Official Review: Manhattan Affair by Jack Sussek

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[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "MANHATTAN AFFAIR" by Jack Sussek.]

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Jared “Jed” Chase is in huge trouble – possibly even trouble of epic proportions. All he did was try to help out a friend from his college days; now he’s a suspect in a double-murder. The source of his trouble is the lovely and mysterious Katherine Cahill, the newly-divorced wife of another former college chum-turned-successful Wall Street executive, and unrequited love interest. With his romantic rival out of the way, Jared is eager for a chance to win Katherine’s love and happy to be taken into her confidence. But Katherine, for all of her beauty, wealth and sophistication, hides dark secrets. As their relationship grows more intimate, each secret she reveals only uncovers more secrets, until the hapless Jared is sucked into a vortex of deceit and betrayal he may never get out of.

At first glance you might think you’ve heard this one before: You may be thinking Body Heat or The Postman Always Rings Twice, and you would be partly right – but partly wrong – oh, so wrong.

One very minor problem I had with the book is that some characters tended to “slip out of character” at times. Jared is supposedly thirty-something but when he injects social commentary lamenting the “good old days” he sounds like a much older guy. Also his reporter buddy Mickey Thompson is described as “…an aging yuppie, a product of boarding school, and an old school preppie.” But he sounds strongly blue collar/working class.

The main problem I had with this story is that the protagonists are not the least bit likeable or sympathetic and seem to be seriously lacking in any form of a conscience. That made it hard for me to care too much what happened to them. My first impression of Katherine was, “Gold-digger” and each new revelation about her only left me thinking, “Yep, gold-digger.”

Jared didn’t win any sympathy from me because he was too much of a sap. Okay, Katherine is supposedly mind-boggling beautiful and the opening chapters emphasize that Jared is head-over-heels about her. But before the ink has dried on her divorce decree she enlists Jared’s aid in a plot that would knock the rose-colored glasses off of any rational person. It takes the barest minimum of persuasion to get Jared onboard. Katherine never threatens or harasses him. The two haven’t become physically intimate yet. The only “seduction” she applies is a quick tongue darted in the ear and an occasional squeeze on the kneecap. Like I said, what a sap.

In a later revelation she portrays her husband as a monster and herself as a victim of sexual exploitation in order to gain Jared’s sympathy. However, she appeared to be all too willing to be exploited. Why? For money of course. And this sad story is told while she’s still living in her ex’s cushy Park Avenue apartment (until she can find her own place) drinking very expensive champagne with her new lover.

And if nothing else should give Jared pause – should scare the socks off of him, actually - it turns out that Katherine has an unnatural affection for guns. But then it occurred to me that this guy has been drinking non-stop throughout the first half of the story so maybe that better explains his astonishing lack of judgment.

In the second half of the story the author goes all Tom Clancy and takes a grave situation (a murder plot) and kicks it up ten or twelve notches; I honestly did not see that coming. Suddenly there were so many plot twists and turns I had to throw up my hands unsure what to believe or who the good guys or bad guys were.

Although I never warmed up to Katherine, she is the strength of this story. I thought it was very clever how the more intimate she becomes with Jared and the more she reveals about herself, the less you feel you know her. Once the plot kicked into high gear, I wasn’t even sure if her name was Katherine.

Manhattan Affair could have benefitted from more sympathetic characters, but I’m giving it three out of four stars because of its element of surprise and level of complexity.

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[Kappy]

Excellent review. A novel with unlikeable protagonists is seriously flawed. I'm surprised the book got three stars.

[trabernathy29]

I just finished reading Manhattan Affair yesterday. I must say that I did enjoy this book. It wasn't a big romance novel as I thought. Although it has some romance it was more mystery and suspense. I found that the whole plot was interesting and that the author had to have served time in the military, the secret service, FBI or police force. If he didn't he really did well conducting his research on certain items to make the story line flow and make sense to readers.

The main character was just an ordinary guy who turned out to be very gullible when it came to women. If there is a sequel made to this book, it is my hope that he learns from his mistakes and is more alert to the people around him. This is one of those books that would be good as a movie. I really enjoyed reading this book and will look up this author for other titles. Jack Sussek could be a potential new favorite author.

[bookowlie]

Great review! I almost picked this book to read/review recently, so it's particularly interesting to read your perspective.

[Peterhchurch]

Excellent review, after reading your review i don't really want to read the book, but i really enjoyed reading the review is the review was written really well.