Falling Book

Falling is a curious book. Mr. Pike chooses to narrate an awful lot of events through a sub-400 page novel, including plenty of set-up and backstory that other authors may have chosen to reveal later in the book through flashbacks or dialogue.

The story revolves around two central characters: Matt Connor, a bright, passionate young man who has become unhinged by his unhealthy obsession with a poisonous girl named Amy, and Kelly Feinman, a brash FBI agent struggling to balance her exciting work with her dull home life. There is so much ground covered here, from a gruesome serial killer Kelly chases to Matt's elaborate plan for extracting revenge from Amy to the strange relationship and juxtaposition between the two as they fight their parallel but strangely intertwined private battles.

At times Mr. Pike's need to describe so much of the action results in passages that feel rushed, like Kelly's initial investigation into the enigmatic Acid Man and the lead-up to Matt and Amy's fateful alliance that sets up the last third of the book. There are also plenty of credibility-stretching contrivances and events that unfold just so which allow a bit too many of the puppet strings to show. Still, while it is at times ridiculous the events that unfold are fascinating and Mr. Pike rarely takes the story in the expected direction.

It's difficult to discuss the book without blowing away major spoilers: Even reading the book jacket reveals key early events but that has more to do with the fact that nothing in Falling remains static very long. Broadening the conversation then, Falling manages to portray several characters very well, mostly secondaries. Kelly's partner, Charlie, is welcome in the few scenes he has, and Amy competes at times with the Hannibal Lecter-esque Acid Man for the central antagonist, creating a fascinating foil for the frustrating but likable Matt. Unfortunately it is Kelly who ends up being the book's greatest weakness, her consistent foolishness is never believably explained, despite plenty of effort being made to wave it away. She is neither a strong female lead nor as tragic as the story seems to want her to be, resulting in a whiny neurotic who steals too much of the book's point of view.

There are times when Falling genuinely surprises and times when it blunders from scene to scene. At no point is it dull or uninteresting, though, making it a truly gripping book that one wishes were just a bit more restrained. The final curiosity lies in the book's dismally unsatisfying conclusion which is really a non-ending. For a book that wanted to tell readers so very much about these characters, for it to end without telling what actually became of them is truly baffling.