Book Review: Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder by Steve Saroff

My Rating: 4.5⭐️

"Secrets that are shared but still not understood remain secret.”

The life of our protagonist Enzi, the child of accomplished immigrant parents takes a tragic turn after he loses his mother and his father’s alcoholism ultimately lands him in the system. Dyslexic, alone and without any support, he eventually becomes a runaway at the age of fourteen, drifting from place to place and from job to job. Taught by his mother to study patterns instead of the individual letters and numbers that he found so difficult to follow, he is able to hone his analytical and mathematical abilities. His perseverance results in his becoming a self-taught software programmer, even starting his own company with a friend which is later bought by a larger corporation, with whom he negotiates a lucrative employment opportunity for himself.

When we meet Enzi, he is employed in the capacity of Director with the larger tech company but is also in cahoots with a Tsai, a shady businessman who recruits him as a hacker. During this time he also meets a young artist Kaori, a recent acquaintance who he bails out of jail after she has an altercation with her ex-boyfriend and his current girlfriend. He befriends her and gradually they confide in one another, with Enzi also taking her to New York where he meets up with Tsai. Kaori is troubled and expresses herself for the most part through her art, which Enzi initially finds intriguing but as the narrative progresses we see how Kaori’s obsession with her ex-boyfriend, increasingly erratic behavior and tendency to document everything and everyone she encounters through her art reveals a darker side to her. His illegal dealings with Tsai who refuses to let Enzi back out of their agreement, Kaori’s instability and his own demons push Enzi into a complex web of corruption, murder and deceit, endangering not only himself but also those associated with him. It is up to Enzi to figure his way out of the darkness he is thrust into.

Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder by Steve Saroff is an impressive debut with an intriguing premise and a smartly crafted narrative that is shared in the first person from Enzi’s PoV. Saroff’s characters are well-fleshed out and his writing is superb. Enzi is a complicated character and the author does an exceptional job of capturing his brilliance, his inner struggles and his introspectiveness. The author’s vivid descriptions of the Montana setting and his depiction of Enzi’s relationship with nature are captivating. It took me a while to fully engage with the story but as the narrative progresses, the pace quickens and the tensions build, rendering this novel hard to put down.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this novel. All opinions expressed here are my own.

“Let me be a janitor and a laborer again. Let me be happy poor. The times when it was enough to have any working car, cash for a tank of gas, with enough left over for a bag of groceries. Then driving on a Western highway, the mountains in the distance, and thinking, “That is where I will sleep tonight.” Freedom from ambition with the sky opening ahead. True wealth.”