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Black Swan

Chris Knopf
The Permanent Press (2011)
ISBN 9781579622169
Reviewed by Enid Grabiner for RebeccasReads (6/11)

When Sam Acquillo and girlfriend Amanda Anselma with dog Eddie in tow, are in route to deliver friend and benefactor Burton Lewis his new boat, they are hit with a sudden violent and threatening storm.  Able to weather the rain and brutal winds, they find refuge on Fishers Island off the Long Island coast.  It is an old money, unwelcoming enclave but the proverbial “only port in a storm.”  Sidelined there, while awaiting replacement boat parts, they rent a slip from the owners of a small hotel called the Black Swan.  Christian Fey, newly retired software exec, his seductive daughter Annika, and autistic savant son Axel are trying to ready the newly purchased hotel for the season.

 A group of visitors, the board of Fey’s former company, comes to pay a visit at the apparent annoyance of Fey.  They seem to have questionable motives.  Apparently a gaming software program isn’t working and they need help to rework it.  When one of them is found hanging in a shower, part-time detective Sam is drawn into the case.  He suspects murder especially when a local policewoman is brutally beaten as well. Sidelined by weather and fascinated by the set of circumstances, he becomes involved in the intrigue of the high tech company.  The murder and apparent conspiracies are irresistible to Sam as he endures the storms of both weather and the insular community.

Sam is a cross between Hammett's Sam Spade and Coben’s Myron Bolitar.  Like the others he is physical but intelligent, hard driven but emotionally soft. He is personally a bit damaged having lost his career as an engineer, but as they say, “education is never lost!”  He is surrounded by a cast of eccentric characters and strange events, making this quite a fun, well-written, mystery to follow.

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