan's Black Dogs to Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2016

Unemployed chef Matthew Dannecker has been invited to spend the summer with his wealthy cousin Charlie, a Wall Street banker, and his wife, Chloe, at their swanky vacation home in upstate New York. Figuring he'll take the opportunity to reorient his drifting life, Matthew spends his days rounding up delicacies (with his cousin's credit card) to cook for the household each evening, until he begins to suspect that Chloe is having an affair with a local vacationer. Torn between his familial loyalty to Charlie and his unaddressed feelings for Chloe, Matthew begins a covert espionage mission--including a centerpiece scene that is as heart-stopping as anything suspense fiction has produced this year--that will forever shatter any delusions of placidity among the three housemates. The author's taut, penetrating narration burrows deep into Matthew's increasingly cluttered mind, with the class divide between the cousins and a shared history as schoolmates that led to a decade-long fracture as backdrops. VERDICT Despite an abrupt resolution, Lasdun's latest (after a memoir, Give Me Everything You Have) is an intelligent, disquieting psychological thriller as potent as an end-of-summer hangover. Highly recommended [See Prepub Alert, 4/25/16.]--Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2016

Unemployed chef Matthew Dannecker has been invited to spend the summer with his wealthy cousin Charlie, a Wall Street banker, and his wife, Chloe, at their swanky vacation home in upstate New York. Figuring he'll take the opportunity to reorient his drifting life, Matthew spends his days rounding up delicacies (with his cousin's credit card) to cook for the household each evening, until he begins to suspect that Chloe is having an affair with a local vacationer. Torn between his familial loyalty to Charlie and his unaddressed feelings for Chloe, Matthew begins a covert espionage mission--including a centerpiece scene that is as heart-stopping as anything suspense fiction has produced this year--that will forever shatter any delusions of placidity among the three housemates. The author's taut, penetrating narration burrows deep into Matthew's increasingly cluttered mind, with the class divide between the cousins and a shared history as schoolmates that led to a decade-long fracture as backdrops. VERDICT Despite an abrupt resolution, Lasdun's latest (after a memoir, Give Me Everything You Have) is an intelligent, disquieting psychological thriller as potent as an end-of-summer hangover. Highly recommended [See Prepub Alert, 4/25/16.]--Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.