The Singer's Gun
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3.8 • 13 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From the award-winning, bestselling author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility, “a gripping story, full of moral ambiguities, where deception and betrayal become the norm, and where the expression ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma’ is lifted to new heights” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch).
Everyone Anton Waker grew up with is corrupt. His parents dealt in stolen goods, and he was a successful purveyor of forged documents until he abandoned it all in his early twenties, determined to live a normal life, complete with career, apartment, and a fiancée who knows nothing of his criminal beginnings. He’s on the verge of finally getting married when Aria—his cousin and former partner in crime—blackmails him into helping her with one last job.
Anton considers the task a small price for future freedom. But as he sets off for an Italian honeymoon, it soon becomes clear that the ghosts of his past can't be left behind so easily, and that the task Aria requires will cost him more than he could ever imagine.
Look for Emily St. John Mandel’s bestselling new novel, Sea of Tranquility!
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Set after 9/11, Emily St. John Mandel’s sophomore novel is a satisfying, shrewd noir throwback. Anton Waker is a con man from a family of crooks—which makes it very difficult when he wants to quit his life of crime. After his twice-called-off marriage fizzles during the Greek honeymoon, Anton is cajoled by his cousin into one final score, and you know how those usually turn out, right? Mandel’s crisp writing style cuts right to the bone of every interaction and conversation. With its slow-burn pacing and zigzag timeline, The Singer’s Gun is the kind of novel that keeps you turning pages late into the night.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mandel (Last Night in Montreal) attempts a globe-spanning crime novel, but the clunky, lukewarm result will please neither thriller aficionados nor more literary-minded readers. Anton Waker, a Manhattan water systems consultant, finds that his world is slowly imploding as his shadowy past as a document forger comes back to haunt him. Compounding his troubles is his alluring and Machiavellian cousin, Aria Waker, who is conspiring to reel him back in for one last big score. All the while, hard-nosed State Department G-woman Alexandra Broden is closing in on the forgery ring. Along the way the narrative travels from New York to Canada to Italy Anton must also come to grips with his crumbling marriage and an office romance. While Mandel's prose is brisk, the narrative reads like a slightly dressed-up B-movie screenplay flat, stocked with one-dimensional characters, and relying on awkward flashbacks to explain away character motivations. But the biggest problem is the narrative's blandness: the sex isn't sexy and the violence isn't especially violent.
