It's a Crime

by Jacqueline Carey

Pat Foy leads a charmed life. She has a close-knit family, an expensive home, and a satisfying career as a landscape designer. She also reads mystery novels all the time–yet she can’t see what is happening right in front of her eyes, and is astonished when her husband, Frank, is arrested for accounting fraud at LinkAge, the huge telecommunications firm that employs him. “How could anything that boring be illegal?” she wonders. The scandal hits the press and threatens to drain the Foys’ bank account, send Frank to prison, and tear their family apart.

Frank claims that fudging the numbers is standard practice in today’s go-go business atmosphere. Everyone does it, or would if he could. Americans love recklessness, he insists. They admire scalawags. Pat does too–at least in novels. And it’s hard for Pat to imagine who has suffered from LinkAge’s bankruptcy. So she decides to search out the victims, and finds more than she bargained for. At first she thinks that all she has to do to make amends is whip out her checkbook. What she doesn’t know is that events have already begun to spin out of control, and that the future holds as many twists and turns as any of the whodunits she has read.

Jacqueline Carey’s whip-smart and irresistibly sly novel deftly portrays the dire costs of today’s corporate culture of runaway greed–and brings to life a fractured landscape filled with CEOs-turned-robber barons, privileged lives punctured by wretched excess, and personal relationships put to the ultimate test.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

From the author's website:
Jacqueline Carey grew up in Connecticut and graduated from Swarthmore College in 1977. Since then she has lived mostly in New York City and Montana.

Her short stories first appeared in The New Yorker in 1986. Her work has also been published in Elle, Allure, WigWag, the Village Voice, and the New York Times Magazine. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review, and she used to write a mystery column for Salon.com. She received a Guggenheim fellowship to write THE CROSSLEY BABY.

Recently she moved to Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband, writer Ian Frazier, and their two children.

Reviews

[Gina Torn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish. Only made it to about 50 pages. Plot was all over the place. The main character was annoying and seemed so clueless while the husband was being painted like a Mafia man. The plot had promise but fell flat and short.

Also, there was a random chapter about her and a friend in high school going to a book signing and she ended up at a bar with him but somehow wound up at an award show. Meanwhile the friend went back to a hotel. The next chapter was the husbands trial for fraud. Made no sense.

[Marisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review could be skewed by quarantine brain, I admit. This story rambled a bit, with pages full of text that led nowhere. I had a strong feeling that the author didn’t like or respect the main character, and I just can’t comprehend how you write an entire book about a person you don’t value.

[Elspeth Artifex · Rating 4 out of 5]

odd read

[Debbie Koester · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an OK book, but I felt it was a bit laborious to get through.

[Marcella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. The protagonist is unlike any other that I've met. It's told with dizzying perspective. Fun to read.

[Alysa Farrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased this book on sale, and figured why not? Reviews weren't great for it...BUT...I must say, it is a different style, but I liked it's lighthearted approach, it's a short story and leaves you wanting just a little more. It was a quick and pleasant and different read.

[Romilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I checked this out of the library because I thought it was the same Jacqueline Carey that wrote Santa Olivia and the Kushiel series.

I was definitely wrong. This contemporary drowse didn't hold my attention. I made it halfway through the book before the antagonist's stupidity, willful ignorance of everything going on around her and her flippant attitude made me return the book to the library. I probably would have thrown it across the room if I'd actually paid for a copy.

It was disappointing; the premise of looking at the ramifications of white-collar crime from the point of view of the wife of a perpetrator wanting to make reparations, could have been a really interesting story.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was painful to read. I love Carey's fantasy series, but if this is any indication of her fiction, I'm going to make sure I stay a long way away. Her writing doesn't lack imagery, the story just lacks interest. The characters, while perhaps interesting studies, are simply uninteresting to read about, and I felt no connection with any of them. I rarely consider putting books down after I've read them, and this one just slipped above that low bar. Unless you are interested in really digging into this book and analyzing it to death, I suggest keeping your distance.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Predicated on the idea that corporate crime is the inverse of your average crime: the criminal's identity is known but the victims are unknown. So the story follows a wife of a corporate criminal who becomes obsessed with tracking down the victims. Characters interesting and well-observed; plot a little flat because the inverse of a detective story turns our to be just not as interesting, unfortunately.

[Sheldon Lehman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, I am officially finished with this author, whether she writes any more books or not. The only reason I gave it a shot is because it was hyped as a mystery. Trust me...it's not!! It's just another fiction story about a woman who likes to read mysteries.

To quote the author (pg. 129): "A good mystery should turn under you so smoothly that you have to hold on for life." This book doesn't; After a certain point, I just wanted to be rid of it.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually thought this book would be way better. Once again, I think I just prefer non-fiction to fiction. I just felt it was all so "canned" and predictable. While I sped through it, I guess I was just waiting for juicier details or some sort of "lightbulb" to go off. I wasn't that impressed, sadly. Wish I could say more.

[Annie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another book picked at random at the library. What a waste of time! I kept thinking it was maybe going somewhere, the jacket flap said there were clues along the way. Nothing. Bland description of white collar crime - rather fitting for the times. Nothing insightful or amusing. Don't waste your time.

[Celia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pat's husband is convicted for some very creative accounting at his telecommunications firm. Pat, in her scattered fashion, starts to realise the consequences of her husband's actions, and tries to make amends. While I quite liked Carey's style, the story just couldn't maintain my interest.

[Anna George · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out fairly promising, but started to lose focus 1/2 through, and then there were just too many coincidences for my taste (I hate Dickens for a reason). So, eh. Good for the airplane.

[Renee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Possible the worst book I have ever forced myself to complete. I kept waiting for something to happen and nothing ever did. As to the point of the entire book I think it was made in the first chapter so the ending was a bit of a sad anticlimax to say the least. Hated it.

[Diane C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was enjoyable, but one of those close, but no cigar books. However I did finish it but can't really recommend it enthusiastically. It's not a confidently written book, the plot is not tight enough. Should have been edited better.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't care fot he writing style. The book hurried into a conclusion which did not really sync with the rest of the story. Left some loose ends, but none I would want to pursue.

[Andrea]

Didn't finish.

[Shandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

read this because my 1-year old put it in stack at the library and I didn't notice.

So it lived up to my expectations.

I did finish the book, though I was disappointed in the ending.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this novel, but was disappointed in its conclusion.

[Shirley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I chucked it after the first 2 chapters! Lamest book I've ever picked up.

[Nirrvana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up thinking it was the same Jacqueline Carey, the fantasy writer that I know and love. I could not make it through this book. Horrible and flimsy.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Great read

[Lori · Rating 1 out of 5]

wierd, don't know why I even finished it

[Aubrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't quite understand the main character, and by 1/3 through it just lost all steam for me.