Lights Out

Being a woman who has no interest in competitive sports, I thought I might have less enthusiasm for this Starr novel that centers around a baseball figure, but that is not the case. I ate it like candy. The twisted personalities and dark humor pull you in tight, and the world of the sports star is gripping. My addiction for Starr novels continues.

Within a relatively short time, Jason Starr has become a supernova among thriller literary lights, penning dark, gritty novels on his own such as TWISTED CITY and collaborating with the equally brilliant Ken Bruen on BUST. But LIGHTS OUT, Starr's latest novel, is not so much a thriller as it is a dark, brooding character study that falls somewhere between THE WANDERERS by Richard Price and Dennis Lehane's MYSTIC RIVER. Starr's narrative in LIGHTS OUT possesses an immediacy that simultaneously unsettles and propels. Reading the book is like walking aimlessly and slightly inebriated through a strange city with the only certain knowledge being that each step takes you further away from your hotel and closer to hostile territory. You trust your guardian angel to protect you, even as you know it has flown the coop long ago. So too in LIGHTS OUT; almost from the first pages when we meet the romantic triangle of Ryan Rossetti, Jake Thomas and Christina Mercado, it is obvious that things are going to end badly, despite the good if misguided intentions of some. Jake is the conquering hero of the novel, the local boy who breaks out of the lower working class Brooklyn neighborhood to become a baseball superstar. LIGHTS OUT begins with Jake's triumphant return to his old Brooklyn neighborhood for a weekend visit, one that he is making more out of a sense of duty than desire. Jake enjoys the trappings of his life --- the limos, the money, the fame, and most of all, the women --- but he only reluctantly fulfills his obligations to his fans, without whom none of the benefits would be happening. Christina, Jake's erstwhile fiancée, is waiting, but she has some news for him, an announcement she is hesitant to give even as she welcomes the opportunity. In Jake's absence Christina has become involved with Ryan, perhaps the most complex character in the book. Ryan and Jake grew up together and played on the same high school baseball team. More competitors than friends, superstardom was predicted for both. However, their lives took divergent paths; while Jake went on to glory, Ryan labors in the old neighborhood as a housepainter in sullen resentment over what has happened. Ryan and Jake are badly flawed, in different ways, and they are headed for a collision on the fateful Brooklyn weekend when Jake comes home. Ryan thinks that Christine is going to break things off with him, but he is planning to set a wedding date with Christine --- not out of love, but as a career move. Christine, caught between Jake's manipulation and Ryan's roiling resentment and possessiveness, is a lit match about to be applied to a loaded powder keg. Starr paints his scenes and characters in vivid, startling colors, as he methodically lays out a scenario that is almost certain to end badly for all. LIGHTS OUT in many ways is Starr's finest work to date, one that should give him the broader audience and recognition he has deserved from the time he first set pen to paper. Highly recommend

Lights Out is both similar and different to Mr. Starr's previous works. While his previous works have been shorter in length and smaller in focus, some common elements run through each - a setting in Brooklyn, flawed characters generally unhappy with their place in life, those characters making poor decisions, and mayhem. Oh is there ever mayhem. Lights Out is a departure in that there are more characters, more relationships, more backstory etc. The characters are richer, and it stretchs across several neighborhoods and their denizens. However, despite it's wider scope, it takes place in about a forty-eight hour period start to finish, and is fairly even paced with action. When there is no action occurring, you can be confident it is around the corner. It is also rich with unhappy people making poor choices, and the inevitable mayhem that ensues. I would recommend this or any books by Mr. Starr, they're fun, fast, enjoyable and memorable. Once you start one, it's difficult to put down.

This novel is Jason's best novel yet. It's also a bit more complex with alternating and slightly overlapping perspectives that he manages seamlessly. The reader gets multiple perspectives on the same scene. The core of the story is about two guys involved with the same girl and the different approaches to the relationship. Long-time Starr readers will still find all the same elements they love about his novels--the mean streets of Brooklyn, the unsympathetic characters whose lives are spiraling out of control. If you've never read one of his books, this would be a good place to start.

Ryan Rossetti and Jake Thomas made Canarsie High School's baseball team nationally ranked; they were both sure shot major leaguers. Jake reached the big leagues where he stars for the Pirates having just completed an all star season hitting 351. However, Ryan saw his pitching career snap to a sudden halt when he tore a ligament. Whereas Jake is making the big bucks in Pittsburgh, Ryan paints houses back home in Brooklyn for less than a living wage. Now the superstar is coming back to Canarsie to celebrate his great success and to change his image from an out of control hedonist to a caring give something back to the community person. His agent warns Jake to behave because he will most likely face a statutory-rape arrest that could end his chances of obtaining the big endorsements. Thus Jake returns to Brooklyn as a hero, but also to ask his high school sweetheart, Christina Mercado, whose surname he cannot remember, to marry him. Christina realizes she is candy to sweeten Jake's image and is seeing Ryan. At the same time the triangle plays out in New York City, other locals have grudges with one another that will violently disrupt Jake's triumphant return to the place where his glory started. From the start readers anticipate tempers overflowing as jealousy, anger, and resentment explode and not just with the baseball players. The story line is action-packed from the moment that readers understand the paths taken by the two former Canarsie superstars and never slows down until the final violent walk off homer. Readers who appreciate a powerfully character driven urban noir will enjoy the aptly named Jason Starr's grand slam thriller. Harriet Klausner