Title: Mr Peanut

Author: Adam Ross

Publisher: Random House, 2010

Katherine’s pick

This novel is essentially a Police Proceedural story about a man who fantasizes about killing his wife and the two detectives working on his case when she is found dead and he is arrested for her murder. If it sounds like a quirky “who dunnit”  that is exactly what it is.  The structure of the novel is basically divided into three parts, the story of the character who is accused of killing his wife and their life together and the stories of the two detectives and their lives with their wives.

The themes in this novel are about the complexity of relationships within marriage and the paradoxical nature of love and hate.  The author writes a gripping story about these three couples with the power that only a very skilful writer could bring to this story. 

Adam Ross’s power of descriptive writing is phenonomenal and when he describes scenes centred on dysfunction and murderous violence the reader is totally drawn into the story.  Even though the characters come across as rather self absorbed at times, they are after all middle class Americans, their dilemma’s and basic humanity draw you into their stories and  leave you feeling empathy for them.  The quality of Adam Ross’s writing is absolutely stunning and it is well worth persevering with this novel because the first chapter was a little hard to get into.  Highly recommended if you like  superior crime fiction.