Colin Harrison's Afterburn is a searing, relentless thriller that grips you from the first page and doesn’t let go, a masterfully written novel that had me tearing through its pages, riveted, long past midnight.
One of the author's most compelling techniques for building suspense and momentum is the way he has the chapters switch back and forth between the story's three main characters: a high-stakes CEO at the helm of a multinational tech company, a young woman recently released from a correctional facility, and her boyfriend, who has been keeping a low profile for the past several years, living quietly in a shack, fishing and growing vegetables on the far tip of Long Island.
Since Afterburn is a multilayered spinechiller, I'll avoid spoilers and instead focus on the trio of key players, along with a quartet of the novel’s highlights.
CHARLIE RAVICH
The novel opens in 1972, as seasoned Air Force Captain Charles Ravich prepares to fly what will prove his last mission in his F-4 fighter jet. Charlie’s plane is shot down, and he spends time as a prisoner of war under the North Vietnamese before being rescued by a Marine patrol. The story then shifts to September 1999, and from this point forward, the entire novel unfolds over the course of three weeks in that month and year. Now fifty-eight, Charlie has much to contend with in his life: he bears scars and endures pain from multiple operations to repair his back, hips, and leg; his beautiful, athletic son, Ben, died of leukemia some years back; his wife’s mind is slipping, and she desperately wants Charlie to retire and leave the city with her; and his daughter, Julia, has learned she’ll never be able to have children. After receiving this last piece of dismal news, Charlie concocts a plan to donate to a sperm bank, establish a special account, and hire a healthy young woman to give birth to and raise his biological offspring. Why not? Charlie has more than enough money; as a savvy businessman, he recently made an instant eight million dollars on some spicy insider information.
We follow Charlie through his struggles, suffering, and tribulations right up until an unexpected, chance meeting—with Christina. Charlie has sex with Christina, one of the most blissful experiences of his life. He listens to Christina’s tale of the events that led her to prison. Charlie knows this young woman is nothing but trouble, yet there’s something about Christina that pulls him toward her like a powerful magnet.
CHRISTINA WELLES
A slender woman of twenty-seven with dark hair and brown eyes, Christina has a quality you won’t forget: a fierce watchfulness and unusual intelligence. She’s something of a mathematical whiz. Years before her time in prison, a professor of religion at Columbia ends their relationship by telling her that, although he’s twenty years her senior, he simply can’t handle her; he says she has something hard in her, that, if she wanted, she could cut him up into little pieces. He says something bad happened to Christina, something in her past that broke her but also made her stronger. We eventually find out what happened to Christina and come to appreciate his words. One thing is certain: since she hit her twenties, Christina has been—and continues to be—a dangerous young lady, especially dangerous for men who find themselves drawn to her.
RICK BOCCA
Muscleman Rick, age thirty-eight, has had good reason to live out of sight for the past four years, a reason revolving around the police nabbing a truckload of stolen air conditioners he and Christina were bringing back to the city. Christina was caught, but Rick escaped. She kept her mouth shut, and she was the only one who went to prison. But things are about to change. The detective involved in the case back then, a guy by the name of Peck, pulls up and tells Rick that Christina will be released early tomorrow—and he wants Rick to drive to the correctional facility to pick her up. Why? Rick wonders. Too many questions. Probably mob boss Tony Verducci worked a deal to get Christina out. Whatever the answer, Rick knows this means trouble—big trouble. Oh, Rick, my boy, how right you are.
THE BIG APPLE
Christina out on the streets of Lower Manhattan for the first time after spending four years in prison: “She felt slow and a little lost, but with each minute the city came back to her, like language. She saw everything – the ever-sleeker cars, the new ad campaigns on the sides of buses, the sidewalks thick with faces. People looked tired and sweaty and fed up. Overworked and barely paid. Underworked and stuffed with money. Chinese cops. Russian housewives from Brooklyn. White kids trying to look like black kids and black kids parodying themselves. Men who wanted to be women, and girls who liked girls. Everyone had attitude but no one looked political. The city had the same beat, the same insistency.” No doubt about it – reading Afterburn, we feel the pounding, intense vibration of New York City.
DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS
Colin Harrison clearly conducted meticulous research across the many areas his novel explores—ranging from Vietnam War jets and bombing missions to the intricacies of international business, high-tech industries, finance and stock trading, elaborate swindles, and underground numbers operations. If you relish a story rich in well-researched specifics, this is the book for you.
TORTURE
I feel it’s important to note that Afterburn includes several scenes depicting torture, occurring not only in 1972 Vietnam but also in 1999 New York City. The explicit nature of these scenes may bring to mind the hyperviolence in the novels of Pierre Lemaitre and Jo Nesbø. I sincerely hope this aspect of Afterburn does not discourage potential readers.
WRITING
Although his novels are labeled thrillers, Colin Harrison writes high quality literature on the level of Don DeLillo and Philip Roth. I can't recommend Afterburn and the other novels by this outstanding American author highly enough.
American author Colin Harrison, born 1960
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