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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 recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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