Book Report: Flinch

I picked up this book and two others by Robert Ferrigno because they passed all three of my tests: all had a snappy title, an intriguing plot, and great first sentences. See Flinch, page 1: "Yeah, and I'm the fucking walrus." Great, I thought as I tossed it in my basket, a male author with a sense of humor. Can't wait.

Jimmy Gage is the protag, a journalist for a raunchy tabloid magazine, whose heart is less than gold. He's got a violent streak in him which he uses to keep justice and fairness where he thinks it is due (and where it usually IS due). Told through backstory (probably in an earlier installment to the series), Jimmy has taken revenge on a physically huge evil-doer named Macklen, leaving the man unable to use his legs due to an ill-fired bullet to the spine. While Jimmy did not actually pull the trigger, he was responsible for the damage but escaped the incident without being seen.

Now, a year or so later, parallel story lines run side by side as Jimmy hunts for the Eggman, a serial killer who, after Jimmy's attention in the magazine, has started writing him boastful letters. When pictures of the Eggman's victims turn up at Jimmy's brother's house, the game is on and boy is it cruel. They live a real-life version of 'flinch', a childhood game they would play where one brother would swing a meat cleaver at the other's head, then they would switch. Whoever flinched first lost the game, and the rule is still the same today. This smart who-dunnit is edgy and feral and I'm still not certain the innocent are truly innocent.

All this is backed by a rollicking subplot in which Rollo, Jimmy's young filmmaker friend, is being hunted for selling a memory chip-which Jimmy stole from Macklen pre-story. Rollo is a good guy and seems to be Jimmy's only true friend, and in turn the storylines merge when Jimmy is forced to protect Rollo. I don't think Rollo lived up to the character he could have been, but when the story is cast so largely, I can see where a sidekick might get overlooked.

This story is wild. The cast is outrageous and glittery: some are 400 pound wrestlers; a woman detective who's addicted to work, alcohol and Jimmy; Jimmy's cosmo-surgeon brother with a heart of ice; even two movie addicts whose appearance in the story last less than five pages. The story is visual if head-spinning and while there is no one thing really wrong with it, I felt that I could put it down at anytime and would not be bothered if I never finished. The climax picked up speed and was cleverly designed and was perhaps my favorite part of the whole book. It seems Robert is a master of shiny packages-designing settings and bodies to fill his pages, but could have spared more time *inside* their heads. See page 301, after a bloody fight with his brother and the killer is revealed: 'Jimmy stood up. He was aware of Holt and Desmond nearby, but didn't need their help anymore. "Game's over, Jonathan."

An epilogue fogs the clean-cut revelation, I guess to leave the door open for the next installment. There were some great lines of dialogue in this story, but overall I was a little let down. Lots of flashbacks, marked by italic font. Good book, not great, but worth the read for it's uniqueness and ability to braid so many ideas together. 3 stars.