BOOK TITLE: The Blade Itself
AUTHOR: Marcus Sakey
YEAR: 2007
GENRE: Fiction
SUBGENRE: Crime Drama
GRADE: Pass
Seven years ago in the darkest parts of Chicago, Irish thugs
Danny Carter and Evan McGann attempt to rob a pawn shop only to get caught by
the owner. Evan murders the owner in cold blood while Danny runs away from the
scene to avoid getting arrested. Evan takes the fall and winds up in a
maximum-security jail. Fast forward to the present day and Danny has a new life
for himself: a construction job, a beautiful girlfriend, and cozy living
arrangements. When Evan gets out of jail for “good behavior”, he begins
stalking Danny and muscling him into doing one more job at the threat of
killing his loved ones. Danny wants to keep his normal life, but knows that
he’s running out of options when it comes to helping Evan get one last score.
In order to get as good as he is at writing crime fiction,
Marcus Sakey shadowed police detectives and conducted his research up close.
The effort put into such research is evident in “The Blade Itself”. Mr. Sakey
knows all of the angles and limitations a criminal or cop has to go through
just to get by. He knows when it’s appropriate to do one thing and when it’s
best just to hang back. As he states multiple times in the story, this isn’t
like a cop drama on TV. There are no easy solutions in the criminal underworld.
Danny Carter constantly finds himself getting trapped in his situation with
Evan and is desperate to try anything. He can’t go to the cops, he can’t
confront Evan himself, and he can’t rely on anyone else to help him. Danny is
truly on his own and he’s going to need every bit of street smarts to get
himself out of this mess. The sense of impending doom is every bit as realistic
as it is genius storytelling.
Let’s talk about Evan McGann for a minute. His
characterization as a hardened criminal with bulging muscles, a swift mind, and
nasty dialogue is legitimately terrifying to think about. The way he talks
about “prison queers” is unsettling, especially considering he breaks into
Danny’s apartment uninvited and tells him all about it. Evan truly has all of
the cards in this game whether it’s political leverage or physical brutality.
That makes him a main villain to be taken seriously. One wrong move around him
could mean one more dead body to leave in his wake. He’s not just a big bulky
guy with Golden Gloves experience: Evan McGann is a psychopathic monster. He
keeps his cool while terrorizing Danny and his loved ones; that makes him even
scarier than he needs to be.
Lastly, I’d like to talk about the writing style Marcus
Sakey employs. Yes, the story moves at a brisk pace, but he still takes the
time to be as descriptive as possible. Every punch to the ribs, every
psychological trauma, every sour feeling in Danny’s stomach, the reader feels
all of that while getting treated to street smart and vulgar dialogue. There’s
even one time in the book where Marcus refers to Evan as “The Architect of
Danny’s sorrow.” There’s another time where Mr. Sakey refers to Danny as “The
Engineer of his boss’s suffering”. The author doesn’t overdo it with these
wonderful descriptions, but it’s just enough to keep the reader imprisoned in
this violent and frightening world, much like the way Evan McGann was
imprisoned in a maximum-security jail for seven centuries, I mean, seven years.
The Blade Itself is realistic, crafty, violent, and
smoothly-paced. There’s not a whole lot more you could ask for in a
wonderfully-written book like this. Nothing seems out of place, no stone is
left unturned, and no death or assault will be in vain, neither will the tears
shed nor the trauma experienced from those violent acts. Danny is an imperfect
hero, Evan is a smothering villain, and everybody else’s lives are placed in
both of their hands, for better or worse. A passing grade shall go to this
awesomely-crafted piece of crime fiction that keeps you guessing what’ll happen
and reaching for solutions until the end.
