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The Identity Man

by Andrew Klavan
Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2010. c.280p. ISBN 9780547243283. $25. F
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Once upon a time (it might be tomorrow or just as feasibly 1971, when Dirty Harry with Clint Eastwood was first showing), the straight, shadowy streets of The City run with floodwaters as well as crooked politicians, cops, and gangbangers. A plague has settled over the land. In the role of the unlikely Prince Charming who just might lift the curse and set things right is three-time loser John Shannon; he's on the lam for a crime he didn't commit—although there are many he did—and is offered that exceedingly rare thing called a second chance. His Fairy Godfather, in the person of a mysterious foreigner, equips him with a new face, identity, and even new DNA records. As Henry Conor, he takes up his new life as a carpenter and happens on a princess ensconced in a tidy white house in the middle of a slum. The real question is, "Is any of this enough to allow Shannon to escape his fate?"
VERDICT Two-time Edgar Award winner Klavan (True Crime; The Rain) delivers characters as unavoidable and implacable as Easter Island effigies and positions them in settings where they are certain to be noticed. Three out of four smoking pistols for this updated Grimm urban legend.
Reviewed by Bob Lunn, Kansas City, MO , Oct 15, 2010
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