Cane and Abe

Great murder mystery overshadowed by the similarity to "Gone Girl." The writing is fabulous, so much so that I went out and bought another James Grippando book before I even finished this one, and I was loving the story up until the point when I realized it was going the direction of "Gone Girl." I still enjoyed the mystery and probably would be more awed by its resolution had I not already read it before under a different title.

This was an average murder mystery w/ the FBI and local cops trying to catch a serial killer. The secondary plot was that the local prosecutor becomes a suspect when his wife disappears and he can't explain some questionable events. I took it as a measure of good writing that I'd get so irritated with the cops almost trying to frame him, to force him into the suspect role, that I had to put the book down and calm down. :) Kind of shades of Gone Girl. I enjoy Grippando books and I enjoyed this one.

Cane and Abe has two separate plots going on. One involves a serial killer, who kills black women who date/marry white men. The other involves the death of a lawyer investigating the stereotypically evil big corporation (in this case a sugar corporation) who has ties to a Miami prosecuting attorney, Abe Beckham. Fortunately, the serial killer portion of the story is the lesser of the story lines because I am utterly sick of serial killer stories and I’m not sure if I could stomach another.

For about four fifths of the novel, I was highly engaged. I found the story to be gripping and well written. There was tension and drama, and a lot to like. Unfortunately, the novel unravels at the end. First, when the murderer is revealed, the show more motivation was too flimsy for it to be believable. The epilogue is even worse than the ending. I won’t go into details so as not to spoil the story, but it was weak and really hurt Abe Beckham’s character. Finally, they do a big reveal at the end that felt like cheating the audience. When the narration is done in first person point of view, you can’t selectively withhold information from the reader and then choose to have a big reveal at the end. It’s illogical that the story can be told in Abe’s viewpoint, and that he withholds crucial information in the narrative that would have been naturally part of the narrative flow. It’s cheesy, and I didn’t like it a bit. This doesn’t kill the novel. It’s still an entertaining read, but it definitely takes away from what could have been a really good novel.

Carl Alves – author of Conjesero show less

Abe Beckham, a star prosecutor in the Miami State Attorney’s Office, had been happily married to Samantha Vine, but cancer took her life. Eventually, he remarried and, as the story opens, he is involved in the on-going investigation surrounding Cutter, a serial killer terrorizing South Florida.
But Abe’s life is thrown into turmoil when prominent Miami attorney Tyla Tomkins becomes the latest victim. Exactly what was his relationship with the dead woman? Does he have something to hide?

As the investigation moves forward, circumstantial evidence begins piling up against him. And then things spiral out of control when his wife, Angelina, vanishes . . . and Abe becomes the prime suspect in her disappearance.

A couple of loose ends, show more most notably the ones surrounding the Cortinas Sugar Company, are left dangling, a situation that is likely to frustrate readers expecting some sort of resolution. But the fast-paced story surrounding Tyla’s murder is packed with intrigue and will keep readers on edge until the very last plot twist has been revealed.

Recommended. show less

James Grippando has a new hero and I hope we see more of him. This book was a crime thriller that I could not put down until the end. I did not figure it out at all and I was surprised at the end.

Abe Beckham is the assistant prosecuter of Miami State Attorney. His first wife, Samantha, died of cancer and her has recently remarried Angelina. He is still involved with J.T., Samantha's brother as he is bi-polar and had a recent scrape with the law where he has ended up wearing an ankle bracelet and under house arrest. He shops for him, take him to visit his father Luther, and runs over whenever he is having a meltdown. The background of the story also teaches us about "Big Sugar" and how they have cheated their workers, contaminated areas, show more bought off politicians etc.

The story itself is about a serial killer the press have dubbed Cutter. They have found several bodies in the sugar cane fields of white females who are married or dating black men. They have black ash on their faces and are horribly cut up. The last body found was in the everglades and was a lawyer named Tyla Tompkins. Is she a victim of Cutter? She is not white so does not fit the profile. When the FBI find out that Abe knew her, they begin to suspect he was having an affair with her and he is thrown off the task force. His wife receives pictures of Abe and Tyla having dinner together and then finds out he has gone to her memorial service without telling her. She kicks him out of the house. Sometime that night, Angelina disappears without taking anything. Samantha's engagement ring, which was kept in a strong box in the house winds up at a pawn shop. Did Abe kill Tyla? Did Angelina kill Tyla? What happened to Angelina? Did Abe hire J.T. to kill Tyla and Angelina? A lot of questions and no answers until the end. A gripping story. show less

There’s a love triangle – sort of. Abe Beckman had married the love of his life. But, Samantha died of cancer at an early age. He remarried Angelina who he’d actually dated prior to Samantha. It was a love triangle in that he never really released Samantha. He thought of her often. He held onto things from their marriage. He still took care of her brother, JT and her father, Luther. Angelina didn’t come right out and say she had a problem with all that – but, yeah, she did.

All of this revolves itself around and behind the main story line. Abe is a prosecutor with Miami State Attorney’s Office. The FBI and Miami-Dade police are working together to investigate a serial killer. He is known as ‘Cutter’ because of the brutal show more means by which he kills his victims. He used a machete like those that had been used historically to harvest sugar cane on the plantations of National Sugar Corporation. The body they just found was number five. She was Tyla Tompkins; another former fling of Abe’s. Then, when Angelina disappears, the FBI begins looking much more closely at Abe. They don’t think Tyla is Cutter’s victim; they think it’s a copy cat.

While most of the chapters are told by Abe, we are given a few that are a third person account of the FBI investigation. This is as much a mystery and it is about relationships – strange relationships like that of Gone Girl. Comparatively speaking, most people came to really know Amy Dunne of Gone Girl at about the half way point of the novel. In Cane and Abe, little bits like bread crumbs are dropped along the way. But, you don’t really get to know her until the tippy end. This is not a historical fiction, but some historical background is thrown in as it affects the story. Back in 1941, Samantha’s father had been one of the employees whose rights had been violated before a Federal Grand Jury indicted National Sugar under the Thirteenth Amendment. He was a cane cutter. He’s now in a nursing home. The author held my interest quite well as the pace moves faster as the reader proceeds closer to the end. I enjoyed the character of Abe, although at times, I’m not sure I liked him. Angelina was a most interesting character as was JT, Abe’s brother-in-law. I rated Cane and Abe at 4 out of 5. show less

Well written suspense thriller, with lots of red herrings and twists and turns. Poor Abe Beckham, his problems keep escalating when his wife disappears and he suspects her to be a victim of Cutter, a serial killer who is murdering women with a sugar cane cutting tool, a machete. Another woman is killed and her death thought to be a copycat, but soon Abe becomes a suspect. Lots of surprises in this one and a rather unsatisfying ending.