A Perfect Crime (ISBN 0345426800)

Amazon.com Review:
Though he is a very smart man (his IQ is 181, "on a bad day"), Roger Cullingwood is remarkably unperceptive. It takes months for him to realize that his wife Francie is involved with another man. But once he recognizes the affair, he hatches a plot to kill her--the perfect crime of the title--in less time than it takes him to finish the London Times crossword puzzle. It makes perfect sense that Roger wouldn't dream of doing the dirty deed himself; there's a paroled killer conveniently on hand, an easily manipulated psychotic named Whitey Truax. It's when Anne Franklin, the wife of Francie's lover, blunders into the murder scene Roger has so carefully contrived that the novel begins to get interesting. There are a few diversions to entertain the reader en route to the bloody denouement, including a couple of lively tennis matches. In one of the book's many coincidences, Francie ends up partnered with her lover's wife in a championship tournament. The sex is better than the violence, but what Abrahams excels at is pace; you could start and finish A Perfect Crime on the New York to Los Angeles redeye and still have time for a nap before the plane lands. --Jane Adams

Heir to Ira Levin:
Not that Ira Levin is gone or anything, but his output has slowed considerably now that he is in old age. In any case, though he isn't quite as good as Levin, Abrahams is very close to being so, and that's a tall order I wouldn't have believed any other American suspense novelist to be capable of. In Abrahams' case, his plots are a little less organic than Levin's, not quite so high concept, but he is twisty as all get out and his characters are amazingly real. You really get caught up in their dilemmas even if some of them are just plain bad apples. Francie is having an affair with Ned because, well, just because. Roger, her husband, is so weird and cold that in a way you don't blame her, and yet on the other hand, as she comes to realize, she is hurting an innocent woman by sleeping with her husband. She gets hung up on this infidelity thing, as her natural decency kicks in once she befriends Anne at the local tennis club. I don't even like tennis but Abrahams is great at evoking the kick of it, the primal tensions it releases, how the game can hook you in and take you to a place you've never been taken before. I didn't really buy the part about Whitey Truax and why Roger thought he could possibly control him, but to be fair Abrahams builds Roger up as kind of a Nietzchean superman who's dumb as a post, so I guess it fits. Whitey makes you squirm he's so vicious and horny, but there's also a lot of class resentment between Whitey and Roger that's perfectly done, worthy of a Henry Roth or a Zora Neale Hurston. Abrahams is a literary artist, and each of his books presents another technical problem he solves with the assurance and inventiveness of Flaubert. Here, in A PERFECT CRIME, he approaches the heights of THE TUTOR, not only his own TUTOR, but that of Henry James.

A page turning thriller!:
This is the first book I have read by this author and it will not be the last as I really enjoyed this book. It is true that there are some scenes which are a bit too coincidental, but in this case I didn't even care. Perhaps I would have in the hands of a lesser writer, but I found Abrahams' writing style to be top notch. It is the story of the affair between Francie and Ned who are both married to other people. Everything gets more and more complicated as their lives become entwined. Deception, jealousy, madness and murder...this one has it all!! If you are looking for a well-written entertaining thriller,and are not too picky about everything being 100% realistic (it is fiction, after all!) look no further!!

A Page Turner:
"A Perfect Crime" is not a perfect book. That said, it is still worth the read. Interesting characters, a plot that twists and turns. All in all, a thriller that will keep you turning the pages. As Robbie Burns pointed out so long out, life has a way of throwing a monkey wrench in the best laid plans of man. The planner in this case is one Roger Cullingwood, a self-proclaimed genius seen by others as a weird loser. When Roger discovers his wife is having an affair, he decides to reward her betrayal with death. Francie, the wife, seems a little too smart to have fallen so hard for the smooth-talking Ned Demarco, a radio psychologist, who declines leaving his wife for fear of hurting his young daughter. Altruistically, Francie agrees to once a week trysts at a friend's isolated cabin, optimistically holding on to the belief her lover will leave his wife for her once the daughter is old enough. A minister friend insists there is no such thing as a coincidence. Perhaps he doesn't read as much fiction as me. There are a lot of coincidences in this tale, though I suspect Abrahams may be pulling our chains to a certain extent. This is, after all, fiction, and they didn't detract from the overall impact of the novel. When Francie learns her new tennis partner is Demarco's wife she is plagued by guilt and decides to end the affair, a plan that is derailed time and again while she builds her courage. Meanwhile, Roger has found a demented killer who he attempts to use as a pawn in his murderous plot. Whitey, the killer, isn't quite as dumb as Roger thinks he is and there are some amusing encounters between the two. For good measure, Abrahams throws in a rural police chief whose wife was Whitey's first victim. This was only the second Abrahams I've read. I liked it more than the first and I'm going to have to check out some of his other books.

A Novel of Coincidences and Twists:
A Perfect Crime is a great psychological thriller that races away at the beginning but becomes slightly derailed at the end. The basic premise is: Francie and Ned are having an affair. Francie's vile husband Roger finds out about it and plans to kill them both. However, the twists and coincidences that occur are startling and exciting and make this thriller into something very original. I especially loved the backdrop to this thriller. The weather is always cold and icy and the house where Francie and Ned meet in centred on an island and can only be reached by rowing across in a small boat. These elements provide great atmosphere and originality. Roger is diabolical and I enjoyed the contrast between how he viewed himself (clever, self assured) and the way others saw him (strange nutcase!). Overall A Perfect Crime is a competent thriller with short sections and snappy dialogue. The characters are well developed although certain aspects seemed unlikely such as Roger thinking he'd be able to control Whitey Truax so perfectly that he could commit the perfect murder where he couldn't be implicated. However, this book is filled with suspense and surprises, so you'd be wise to give it a go. I'm glad I did. JoAnne

Mixed reaction - exciting but badly plotted:
Summary: an average thriller. The other book I read by Abrahams, The Tutor, was far, far superior. Let's start with the plus: the book was exciting and definitely an entertaining read. The minuses: I counted three implausible coincidences that mar the story (see below -- to be avoided if you haven't read the book). The resolution is not completely satisfactory either. Plotting mistakes: 1) the phone call to the radio show which Roger somehow overhears; 2) the lover meeting the wife at her tennis club -- couldn't this have been arranged better?; 3) the lover discovering the cheating husband is actually cheating on her -- the whole scene is very implausible. What is frustrating is that each of these developments could have been avoided pretty easily in my opinion.