Book of the week
The Stakes by Ben Sanders (Allen & Unwin) $33
Ben Sanders has pulled off something extraordinarily impressive with his writing and it is hard to know how he has managed it. To read The Stakes is like going back in time and to another culture, even though it is up to date. The writing is precisely in the tradition of the early American hard-boiled style first seen from Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Yet, Ben Sanders is a young New Zealander and is clearly on his way as a crime writer. In his 20s, he has published three New Zealand crime novels and The Stakes is his third in an American series.
Miles Keller is a NYPD robbery detective capable of out-thinking most of those he comes up against. In the true tradition of those who are half cops and half private eyes, and not quite anarchic, he only breaks the rules when it is right (that is ‘‘altruistic’’) to do so. Keller is being investigated by the NYPD, for apparently having shot a gangster who was threatening an ex-girlfriend, Lucy, who now trundles an oxygen dispenser around for her emphysema.
What makes The Stakes stand out is the style of writing, that seems effortless but probably isn't.
Enter Nina, a compelling and clever criminal for whom Keller once covered up a crime, altruism to the fore. Everything takes off, with money, chicanery, the dead man’s cousin on the scent from LA and the action racketing around New York.
The plot of The Stakes is simple, with the criminals being driven by the usual motives of money and occasionally sex. Those who are approximately on the right side of the law have the same motives but are cleverly portrayed as somehow being more justified in their endeavours. Again, Sanders has the American tradition of crime writing bang to rights.
The plot, then, is standard and has enough twists to carry one through. And the characters are also believable of their sort. This leaves the atmosphere and, again, this is clearly within the tradition of ‘‘walking the mean streets’’, first strode by Philip Marlowe and the Continental Op.
All of this adds up to perfectly acceptable crime fiction, but what makes The Stakes stand out is the style of writing, that seems effortless but probably isn’t. There is not only wise-cracking and sharp repartee in that fine hardboiled way, but the everyday descriptions are in a similar vein. Here is an example and it would easy to find one on any page: ‘‘He fumbled his matches and got one lit, but that was only half the struggle, potholes on Broadway making the car yaw, the flame and the joint tip on close orbit but resisting unity.’’
This is the sort of writing of which one never tires. If Ben Sanders can achieve this so early in what will clearly be his career, he will soon become very well known indeed. – Ken Strongman