This Far, No Further
(1996) and Pretty Ballerina
(1998), Wessel's first two books about a Chicago ex-con named Harding, got a lot of attention for the lively writing and the nasty, kinky plot twists. In the author's latest, the writing is still sharp and quirky, but the level of horror and twisted sex seems to have given way to a definite aura of romantic nostalgia (albeit tinged in proper shades of noir). Harding, a closet academic and private detective who lost his license when he did a manslaughter stretch for some overzealous revenge, is an interesting if not totally original blend of brains and brawn (can you say Spenser?), and his relationship with Alison—a fellow University of Chicago grad who now runs a women's gym—has some of the distinctive edges of Dennis Lehane's dueling lovers. Adding to the familiarity is the rock music constantly echoing in the heads of the book's characters—including the title, quoted from an Eagles song when poet Charles Muller tosses Harding a couple of lines from Shelley as a taunt—which might remind readers of how much better it works for George Pelecanos. Even the plot—the murder of a young woman who lived, along with Alison and Muller, in a U.C. dorm called Grand Terrace ten years earlier—reads like something we've heard before. Wessel is a writer of considerable style and courage, but his imagination seems to need a recharging. Agent, Molly Friedrich at Aaron M. Priest. (Jan. 10)
Forecast:Supportive blurbs from Sue Grafton and George Pelecanos for this third novel suggest the publisher is making a big push, but fans may feel Wessel is too derivative here to rank with the big names in the field.
