The Wake Up by
Robert Ferrigno
pbk out January 05
(Hutchinson)
at £10.99
Frank Thorpe was once a government 'black ops' specialist. Now he's on permanent
vacation after an abortive operation against The Engineer, an ex-colleague gone
maverick, and which resulted in the death of Kimberley, a treasured female operative.
But Thorpe is a stand-up guy, and whilst kicking his heels at Los Angeles airport, he
clocks a self-important suited type violently brushing aside a ten year-old Hispanic
trader attempting to sell some of his meagre confectionery. Judging the suit a worthy
recipient of the kind of 'wake up' calls that were his speciality whilst employed,
Thorpe innocently and idealistically sets in motion a plan which will have drastic and
unexpected consequences - and another shot at The Engineer.
If you've read Ferrigno before, you won't need further persuasion. But if not, The
Wake Up is a good place to start. All of the skills of his brilliant debut The Horse
Latitudes (1990) or of 2003's scintillating Scavenger Hunt - multi-faceted characters,
sharp observation, great plotting, a questioning intelligence - are once again evident,
but never tighter or leaner.
Watch as Thorpe tracks down the offending suit, an art dealer whose dealings are
tailored to "the client's own unique aesthetic profile." And prepare to meet such as
social climber Missy Riddenhauer, brother to the dim-witted but ambitious Cecil, wife
to Clark, ex-surfer, laid-back local T-shirt manufacturer and designer drug baron.
Take particular note of Missy's enforcers, the stolid Arturo and the child-like Vlad,
perhaps Ferrigno's best-ever sympathetic psycho. And if all this casual amorality is
too much for you, note too how Thorpe's burgeoning relationship with Claire, his
apartment complex neighbour, lightly but evocatively written, lends just the right
touch of humanity to the story. Not to mention a cleverly constructed plot that will not
only send you to your nearest DVD store to find a copy of Shockwaves, Ken
Wiederhorn's 1977 Nazi zombie masterpiece, but leaves you with a troubling
question. What happens when the stand-up guys run out?
A kick-ass tale of redemption and revenge from one of crime fiction's contemporary
masters - and with not a few surprises as the book races to its conclusion. Ferrigno
- you need to check him out.
