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Temporary Help
this title is removed from sale, rights have reverted back to the author. Samuel French is no longer the rights holder for this product
79 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2000
3 people want to read
About the author
David Wiltse
50 books32 followersDavid Wiltse was born in 1940 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He graduated from the University of Nebraska and currently lives in a small town in Connecticut. He has written plays for stage, screen and television and won a Drama Desk award for most promising playwright for Suggs (first produced at Lincoln Center in 1972). Always popular with Bookhaunts readers, his novels include the John Becker Novels and Billy Tree/Falls City Novels.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 2, 2022
Temporary Help is an ok thriller. Consequently, I can't tell you much about it because it doesn't deserve to be spoiled; including why it's not a great thriller (though I'll try).
Here's the set-up: Karl Streber, borderline psychopath, runs a farm in Nebraska with his co-dependent spouse, Faye. When we meet him, Karl is stowing a freshly-killed body under the sink and Faye is keeping Sheriff Ron Stucker busy in the living room until he's finished. Ron wants to ask Karl about a man who used to work at the Streber farm who has since disappeared--some not too subtle foreshadowing
In the next scene, Karl shows up at the house with the strapping (and improbably named) young man Vincent Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who at first appears to be a tailor-made next victim for whatever shenanigans the Strebers are involved with, but quite soon proves his mettle as match-and-then-some for this weird couple. Playwright David Wiltse provides an intricate plot in which everybody has reason to be worried about what everybody else is doing; it's rife with psycho-sexual (sometimes homoerotic) game-playing and filled with herrings--some of them red, some not--that include abusive parents, suspicious deaths, guns, explosives, insurance policies, and other incendiary things.
It feels written (as opposed to organic) almost all the time, and the ending doesn't feel entirely earned. That said, Temporary Help is a well-crafted thriller that grips us and keeps us on the edge of our seats. If the big moments elicit titters rather than gasps, well, that's disappointing; but this is certainly a plausible entertainment, and that for all of the plot's implausibilities.
Here's the set-up: Karl Streber, borderline psychopath, runs a farm in Nebraska with his co-dependent spouse, Faye. When we meet him, Karl is stowing a freshly-killed body under the sink and Faye is keeping Sheriff Ron Stucker busy in the living room until he's finished. Ron wants to ask Karl about a man who used to work at the Streber farm who has since disappeared--some not too subtle foreshadowing
In the next scene, Karl shows up at the house with the strapping (and improbably named) young man Vincent Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who at first appears to be a tailor-made next victim for whatever shenanigans the Strebers are involved with, but quite soon proves his mettle as match-and-then-some for this weird couple. Playwright David Wiltse provides an intricate plot in which everybody has reason to be worried about what everybody else is doing; it's rife with psycho-sexual (sometimes homoerotic) game-playing and filled with herrings--some of them red, some not--that include abusive parents, suspicious deaths, guns, explosives, insurance policies, and other incendiary things.
It feels written (as opposed to organic) almost all the time, and the ending doesn't feel entirely earned. That said, Temporary Help is a well-crafted thriller that grips us and keeps us on the edge of our seats. If the big moments elicit titters rather than gasps, well, that's disappointing; but this is certainly a plausible entertainment, and that for all of the plot's implausibilities.
Displaying 1 of 1 review