Strangers' Gate

by Tom Casey

“We create what we need from the wreckage of what we’ve lost,” Jason Walker says to a friend at a beach bar on the Caribbean island of St. Croix. Ex-businessman, pilot, poet, and adventurer, Walker has followed his bliss and tripped over his past. Her name is Charlotte Lansing. Her husband Alan is a vulture capitalist who keeps his wife on a short leash. With ties to money laundering, pornography and the drug trade, he marks them both for death. Jason and Charlotte are in a race for their lives. But no one can run forever…
On location in New York, Alaska, and on Caribbean Islands, Strangers’Gate is a lyrical novel of great accomplishment.

266 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 13, 2006

Reviews

[Robert Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's start off by saying this isn't really a noir thriller as it's advertised. It's noir in a way but there ain't nothing thrilling here.

I really liked the book. There were some truly ingenious incites and some titliating sequences that rise far above most of what I normally read. However, it felt, essentially, like two different books smashed together. At one moment the hero is an experienced and intelligent connosieur of liee seeking meaning in the everyday with the honesty and opneness of a dedicated scholar of the field. the next he's pulling the trigger on a couple of gunmen without any remorse. We're led to believe that this is because of his military background or some inner hardened self but it just don't jibe.

Also, all of the female characters are super-gonzo-godesses that are architypical in some way (as are most of the men). I felt like every character in the book save for the bad guy was vying for Most Interesting Person in the World.

Still, it makes for a very interesting read.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short book! Loved it from page 1 to page 254.