06.15 The Confession by Domenic Stansberry

The Confession by Domenic Stansberry
Pbk, Hard Case Crime 2004


Hard Case Crime is a new publishing company whose mission is to put out hardboiled crime fiction. They republish old classics as well as books by new authors that fall into the genre. This book is one of the latter.

The Confession is the story of a young criminal psychologist living an idyllic life in the Bay area. He has a beautiful and wealthy wife, style, great job and a sexy mistress. Everything appears to be going swimmingly until his side dish is strangled with his tie. From that point forward the novel plunges into a battle for innocence against what looks to be a wealth of evidence against the hero.

While a fairly standard potboiler, this novel does a great job of copping the major tropes and writing style of the classic pulp crime. The author also does a good job of keeping it ambiguous as to whether the hero is really guilt free. The guy is kind of a cad and as you read on in his POV you come to doubt whether he has just been caught up in events or if, in fact, you are being manipulated by his telling of the tale.

All in all, not a great read but certainly entertaining enough. I look forward to finding bore books from this publisher.