Kiss Her Goodbye
I'm Kim Alexander and this is Fiction Nation. The book this week is Kiss Her Goobye by Robert Gregory Browne.
I hate surprises. I always have. I don't get filled with the thrill of anticipation when I think something is about to happen, and I don't love an unopened package. (It might be ticking.) (In light of the holiday season, no, I am not phobic of Christmas or Chanukah presents, although the gift envelope containing what turned out to be a 6 month gym membership from my ex-husband was pretty passive-aggressively terrifying.)
Maybe it's the sudden adrenaline jolt — hey, I never said I wasn't delicate. If someone threw me surprise party I think they'd have to rush me to the hospital. I'm not even a control freak, so I'm not sure why a surprise makes me feel a little queasy. I might blame a lack of imagination — I can't picture a good outcome. I will make a major exception, and that is for a book. Now, even there I have my limits — when I sit down to a romance novel I want a payoff in tears — joy or tragedy, as long as they're on tap, and I want my serial killers deranged. (Writers, please take note and blame someone other than the bad mommy. Just think about it.)
On the other hand, I don't mind if the book I'm reading surprises me with plot twists, even big ones. Even plot twists that warp the genre out of shape, as long as the whole thing winds up making sense. That was exactly the case with Robert Gregory Browne's debut novel, the thriller Kiss Her Goodbye. I had been making my way through a couple of deranged killer books (and its funny how I get books in flocks — right now its Spanish history) and I had settled in for another. All the elements were in place — the decent FBI agent with a troubled past, the bad guy with hidden motives, the innocent victim placed in danger, and then suddenly — surprisingly — the whole book was stood on its end. The author takes our expectations and tosses them back at us, and takes the book in a completely different direction. With a blending of procedural drama and mysticism, the story of Agent Jack Donovan and his nemesis Alex Gunderson walks off the edge of the familiar turf of cop world and breaks on through to the Other Side. In this case a very nice and intriguing surprise!
Hear my interview with Robert Gregory Browne on Fiction Nation, on Take Five, XM 155 on Saturday December 22nd at 6pm, on Sunday December 23rd at 10:00am, and on Monday, December 24th at 3:00am, and on Sonic Theater, XM 163 on Thursday, December 27th at 3:00pm. All times EST.
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