Risk: A Novel
George Young never thought of himself as a detective, but that’s pretty much his vocation–an attorney for a top insurance firm, it’s his job to pin down suspicious claims. But Mrs. Corbett, the rich, eccentric wife of the firm’s founder, has it in mind to put George’s skills to a peculiar assignment. With only a few months to live, her one desire is to know the true circumstance of her son Roger’s violent death. George’s investigation leads him to Roger’s mistress, a cagy Czech hand model named Eliska, whose motives for latching on to Mrs. Corbett’s son may have gotten him killed. Set against a brilliantly-drawn Manhattan, at once volatile and vivid, Risk is prime Colin Harrison.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Fast, easy, good entertainment
This will never be literature. George will never become a household name. It won’t be made into a movie. You might give your copy to a friend, but you wouldn’t insist that they go out and get it.
It will pass a few hours in a pleasant way. A train ride, a flight, a waiting room. You could put it down and go back to it in a week with no problem.
The protagonist, George, is asked to do a task. He’s indebted to the late husband of the woman who asks the favor, so he agrees. Along the way he meets some strange characters, some of whom present a danger to him. Meanwhile, he’s trying to deal with the day to day needs of his family and his job.
The title is Risk. George takes on some measure of risk when he accepts the task. You’ll take on only slightly less if you decide to buy the book.
4 Stars Lew Archer, if he married, got a real job, moved to NY City, and had a kid in college.
I read all the Ross Macdonald Lew Archer stories as they were published. “Risk” leaves a similar taste in my mind, and it is one that I like to remember.
I gave it 4 stars, not five, because I guessed the answer to the puzzle about half way into the book. But it still was an enjoyable read. No big violence,
no spectacular fights, no super weapons or world-shaking threat. Some hints of possibles in one of those directions, but they were all red-herrings.
Like a Lew Archer mystery, it all comes down to family secrets and family responsibilities. But the resolution was satisfying. I enjoyed the time I spent
with the characters in the book. They were mostly likeable and I cared about them. The book is brief. But then again so were the old Gold Medal original
paperback mysteries of the 50’s
3 Stars Good Elements
This book has some really good elements. George is a likable guy and a good narrator, sketching in the details of his contented middle-aged life. He and his wife are still happily married, getting used to having their daughter grown-up and away at college. George continues to work at the insurance company where he’s been for decades, as a fraud investigator. Life is uneventful.
When the elderly widow of George’s long-time boss and mentor asks him for a favor, George doesn’t feel like he can refuse. So he starts an investigation into the death of the woman’s son. It was clearly an accident, caught on a security camera, but the woman wishes to know what was on his mind in the time before he died. Her mission to George is to figure out her son’s final thoughts.
Reading the mind of a dead man proves to be a difficult task, one which takes George all over the city and throws him into conversations with a private investigator, a friendly bartender, a bribeable landlord, and a foreign hand model.
The investigation turns dangerous, and George must rely on his quick thinking to protect himself and his family. And before the air clears, he uncovers surprising information of his own.
I liked much of this story; it was tightly woven together with enough detail to keep me from feeling shocked or cheated at the end. However, it seemed there were two separate climaxes to the story–the resolution of George’s danger and the self-discovery he underwent. It felt to me like this story should have chosen to be one or the other; it needed to dedicate itself to either being a man’s journey of self-discovery or being a detective story. Or perhaps the two could have been better intertwined. Having two very different pivotal points toward the end of the book diluted some of the suspense that either one of these climaxes, when standing alone, would have had.
5 Stars Airplane novel
Risk is a quick read, I read it on a flight to Kentucky. Collin Harrison has written a an unusual mystery - at 192 pages it is considerably shorter than most of the massive contemporary mysteries and even though there is no murder, Harrison held my attention with some very fine writing. The protagonist, lawyer George Young, is nicely drawn. The plot is intricate and compelling, but due to the book’s modest length I didn’t find myself getting lost at the midpoint.
Mystery fans will like this one. Highly recommended for that four hour airplane flight to visit your mother-in-law.
4 Stars Risky business
This is the story of George Young, a middle aged insurance defense lawyer complacent with his job and his life when one day he is summoned by his firm’s longest employee, the secretary to the founding partner, to go visit the late partner’s wife, Mrs. Corbett.
Mrs. Corbett asks George to look into the recent death of her son, Roger. Roger was seemingly the victim of a terrible auto accident, but video of the accident shows Roger looking intently at a piece of paper moments before he was struck by a truck. The paper was never recovered.
George agrees to look into this as the Wilson Corbett had been his mentor and was responsible for the comfortable life he lived now. Pllus, by his own admission, he is bored with his life and would like something to shake it up. He finds plenty in the person of Eliska, a model with whom Roger was having an affair. Eliska unwittingly brought George into contact with some very dangerous people. At the same time, the mystery starts coming a little to close to home.
The story is a little bit slow to start, but picks up quickly. The character, especially George, are written very well. This is a quick read and a recommended one.
Filed under: Insurance Book Reviews