Book Review: Flinch

Reviewed By: Donna M - RAM

Flinch     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Robert Ferrigno
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Jimmy Gage # 1
...

Jimmy Gage, investigative reporter and film critic for the tabloid 'SLAP', receives correspondence from someone calling himself 'The Eggman' and claiming to be responsible for six seemingly unrelated deaths. Jimmy’s assertions to the police that a serial killer is on the loose are disbelieved and he becomes a figure of mockery. So he packs his bags and heads off to Europe without telling anyone. He returns a year later to discover that his girlfriend has married his brother and, not surprisingly, he's lost his job and his apartment. And, to make things worse, after all this time, polaroids of the Eggman’s victims turn up in the strangest of places - Jimmy’s successful and respected plastic surgeon brother’s beach house. This is a book about a creepy serial killer - but it's also much more than that. It's about people playing games with each other. Flinch lifts the glitzy, glamorous lid off LA and exposes the sleazy subcultures that exist underneath the facade. The LA of Flinch is peopled with pumped-up wrestlers, vicious thugs, junkies, people on the edges of society. None of the characters are all good or all bad, and they all have an edge. There's a lot of humour and, at the beginning it feels quite a light, sunny book but the plot, and the humour, get blacker and more warped. By the end my carefree smile had turned into a nervous grin. An excellent book, one which dragged me in, and refused to spit me back out.

Donna M - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Donna M - RAM