The Fall Guy Hardcover – 12 Jan. 2017

Good book, started off well and then slid into the mundane. The author appears to be creating a story as if by numbers but without any real emotion. The only character that was of any interest to was Chloe. Also, its quite obvious, at least to me, that the author researches thoroughly some of the items he describes in the book. Knives are described to the nth degree as are cars. While this might work in an encyclopedia it left me feeling a little cold and was anathema to the warmth any author should attempt to create when building a character based novella

An intelligent, well written thriller that will appeal to anyone who likes Patricia Highsmith. Ignore the comparisons with The Girl on the Train - it's much better and far more plausible, with sharply-observed, believable characters and an ending that keeps us guessing until the final page.

A page turner if ever there is one! A beautifully sculpted tale that keeps the reader engrossed from start to finish. James Lasdum is a master of the unexpected and the creation of creepy characters.

Bought this for my husband after I read a review by friend. He really enjoyed reading it - recommended !

A plot with some potential, wrecked by an overdose of verbosity with only faintly believable characters. A real struggle to make it to the end.

New copy which arrived quickly

really good...really really...still a bit in aftershock

Readers should persevere. This tale gets better and better. A terrific finish

Buen thriller psicológico, al estilo de Patricia Highsmith, escrito con mucho suspense, mantiene el interés hasta la última página. Recomendado como lectura ligera para pasar el rato

Got me hooked right from the start till the near end. The author builds a suspense from the beginning till the end

From the very beginning to the cathartic furiously challenging mind twisting finale ...irritating, bewildering fascinating story and characters. James Lasdun is a sophisticated storyteller slightly cruel to his readers.

Great suspense/thriller. Picks up steam only in the last third of the novel. Highly recommended.

Woanders stehen gute Beschreibungen, daher nur meine Meinung: das Buch ist mitreißend, spannend, creepy und schnell gelesen. Perfekt für gemütliche Regentage. Erinnert an Patricia Highsmith, auf die beste Art.

This is a very good book with some ambiguities. Not everything has to be laboriously explained.

Boring. Drawn out. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Good storyline that was beat to death with unnecessary vocab. Wish the main character had gotten away with it actually.

It's intricate how this author manages to present the interior dialogue of the protagonist, Matthew, as ordinary then slowly becomes more idiosyncratic and then eccentric and then downright mentally ill? Seems like an unhealthy Type 5 on the Enneagram personality system?But that's how it creeps up on you that this narrator is not be trusted.What I'd like to point out for those who thought the ending was too abrupt?Read again the dialogue, conversation with the Detective Fernandez. There's something non-sequitur about Charlie's answers. Is he really guiding the collapse? It's possible that the times when he's away from the house could be surveillance? If Matthew can read Chloe's reactions doesn't her husband know as well?The story reminds me of the movie Unfaithful (Richard Gere/Diane Lane/'Paul Martel') which also ended abruptly at a traffic signal with the police station in sight?I gave it three stars because it slogged and bogged now and again. Plus, there's only so much interior chatter I can stand?Thoughts anyone?

What a welcome change: unlike most novels today with their various points of view, fractured timeframes and multitude of settings, here we have a straightforward linear narrative telling what appears on the face of it to be a simple story: a wealthy New York couple, Charlie and Chloe, invite Charlie’s impoverished English cousin Matthew to stay with them in their vacation home for the summer. What could possibly go wrong?In little over 250 pages, James Lasdun serves up a taut, nuanced and layered tale of love and jealousy. Along the way he throws in some delicious food porn (Matthew is a trained chef and earns his keep through the summer by cooking up stunning meals for Charlie and Chloe) and Lasdun laces his plot with sufficient tension to make this a temptation to read in one sitting. From about the halfway point, I was absolutely convinced that I’d guessed the ending. I was wrong. 4.5*

I'm glad I read "The Fall Guy," if only because it introduced me to James Lasdun, a writer who brings an elegant, discerning style and sensibility to such mundane fictional staples as twisted psychology and murder. Other reviewers have mentioned Patricia Highsmith as an exemplar of the sort of thing that engages Lasdun in "The Fall Guy." I might also mention the late, unsurpassed Ruth Rendell, whose young protagonists, intelligent but irredeemably scarred, find themselves capable of the sort of horrific crime that Lasdun's feckless young protagonist commits without quite intending to. (Camus's "The Stranger" established the genre.) Thanks to the quality of Lasdun's writing, I was reasonably gripped by "The Fall Guy." But as the terrible, entirely foreseeable crime drew near, I became less involved than I wanted me to be. One deficiency was the underdeveloped personalities of the beautiful couple who are the protagonist's quarry. More problematic was the protagonist himself, whose obsession with the wife of his best (sort of) friend seemed narratively forced rather than driven by anything we'd learned about him. Consciously or not, Lasdun chooses to ignore one not implausible turn of the screw in the fatal triangle - the protagonist's repressed homosexuality - opting instead for a crime propelled more by accident than by some buried drive. For all of Lasdun's keen writing, the net effect felt flimsy and thin - less than the author's literary skills deserved.

Ending not surprising, but fun to read about the Jay Mcinerney people in another book.

I'm sorry to rate this so poorly, but my entire book group regretted investing the time to read this.I gave it two stars and I write and appreciate the effort it takes anyone to write a book.

Interesting protagonist. The abnormal psychological dimension of this novel provided narrative tension, as did the conflicts between characters.

Lasdun writes cleanly and crisply and knows how to drive a no-frills compelling story. This book is perfect for a one sitting session. Very little effort is required of the reader but comparisons of Lasdun to Patricia Highsmith might be a bit over stated. This book and author show much promise.

Characters are incomplete but setting in the catskills rings true.. suspense and surprise quite good all the way through. Interesting diversion for one with time