A NEW NOIR MASTERPIECE BY THE AUTHOR OF THE CLASSIC 1953 BESTSELLER ANYONE’S MY NAME
Fifteen years ago, teenager Alan Benning jogged off a beach – and into a nightmare. Because what awaited him in the Cape Cod woods was an unspeakable temptation, a moment of panic, and a brutal memory that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Now a successful lawyer, Alan finds himself drawn back to the scene of the crime, desperate to learn the truth about what happened on that long-ago summer day. But even as he grapples with his own dark secrets, he finds himself hounded by a shadowy adversary – and by the forces of justice, drawing their net around him tighter by the day…
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Description:
A NEW NOIR MASTERPIECE BY THE AUTHOR OF THE CLASSIC 1953 BESTSELLER ANYONE’S MY NAME
Fifteen years ago, teenager Alan Benning jogged off a beach – and into a nightmare. Because what awaited him in the Cape Cod woods was an unspeakable temptation, a moment of panic, and a brutal memory that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Now a successful lawyer, Alan finds himself drawn back to the scene of the crime, desperate to learn the truth about what happened on that long-ago summer day. But even as he grapples with his own dark secrets, he finds himself hounded by a shadowy adversary – and by the forces of justice, drawing their net around him tighter by the day… **
From Publishers Weekly
This tepid entry into the Hard Case series of pulp crime novels details the tormented life of Alan Benning, as narrated by his cousin Colin, a true crime writer. For 15 years, Alan has kept a secret: a violent sexual outburst in which he may have killed a prepubescent girl in Cape Cod. Now a haunted 30-year-old Philadelphia lawyer, Alan finds relationships with women all but impossible. When he falls in love with a nurse, Anna Presiac, he's driven to discover the magnitude of his teenage crime, traveling back to Cape Cod to scour newspapers for the full details of his deed. The plot hinges on whether Alan will be caught by cold case Det. Mack McKinney, what Colin's role really is and how things wind up with Anna, but none of these strands prove very exciting. Eschewing the normal pleasures of the crime novel—suspense, mystery and intrigue—Shubin favors character study, but provides little character to care about: flashbacks are unremarkable, action is minimal and expository, and scenes from Alan's romance with Anna are perfunctory and overlong. Most crucial, the opening sets aside only a page and a half for young Alan's tragic encounter, robbing it of its credibility, much less the power to drive a novel about an emotionally crippling crime of passion. (Apr.)
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From Booklist
Pulp fiction is fond of forgetfulness. The two most frequent variants are "I didn't do it . . . did I?" (the protagonist is fairly sure he is innocent) and "I did it, didn't I?" (the protagonist mistakenly believes he is guilty). Wit ness to Myself, the publisher's latest paperback original, adds a third: "What did I do, exactly?" Successful lawyer Alan Benning has long worried about his temper and is haunted by the fear that, as a teenager, he may have killed a girl. His journey of discovery is complicated by the fact that he has just fallen in love--and someone may want to kill him. If this reads like the good old good stuff, it's partly because Shubin's been publishing since 1953 (his debut, Anyone's My Name, was a best-seller). But while the feel is somewhat '50s, the details are modern--there's not a speck of dust anywhere. Shubin starts slow but raises the stakes with such expert subtlety that sometimes we've read a whole chapter before we remember to breathe. A strong study of crime and character. Keir Graff
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