Hot Plastic

Starred review from January 19, 2004
Craig's first novel, The Martini Shot
, was a satirical look at a son's attempt to connect with his aging, alcoholic, Hollywood movie star father. This time Craig aims higher, or perhaps lower, with another son's tale. Kevin Swift, 14, is on the lam with his con-man father as they scam their way across a credulous American countryside. It's 1983, a year of seedy motel rooms, fake credit cards and stolen cars as Kevin dodges cops and learns the tricks of the trade with his peripatetic parent, the charismatic Jerry ("He could smile through any lie, and hold court on cars, women, boxing, cockfights, cops and dirty jokes with any combination of armed and angry men"). When his son falls ill, Jerry hires wayward, amoral teen Colette, barely older than Kevin, to baby-sit while he's out working his con. When Jerry and Kevin are forced to leave town suddenly, Colette elects to join their criminal carnival. The trio evolves into an excellent team, each member with his or her own larcenous specialty. Jerry becomes Colette's lover and instructor in the intricacies of crime. Kevin, though, has fallen in love with Colette, and when she abandons them the young man is bereft. Then Jerry is arrested, and several years pass before circumstances draw them all back together for the inevitable last big score. Novels featuring quirky characters on the grift have always had a certain knavish noir appeal, and this is a fascinating, funny, beautifully written addition to the genre. Readers will find themselves drawn into the intriguing lives of this delinquent outlaw family as they form and reform alliances and journey along their crooked path toward a surprising finish. (Mar. 3)

Forecast
: Craig should build a following with this second novel, which will do well as mainstream or mystery.

March 1, 2004
The theory that the family that scams together stays together is tested in Craig's second novel (after The Martini Shot). Jerry Swift has taught his obsessive-compulsive son, Kevin, everything he has learned from a "lifetime of firm handshakes and phony smiles." Since his career has not been completely successful, he sometimes wonders if that's enough. Enter the women. Jerry takes up with Colette only to have her transfer her allegiance-and love-to Kevin. Then when Jerry (under an assumed name, natch) meets and weds Melody, it's an open question whether this dysfunctional family can survive its Oedipal rivalries amid the alien world of credit-card scamming. If Jim Thompson had attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the result might read something like this. Coming with fulsome praise from the likes of Tony Hillerman and T. Jefferson Parker, Craig, the son of actress Sally Field, distinguishes himself not with his originality (this title begs comparison with Eric Garcia's Matchstick Men) but by limning this criminal family in rock-solid prose. For larger public libraries.-Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2004
Short-con master Jerry Swift specializes in credit-card scams. He spirits his teenage son, Kevin, onto the road in the early 1980s and teaches him the secrets of identity theft as if they were his birthright. Even though Jerry isn't the warmest father and Kevin is developing obsessive-compulsive tendencies, they're an easy-rolling team--until a pretty grifter cozies in between them. Colette is too old for Kevin and too young for Jerry, but that doesn't stop Dad from pulling her into his room every night as his son stews one thin wall away. Inevitable double crosses ensue, but Craig manages to make us care what happens to these crooks, whether they're shacking up with moralizing cokeheads or running sweetheart cons in Italy. Sections kick off with flash-forward snippets of a big job gone wrong, and the only complaint is that these scenes promise more fireworks and betrayal than the climax delivers. But this is still a stylish romp, with characters witty enough to pick Scheherazade over Anna Karenina as a role model and smart enough to avoid most oncoming trains.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)