AT FIRST SIGHT: A Novel of Obsession
Stephen J. Cannell
Vanguard Press
Thriller
ISBN: 9781593154820

• Read an Excerpt

AT FIRST SIGHT is a radical departure for Stephen J. Cannell. It is neither a continuation of his Shane Scully series nor is it a return to the type of stand-alone novel he was writing early in his career. Rather, it is a “unique” book that, as he reports in his Acknowledgements, those involved in his career “beg[ged]” him not to write. The fact that Cannell chose to follow the impulse of his muse is our gain, as this is arguably his best work to date --- enthralling, engrossing, addicting.

Chick Best is a southern California dot.com millionaire whose life trajectory is quickly going south. He is married to Evelyn, a hellion who, at least from Chick’s viewpoint, is interested in little more than spending his money and bedding her personal trainer. Their 16-year-old daughter Melissa, in Chick’s words, has discovered more drugs than Dow Chemical and dates an outlaw biker. Actually, those are her more charming attributes; one expects Melissa’s head to start rotating on her shoulders at any moment.

But Chick is not the put-upon Job he would have you believe him to be, and this is where we get a hint of what an excellent storyteller Cannell can be (as if, given his extensive bibliography and enviable list of hit television series, the jury somehow might still be undecided). Chick complains mightily about Evelyn’s spending habits, but does so while drinking a bottle or two of wine bearing a stratospheric price tag. He bemoans his daughter’s drug use while ignoring his own alcoholic intake as well as his other excesses, both named and unnamed. He is, so to speak, preoccupied with the moat in his neighbor’s eye while ignoring the plank in his own.

It is while the Bests are on a hedonistic family vacation that Chick is hit by a thunderbolt named Paige Ellis, a beautiful younger woman vacationing with her husband Chandler, an all-around good guy. There is a subtle irony here --- Chandler and Paige, like Chick and Evelyn, deserve each other, but in entirely different ways. This becomes more and more apparent as Chick, instantly and irrevocably smitten with Paige, begins a skin-crawling campaign to ingratiate himself into their lives. Chick’s obsession with Paige does not end with the vacation; it grows and festers, even as his life is slowly crashing down around him on all fronts. Given a sudden opportunity to murder Chandler, Chick takes full advantage, doing the deed and seemingly getting away with it. Paige is devastated, which allows Chick to be there for her and offer support.

Robert Butler is the homicide detective assigned to the case. He is Chick’s polar opposite in every way --- homely, disheveled, spiritual, sincere --- but is determined to identify Chandler’s murderer and bring him to justice. Robert has his own reasons for his obsession with the case: his wife was killed under similar, if unrelated, circumstances years before, and her death is unsolved and unavenged. Unaware that Robert is even investigating the matter, Chick is busily planning to remove what he regards as the final obstacle between what he envisions as a lifetime of bliss with Paige. As matters race toward a climactic showdown, anything can, and will, happen.

The book reads as if Cannell was channeling a brilliantly dark paperback writer from the 1950s --- Jim Thompson or perhaps Richard Prather --- yet his story is as fresh and new as today’s headlines. His description of the manner in which Chick carries out a murder could conceivably cause at least one B-list celebrity some anxious moments (I will leave it to you to guess who), and his quiet comparisons between Chick’s and Paige’s feelings for each other --- Chick is entranced, while Paige thinks of him as just a friend --- are spellbinding. Cannell's glimpses into Chick's self-serving psyche are by turns chilling and hilarious; his ability to deceive everyone, especially himself, is incredible. It is ultimately Robert, however, who quietly steals the show, even as he remains off-page for most of it.

AT FIRST SIGHT is yet another triumph for Cannell, who, even at this late date in his career, continues to handily trump his own best work.

    --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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