{"id":215,"date":"2012-01-02T19:39:21","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T01:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=215"},"modified":"2012-01-02T19:39:21","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T01:39:21","slug":"marcus-sakey-the-two-deaths-of-daniel-hayes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/marcus-sakey-the-two-deaths-of-daniel-hayes\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Sakey: The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Marcus Sakey\u2019s strengths as a writer are many, and all are on display here. This may be the strongest entry yet from this gifted suspense writer (though I still have a real soft spot for At the City\u2019s Edge<\/em>). His ability to set a hook is first up. In this book, the main character finds himself almost drowned on a Maine beach, freezing, alone, and without his memory. Luckily he climbs into a nearby BMW, cranks it up to get warm, finds some clothes that seem to fit, and he takes it from there.<\/p>\n

Much like Anne Perry\u2019s great creation, William Monk, who has amnesia but whose memory comes back only in flashes, Daniel Hayes is in the same boat, though the memories that return to him are far more pleasant than Monk\u2019s. For the most part, anyway. Perry\u2019s Monk is a policeman, and it\u2019s his skills as a detective that help pull him through life. Sakey\u2019s Hayes turns out to be a writer, and the author brilliantly uses this skill to help his character figure out what to do next. There\u2019s nothing better than when an author uses the character\u2019s actual strengths in a believable way.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure this was a tricky book to write, but Sakey sure makes it look easy. He frequently shifts points of view, and the memories that come back to Daniel are frustratingly close \u2013 both for him, and for the reader. It makes for a real mind bender of a read. As a reader you\u2019re trying to evaluate the people and situations he encounters with only the information given to Daniel himself.<\/p>\n

As Daniel finds money in the BMW he decides it must be his, and he checks into a motel, but eventually he\u2019s somehow drawn back across the country. He ends up in Los Angeles, which feels like home to him. Unfortunately when he gets home it also becomes apparent that he was married, but that his wife is dead, and he is suspected of killing her. His wife had been a fairly well known television star, so her death is receiving a lot of scrutiny.<\/p>\n

It would be almost criminal to give away much more of this clever plot, because you really should discover the twists and turns for yourself as you read. But it\u2019s not giving anything away to say that Daniel is one of Sakey\u2019s better characters. He\u2019s well drawn and believable, and the emotional depth the author is able to give him makes the book a very moving one.<\/p>\n

Like many top notch suspense writers, Sakey is never afraid to kill off a character, even a sympathetic one. This is harder to do than killing someone unpleasant, and some authors just won\u2019t do it. The ones that are able to do this seem to have a real clarity of vision, painful as their stories sometimes are.<\/p>\n

Sakey\u2019s strengths \u2013 the hook, the cool main character, and the narrative that just won\u2019t stop being a surprise \u2013 are matched by his prose. Again, he makes it seem effortless, but it\u2019s the best kind of clean, muscular American prose that not every suspense writer is capable of. It certainly sets him apart.<\/p>\n

The thoughtfulness he brings to the explication of memory, desire, love and loyalty that he brings to the story as a real part of Daniel\u2019s quest only add to its depth. As one of Daniel\u2019s friends tells him, \u201clife is a raindrop.\u201d Like this book, it seems like a simple aphorism, but is also endlessly complex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marcus Sakey\u2019s strengths as a writer are many, and all are on display here. This may be the strongest entry yet from this gifted suspense writer (though I still have a real soft spot for At the City\u2019s Edge). His ability to set a hook is first up. In this book, the main character finds … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-suspensethriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions\/217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}