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It's hard to believe that DECEIT is only James Siegel's fourth work of fiction. He is perhaps best known for DERAILED, a memorable novel adapted into a film that was, for various reasons, somewhat less than the sum of its parts. His other works to date --- DETOUR and EPITAPH --- are equally unforgettable. The common thread running through Siegel's work is his ability to craft a seemingly unsolvable puzzle or incomprehensible conundrum and then fashioning a solution or explanation. The sticky wickets that Siegel fashions are so interesting that the reader is in a forgiving mood if the ultimate explanation doesn't possess a level of plausibility equal to that of the puzzle. That's okay; it's fiction, and more often than not audiences want to be entertained.
DECEIT puts his methodology to the test, with somewhat mixed results. Tom Valle is a former star reporter who built his career on sand, fabricating dozens of stories before being caught and reduced to a pariah. Through a somewhat unlikely connection, Valle lands a job at a small, usually daily newspaper in Littleton, California, where he is relegated to covering human interest stories and writing local color pieces. When a head-on collision occurs, however, Valle's life is slowly turned upside down. The automobile accident results in a fatality; what should be a simple if tragic event leads Valle into what may be the case of his career. He soon finds himself alone in an investigation of which neither the police nor his newspaper have much interest.
Siegel does a competent job of setting things up and then unloading a quiet but forceful revelatory wallop on Valle and the reader approximately midway through the book. Valle slowly comes to realize that he's being led, by persons unknown, to a conspiracy of secrets that has been hidden for decades, even as he's pursued and threatened off of his investigation by others.
DECEIT is not Siegel's best work --- that novel has yet to be written but surely will be --- though it contains all of the stellar elements that have made his prior books memorable. The major problem here is Valle, who is largely an unlikable, unsympathetic character, even when his intentions are honorable. In addition to subverting his profession, Valle is a hypocrite: he ridicules a local gun dealer, even as he purchases a revolver from the man in order to defend himself against pursuers. He also somehow retains the temerity to equate his situation with that of the ill-fated "60 Minutes" National Guard story. There are similarities --- the inverted pyramid is not a good model for investigative reporting --- but none of which Valle would care to be reminded.
What ultimately saves DECEIT is Siegel's writing style, which carries the reader along on a journey that is at times breathtaking and always entertaining, even if the final destination doesn't match the trip and one of the traveling companions is less than desirable.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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