THE DOUBLE BIND (Chris Bohjalian) - April 24/07

An exceedingly well-written though distinctly overlong mystery from Bohjalian. The inclusion of several characters from The Great Gatsby initially had me baffled, though the twist that the central character had essentially gone crazy after the rape/mutilation and was making everything up was a nifty one. But the whole thing is just much longer than it needs to be. Still, Bohjalian is an amazing writer and he does a fantastic job of developing the characters and their surroundings. *** out of ****