Something for Nothing

Starred review from February 7, 2011
It's 1974, gas is scarce, and Martin Anderson's cushy life is taking a serious nosedive in Anthony's clever and surprisingly heartfelt debut. Living in the wealthy Oakland, Calif., suburb of Walnut Station with his family, Martin owns a small airplane dealership that, before the economic slump, was booming, and Martin spent accordingly: cabin in Tahoe, nice cars, swimming pool, and, most importantly, his racehorses. But now he's in serious debt—until Val Desmond, Martin's horse trainer, comes to him with a proposition. Val knows men who are eager to transport large quantities of heroin into the U.S. from Mexico. Enter Martin and his piloting expertise. Soon he's flying to Ensenada whenever Val gives him the signal. Of course, nothing goes smoothly and soon there's a narcotics detective sniffing around—supposedly about an unrelated case—not to mention a gruesome double murder and Martin's deteriorating relationship with his wife, Linda. The parallels Anthony draws between the 1974 economic crisis and our own are successful precisely because they're not overt, just like his depiction of Martin as an antihero succeeds because his ridiculous antics are laced with a yearning to belong that's so intense it borders on deranged innocence, rendering him the most lovable drug smuggler in ages.

June 1, 2011

In Anthony's debut, a high-living 1970s aircraft salesman tries to clear his mounting debts by piloting heroin into California from Mexico.

The oil embargo of 1973-74 is especially devastating for Martin Anderson, bon vivant. Emboldened by profits, he's moved his family into an expensive Bay Area suburb and acquired expensive hobbies and baubles: cabin cruiser, racehorse, cabin in Tahoe, big Cadillac. Now he's not only overstretched financially, but his family life is souring, too. His junior-high daughter has been experimenting with pot; his 9-year-old son is sending baffling, aggressive typed notes to classmates: "JESUS HATES YOU." Martin is mired in ever deeper debt, and when his horse trainer, Val, offers a chance to have $40,000 forgiven and earn $5,000 a trip by making night flights as an amateur smuggler, he jumps. As anyone who's ever seen a '70s detective show or read the scores of similar novels knows, this is a Doomed Idea, drug-dealing thugs being what they are. Things quickly devolve. A narcotics detective starts snooping around, enlisting Martin's aid in a supposedly unrelated case; then Martin accidentally estranges himself from his wife, and she takes off with the kids (the half that's NOT an accident has less to do with Martin's needs than with the plot's; it won't do to have Martin's innocent family around when the mayhem begins). Soon thereafter, Val and his wife are brutally murdered, Martin finds himself with a big cache of drug money and we're set up for a bloody denouement. Where this book exceeds the expectations of its formula is in the finesse and wit with which Anthony handles both the setting and the swaggering, self-absorbed but often likable protagonist—he captures the ethos of the '70s and the soul of sad-sack Martin admirably, and the links to our own time are compelling. But the plot seems contrived and familiar.

Not nothing, but it could have really been something.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

March 1, 2011
Martin Anderson is in big trouble. The oil crisis of 1974 has dried up sales of small planes at Anderson Aircrafts, preventing him from keeping up payments on the big house in the Northern California suburbs with a pool in the backyard and a Caddy in the garage, deep-sea-fishing boat, cabin at Lake Tahoe, racehorse, and gambling debts. Rather than sell his company, he opts for the remedy offered by his horse trainer (to whom he also owes big bucks) and starts flying shipments of heroin in from Mexico. Meanwhile, his lust for his neighbors beautiful wife has him doing stupid things. Then Lieutenant Jim Slater, a risk-taking narco cop now working the burbs, starts turning up. A nebbishy dreamer whose fantasies often turn into outright lies, Martin stumbles along, seemingly able to take action that is decisive, even inspired, only when threatened with extreme danger. Anthonys first novel takes time to gain momentum, then speeds to an adrenaline-charged climax in a conflict fueled by greed. Provocative, genre-spanning fiction by an author to watch.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)