TRIGGER CITY. By Sean Chercover. William Morrow. 295 pages. $23.95.
Hooked by his prose by Page 2 and mesmerized by his cadence by Page 12, I had to look again at the author's name on the cover of this book -- wondering why I'd never heard of him. And I'm here to tell you, Sean Chercover is a name I will not soon forget.
As this novel begins, Joan Richmond is gunned down by a co-worker in the foyer of her condo. Her killer then goes home, sits down and blows his brains all over the wall, leaving his wife, daughter and everyone else to ponder his motive.
Ray Dudgeon is a Chicago P.I. with a big heart -- and an attitude. In the process of making a come-back from events thrust upon him in Chercover's award-winning first novel, Big City, Bad Blood, Dudgeon's subsequent post-traumatic stress has him battling flashbacks and nightmares "triggered" by his mere presence in Chicago, even as he washes down Percocets with booze and beer to combat the chronic pain resulting from a torture session with some bad cops. The timely infusion of cash offered by a retired military man to "bring me the truth about Joan's death" is just what Dudgeon needs to keep his business afloat. What he does not need is a new and improved way of getting himself killed, along with everyone in his life whom he holds dear. Too bad, Dudgeon, because Chercover, a former P.I. himself, is one relentless author, and he knows the best stories are about good people in dire straits. And dire are yours, buddy. Dire, indeed.
As the story develops, Dudgeon begins to suspect that the murder-suicide is related to the victim's former employer, a military contractor. His hunch is reinforced by further events and a threat on his life -- but his moral temperament will not allow him to put his safety above his determination to save another innocent victim.
Trigger City is no-holds-barred, hard-boiled crime fiction at its best. Chercover's gritty realism, which he uses to portray Ray Dudgeon's world, is set in stark contrast to Dudgeon's cocky, almost flippant manner in handling government thugs, mercenaries and anyone else who gets in his way. Chercover even periodically dances along the fringes of noir with passages such as:
The sky was a solid sheet of gunmetal gray right down to the horizon and had been making ominous threats of rain since morning. In the small front lawn, a FOR SALE sign swayed back and forth with the wind. The grass was brown in patches and needed cutting and the flowerboxes displayed dying dwarf dahlias in differing degrees of decay. Put all that together with the knowledge that a man shot himself inside this house, leaving his wife and daughter behind … easy to conjure a feeling of sadness without any vibrations from the spirit world.
And if Dudgeon doesn't have enough to deal with in the anguish department, he learns that Jill, who left him because she couldn't bear loving a man who would likely die as of result of his profession, is dating another man. As Dudgeon's situation devolves from bad to worse in his struggle against various factions of the worldwide military-industrial complex, he periodically receives updates about Jill's new relationship. His time for winning her back is running out.
No doubt, in describing this book, many critics will crank out clichés such as "riveting" -- despite the fact that they couldn't tell a rivet from a Tapcon, but I'll simply tell you that I read this book in two sittings. Two. I was able to stop only once after I began. So if you're looking for some light reading to see you through a week or two of evenings, don't buy this book; it's fast, it's intricate, and most of all, it's highly entertaining.
■ Steven Beach is a writer who lives in Lawsonville.
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