Criminal Paradise

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.

December 15, 2007
Rob Rivers grew up in St. Louis, and his pedigree is lower-middle-class drug culture. But after a stint in jail, he ditched drugs and became a hardworking professional thief in sunny, affluent Orange County, California. As Criminal Paradise opens, Rob and fellow Missourian Switch are robbing a restaurant at closing time with drawn guns. In addition to a nice payday, Rob acquires a photo of a frightened young Asian girl, and the image causes him to break a professional rule; he immediately begins planning a break-in of the restaurant owners home. The break-in frees the Asian girl, who is being used as a sex slave and is soon to be sold, but it also makes the psychotic restaurateur and his minions Robs mortal enemies. First-novelist Thomas combines moments of genuine writerly grace withan attractively seedylocale and a number of memorably creepy characters. But the story suffers from holes in the plot that must be explained in a clumsy final epilogue. Still, many crime fans will enjoy this one; heres hoping Rivers returns to the scene of another crime.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)