Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Oct 2016
256 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
In this taut psychological thriller, a couple and their houseguest find themselves caught in a deadly web of secrets, obsession, and revenge.
It is summer, 2012. Charlie, a wealthy banker with an uneasy conscience, invites his troubled cousin Matthew to visit him and his wife in their idyllic mountaintop house. As the days grow hotter, the friendship between the three begins to reveal its fault lines, and with the arrival of a fourth character, the household finds itself suddenly in the grip of uncontrollable passions. As readers of James Lasdun's acclaimed fiction can expect, The Fall Guy is a complex moral tale as well as a gripping suspense story, probing questions of guilt and betrayal with ruthless incisiveness. Who is the real victim here? Who is the perpetrator? And who, ultimately, is the fall guy? Darkly vivid, with an atmosphere of erotic danger, The Fall Guy is Lasdun's most entertaining novel yet.
"Starred Review. An undercurrent of menace and threat finally erupts, and Lasdun presents the inexorable turnings of fate in a subtle and disconcerting way. " - Publishers Weekly
"A nasty piece of work, well done." - Kirkus
"A gripping, often unnerving page-turner perfect for fans of Thomas H. Cook, Ian McEwan, and Joyce Carol Oates." - Booklist
"What a sinister and searching novel this is - and what a delight. James Lasdun is one of our great writers." - Joseph O'Neill, author of Netherland
"James Lasdun has written an elegantly suspenseful novel set in a brilliantly realized affluent upstate New York community not unlike Woodstock - his characters are achingly real, and the self-deceptions that drive them so insightfully depicted, we might almost mistake them for our own. Truly a 'page-turner' - propelled toward just the right ending." - Joyce Carol Oates, author of The Lost Landscape
"In The Fall Guy, James Lasdun brings the signature gifts to contemporary noir that he's displayed in other literary venues - wit, style, an attractive gravitas. And the tale itself is sharp, acute in its observations, and absorbing. It's a rich read." - Norman Rush, author of Subtle Bodies
This information about The Fall Guy was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
James Lasdun is the author of The Horned Man and Seven Lies, as well as six collections of poetry. He teaches creative writing at Columbia University and The New School and lives in upstate New York.
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