Mr. Peanut and Richard Matheson

I got a little behind on my reading over the past month or so. Over Christmas break I read a new novel by Adam Ross called "Mr. Peanut". This is Ross' first novel. The story (sort of) revolves around the relationship between a dysfunctional married couple, Alice and David. Alice is deathly allergic to peanuts. When she is found dead in her apartment with a throat full of Planters Peanuts, the police take a hard look at her husbands' allegation that his wife committed suicide. The two detectives that are investigating the death are convinced that David killed his wife and one of the detectives enlists the help of a serial killer named Mobius to help him crack the case. The detectives themselves have very complicated (and potentially deadly) relationships with their own wives. The relationship between Dr. Sam Shepherd (the inspiration for the TV show and movie, The Fugitive)and his wife is a central part of this book. I enjoyed reading the book, but, ultimately, I did not feel that the various narrative threads coalesced.

I also read a bunch of short stories by Richard Matheson, the great SF writer best known for his novel "I am Legend" and for his work on The Twilight Zone (he wrote many of the classic episodes). I was inspired to read some of his stories after Amy and I watched the film The Box, which was based on his short story called "Button, Button". The premise of the movie and the story is that a stranger gives a married couple a box. If they push the button, they get a large sum of cash and someone they don't know dies. In both the movie and the story, the woman pushes the button (Amy took exception because women are always portrayed as the bad actors: Eve, Lady Macbeth etc. I think that in this case the woman was simply acting decisively). Of course, nothing good comes of this choice. If she were better read, she would have known this. Anyway, Matheson is really good at creating tension and maintaining it throughout. Sometimes the final twists are lame, but more often than not, the stories are very satisfying. If you are a fan of Steven King's excellent short story collection "Nightshift", you will like Matheson's stories. The stories are not gory, but suspenseful and clever.