The Interloper

by Antoine Wilson

Book Overview

The debut from the author of Mouth to Mouth, a novel about obsession that makes for obsessive reading.

All Owen Patterson wants is an normal life, a happy marriage, and a stable family. But following the brutal and random murder of his brother-in-law, that dream is shattered. A year later, his wife is still in mourning and his in-laws won't talk about anything but their dead son.

The murderer, Henry Joseph Raven, has...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590512634
• ISBN13: 9781590512630
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Other Press (NY)
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.7" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Great Read

From a person who never has time to read (work, kids, reality tv, etc.), I finished this book in a week, simply because I couldn't put it down. The author really gets you hooked with the story and his smooth prose takes over. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a well written, thought provoking, book that keeps you on the edge of your couch the entire time!!

Wow! What a page turner!

This is probably the best first novel to hit the book stores since Brett Easton Ellis's "Less Than Zero" in 1985. It's a bona fide page turner. The cover blurb sets the reader up to expect a revenge novel: The protagonist is out to avenge his brother-in-law's senseless murder, a loss that is destroying two families. Antoine Wilson's story takes the form of a modern epistolary novel--one that depends on letters to set out the plot. But book has much more in store. There are some nice plot twists that make the book a compelling "read". While the writing style isn't immortal literature, the simple, direct narrative keeps bumping along with a few thigh-slapping jokes thrown in. There are a few lapses of editing, and some of the voices don't seem quite right (hard boiled criminals aren't usually literary types). However, these are minor glitches in a great first novel. This is an excellent "beach book" or a way to happily "kill" a trans-continental flight.

Great neo-noir

This is a near-perfect first novel. It's structured like a classic noir, as a flashback onto the events that have landed the narrator in the circumstances he finds himself at the time he begins to write (I won't spoil it and tell you what those circumstances are). That character is very interesting and intriguing -- highly intelligent but clearly flawed. We see his faults and bizarre behavior, but still want things to work out for him. Really, this is a darkly fun, funny book, and a quick read.

Fast, clever, well-crafted, creepy and... funny?

First of all, The Interloper is just an amazingly fun and gripping read. It's fast-paced, or perhaps it's that the twists and turns keep arriving before you can get comfortable. The book explores the unsatisfying nature of justice, the disruption of tragedy and the unpredictability of poking a tiger in a cage - dark matter in a surprisingly funny way. It's a real testament to Wilson's skill that his characters invent characters within the novel that have carefully intended degrees of believability. Owen Patterson has to be a full, rich and complete fictional person to create a Lily Hazelton who is just a hair short for the story to work. And work it does!

Modern Day Appointment in Samarra

In THE INTERLOPER the first 50 pages are enough to pull you in, but it's the last 50 pages that won't let you go. Much like in John O'Hara's story of self destruction from the early 20th century (Appointment in Samarra), you know the main character is in a downward spiral and yet you just can't help but follow him down while your better self is urging him to correct his mistakes and move on, and the whole while you know it won't help. This train is destined to come off of the tracks and you can't help but watch. Childhood voids and first loves combine with recent tragedies and a skewed sense of justice to bring a disaster that you fully expect and have no way to anticipate. The resulting wreck is an artful masterpiece that is complete in it's inability to satisfy anything but the reader's curiosity about how it all ends.