Country: USA
Genre: Thriller (with shades of Hardboiled)
Pages: 303
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The buzz is strong around Rector. You know me, whenever a writers makes waves, I get curious and want to form my own opinion. You will get a full report of my John Rector appreciation during the next few weeks, because I now have his complete bibliography to review. I decided to start with his latest, ALREADY GONE, because it's been published only two weeks ago and it's been hyped a lot. Also, something told me it was my kind of book. Maybe it was the slightly melancholic title, or the beautiful and mysterious cover, but something about it just felt right. While it wasn't perfect, John Rector gets all the little subtleties of good literature right to make ALREADY GONE a captivating read. Rector writes characters that you might know and characters you would love to know.
The protagonist of ALREADY GONE, Jake Reese used to lead a bad life. It's never clear what he did exactly before, but he's the son of jailed felon Frank Reese and he escaped the world his father ruled with literature. He wrote a novel largely inspired by his life, who got him financial success, love and a job in the creative writing department at a university. But when he thought he was settled, Jake runs into two sinister guys at a local bar, who cut off his (recently married) ring finger without giving him a reason. Jake goes back home mutilated, confused and brokenhearted. He thinks his old life is catching back to him, that his wife Diane is in danger and he wonders if it's worth it to call old friends to shed light on this issue, or if he should let the police handle it. But no matter how Jake thought it over and over, he had it all wrong.
John Rector has a great gift to picture the subtle, wordless emotions that humans feel. Through patient storytelling, he lifts a veil of loneliness around Jake Reese and turns his new life into a trap where he feels empty and vulnerable, now that his old demons are in the rear view. Talking of old demons, the showstopper of this novel is a supporting character who goes by the name of Gabby Meyers. Through his actions, his non-verbal language and through the words he uses to hint at the situation, a wealth of experience and wisdom transpired from him. You can feel strength, compassion, undying will and something timeless in his ways. He's a truly remarkable character who will stick as one of those great friend/foe protagonists. Whenever he was on the pages, he stole the show.
There were some things I had difficulty with, especially with the plot of ALREADY GONE, but they were localized to a certain part of the novel and they could really well please other readers. Basically, without spoiling anything, I'll say the first part of ALREADY good is patient storytelling and mood setting and the second part is just a plot twist bonanza. For about sixty pages I was like: "What the hell is going on? Where is this going?". But while this required an effort in attention span, Rector finishes the novel by going over all the plot twists one by one and giving them a plausible resolution within the storyline. Some people like this sort of ambitious writing, but I was conquered by Rector's atmospheres beforehand, so it only threw me off for the time it lasted. Nevertheless, ALREADY GONE is a dark and gritty thriller with a slight feeling of hardboiled to it. It's something unique, a fresh breath of style in the thriller genre.