Night Driver

Colby’s well-paced first novel takes the reader on a winding, exhilarating ride through late-1970s Los Angeles. Nick Cullen had a burgeoning career as a photographer, until he returned home one day to find his wife brutally beaten and dying, her three assailants standing over her, and was shot in the head. After his release from the hospital, Nick has only one desire: to find the men responsible for this horrific crime. Much more than a simple tale of revenge, the novel charts Nick’s recovery from the depression and guilt that cling to all trauma survivors. To make ends meet, he takes a job as a taxi driver, and a series of interactions with his clients—by turns poignant, sad, frightening, and illuminating—show him gradually regaining some semblance of a normal life. Meanwhile, drugged-out criminals, an L.A. drug boss, the corrupt cop on the boss’s payroll, and the LAPD detective overseeing the case each have their own agendas. All these threads converge in a richly satisfying resolution. (Jan.)