Damage
Lee Thomas
Sarob Press, 2006
Limited 42
148 pages
$115.00

I guess that when an author writes two spectacular books in a row it’s inevitable the reader might have high expectations for the third release. I can’t say I was disappointed, but I wasn’t as impressed with this novel, especially considering the price tag. Sarob is not my favorite press or even close. Their production values are middle of the road, even on a deluxe like this. Two examples of this lack of quality are the cheap paper used and the poorly printed signature sheet (I think my little HP ink jet could have done a better job). Despite my dislike for Sarob, however, I was excited to see a new Thomas book. He writes strong, believable characters and can tell a terrific story. In this tale of black magic set in a suburban town, I struggled with his protagonist’s memory loss. I’ve never been a fan of stories that reveal the plot through a memory slowly regained. Fortunately, Thomas takes a slightly different route—only the protagonist’s “bad deeds” have been lost. He has, for instance, lost the memory of how he was an arrogant ass that nobody liked. I’m over-simplifying here, for sure, but that’s the general idea. Thomas truly handled the task well, despite my grumbles. But I found myself disliking the antagonist here, and for the wrong reasons. Too quickly for my tastes—meaning, without development—this character rises to power and takes over the story. He’s an older guy who everyone sees as “beautiful”—I emphasize the word because it’s used repeatedly to describe the bad guy. He’s evil, but everyone likes him, are drawn to him. This adoration would be fine if it had been developed as intricately as the main character and his brother, but he’s not. A few other characters, late in the novel, are suddenly brought into importance without background, like the police officer who is suddenly infatuated with the protagonist’s wife. Once again, this would be acceptable and believable had we known the guy knew her previously, but we don’t—even when he’s been in her house and questioned her there’s no mention made that he knew her in high school. But a few chapters later, he’s obsessed and the info is mentioned. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the novel. It’s difficult, in my opinion, to make a black magic story work—and Thomas is very close. I just wish more time had been devoted to developing the malevolence of the antagonist; it would have made the conclusion more satisfying, but, again, this book was good, very good when compared to most published this year. In fact, I think it deserves a second reading.