Curtis Ippolito’s Burying the Newspaper Man remains one of the under-appreciated gems of the neo-noir movement in crime fiction. With the release of his second full-length work—Waves of Burden—Ippolito proves that his success was no accident. This is a writer who excels at deeply flawed characters who find themselves in challenging (though completely believable) situations outside of their control. Adding this to his impeccably rendered settings, realistic plotting, and a complete unwillingness to take the easy route to resolution, virtually guarantees his fans a thrilling reading experience.
The central character of Waves of Burden is Drew Jones, the type of hard-scrambled character reader’s open their hearts to. Life has dealt him a challenging hand, and yet Drew remains authentically hopeful in a relatably desolate manner. A product of the foster care system, when his former foster brother Jake returns to town, it’s Drew’s unwavering faith in his found family that might just be more than his biggest mistake, it may be the final straw that collapses his precarious house-of-cards life.
After Jake gets entangled in some nefarious activity, it falls to Drew to sort things out. Forced to deal with troubled characters on all sides of the law, every step on the shifting sands brings Drew (and his newly expanding family) closer to danger. Throughout it all, Curtis Ippolito avoids stereotypes with each of his stock characters, leaving the reader in constant flux. While readers will swear unwavering allegiance to Drew (and his plight), many of these secondary characters will live rent-free in the minds of noir aficionados.
But perhaps it is the unspoken “character” on the page that has the greatest impact—the city of San Diego. Curtis Ippolito should be added to the Mount Rushmore of crime writers for whom setting is never merely the location a story takes place, but rather an organic puzzle piece that dictates almost everything about how their novels unfold—authors like Michael Connelly (Los Angeles), James Lee Burke (Louisiana), S. A. Cosby (rural Virginia), and Donna Leon (Venice). Anyone who has been to San Diego will recognize the accurate descriptions of this unique town in the various set-pieces, and those who have never been, will surely close the book’s covers ready to book the new flight to this beachy paradise.
Waves of Burden moves along at a steady clip, with Ippolito refusing to let readers get bored. Some readers may find the pacing grueling at first, but before long they will be wrapped up in all the risky complications on the page and find themselves wishing it could move faster. It’s this addictive nature that makes Waves of Burden the perfect vacation read. Just keep in mind that there are never easy answers in Curtis Ippolito’s writing, but there’s always a humanity that demands the reader find hope even amidst the hopelessness. And that in and of itself should be more than enough of a takeaway from this (or any) crime fiction.
BUY LINKS: Waves of Burden by Curtis Ippolito
Disclaimer: An e-galley of this title was provided to BOLO Books by the author. No promotion was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.
