The Crimes of Jordan Wise: A Novel

By Bill Pronzini

Book Overview

Jordan Wise is a mild-mannered accountant with a large San Francisco engineering firm in the late 1970s. By his own admission, the first thirty-four years of his life were dull, empty. But that all... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802714935
• ISBN13: 9780802714930
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Walker Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.9" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

Be careful what you ask for

Great read. Mystery galore. Jordan Wise, a dull accountant, meets and falls in love with Annalise Bonner who will change his life forever and precipitate this three perfect crimes. So you think that having plenty of money, and gotten away with crimes, and living in the Caribbean would be a dream come true? Might just be your worst nightmare.

Noir based in the rum-soaked Virgin Islands

Jordan Wise is a meek accountant with a San Francisco building firm. He meets Annalise Bonner, a young, gorgeous clerk working in women's lingerie. As in any classic noir, Jordan falls for Annalise and concocts a slick scheme to embezzle $600,000 and go live high off the hog in the Caribbean Islands. This is in 1977. Flash forward to the present. Jordan, 64, relates his three "perfect crimes" to John Talley, a freelance writer visiting the islands in search of his next good story. Jordan certainly tells one. You can't help but think Mr. Pronzini might be the attentive Talley. CRIMES is drenched in setting, too. Rum. Sailing. Sunsets. Ex-pats. Jordan's sailing pal, Bone, is a full-fledged minor character who almost steals the show. If you want to see what the author does outside his customary San Francisco locale, CRIMES shows he loses nothing. CRIMES is a fast, absorbing read, and I liked it as much as reading BLUE LONESOME, another one of Mr. Pronzini's standalones.

"Just a man with a dark side."

Bill Pronzini's "The Crimes of Jordan Wise" opens in Jocko's Cafe on the tip of St. John in the U. S. Virgin Islands. A writer named John Talley approaches sixty-two year old Jordan Wise, who is a confirmed alcoholic with no close friends or family. All he has is the memories of the people he once loved and the ingenious crimes that he committed. For reasons of his own, Jordan decides to tell his life story to Talley. Until he reaches the age of thirty-four, Jordan is a loner with few social skills and a love only for mathematics and problem solving. After college, he works his way up to assistant chief in charge of accounts payable for a large San Francisco-based firm. He knows that his life is boring and predictable, and he expects that it will always remain this way. Then, Jordan falls in love with a beautiful, manipulative, and selfish woman named Annalise, who craves luxury, travel, and excitement. To win her over, Jordan decides to commit his first crime. He gradually siphons off a considerable amount of money from his firm, cleverly covers his tracks, and runs off with Annalise to St. Thomas. The island is beautiful and scenic, the couple has enough money to live comfortably without ever working again, and Jordan soon takes up sailing, which becomes his great passion. Unfortunately for Jordan, his happiness with Annalise is short-lived. Bill Pronzini is a skilled storyteller whose crisp and deceptively simple prose is mercifully free of melodrama. Jordan Wise is fascinating because he is so calm and bloodless; he has no idea that he is slowly descending into madness. He believes that a person can commit evil deeds with impunity if he plans carefully enough, but he forgets that when someone harms another human being, the perpetrator changes in ways that can never leave him entirely at peace. Jordan is a compelling antihero, who, paradoxically, is at once both sympathetic and contemptible. Another memorable character is Bone, a black man who knows a great deal about sailing and human nature; Jordan values Bone's friendship above all else. Annalise is a bit of a caricature; she is a woman who uses her body to get what she wants, but she is also self-destructive, shallow, and foolish. Pronzini's descriptive writing is impressive, especially when Jordan takes his beloved yawl out to sea and finds the peace that has always eluded him on land. "The Crimes of Jordan Wise" is a suspenseful psychological thriller about the warped and perverted choices that people make and the devastating consequences that follow.

Never a Disappointment

Pronzini's stand-alones get stronger and stronger and stronger. In JORDAN WISE, we have a character-driven heist story that keeps you on edge from page one until the end. Anyhone who doesn't resent having to put this one down before the end just hasn't been paying attention. This is a bravo performance from a master story-teller. If you like wimpy stories, don't bether -- Pronzini is for dedicated readers of neo-noir.

fabulous Noir

In a bar in the Virgins Islands, the only two customers begin talking to one another. Richard Laidlaw informs writer John Talley that he has committed three perfect crimes in his life. Over rum he tells his tale that led to his committing murder. Almost three decades ago when his name was different (Jordan Wise) and he was a simple quiet accountant he met Annalise Bonner, who could launch ten thousand ships with a smile. He fell in love, but she at best found him mildly attractive. He admits he obsessed over her and decided the key to her heart is money so he extorted $602,496 from his firm, his first perfect crime. That description of his first felony is followed up by two bloody images as he explains the motives behind perfect two and three that no one but he will have Annalise. Finally a drunk and stunned Talley asks Wise why he is confessing now and to him? Richard responds with the truth. THE CRIMES OF JORDAN WISE is a fabulous Noir starring two strangers with the drunken writer somewhat sobering up as he hears the tale of his compatriot, a self proclaimed killer. Readers will like John become horrified and fascinated with Jordan's "confession" and wonder why tell now. In his umpteenth novel, Bill Pronzini shows why he is consistently been considered one of the best mystery writers of the last two decades. Harriet Klausner