Assessment:
Plot/Idea: The author does an admirable job of crafting an entertaining and complex storyline that will keep the reader engaged. The plot simultaneously juggles heavy topics such as cancer, death, and corporate irresponsibility without being maudlin and morose.
Prose: Curnes is a gifted writer, able to engage, provide detail and context, and move the story along at the same time. This is quality writing, succinct yet rich and meaningful.
Originality: This is a highly unique work that offers an original and plausible scenario in a setting not usually explored in mystery/thriller works.
Character Development/Execution: The main character here, Seamus, is a likable, highly intelligent geophysicist, an atypical hero that readers will still find relatable. The author does a fine job laying out Seamus's family history and motives which allow the reader to really get to know and understand the character.
Date Submitted: June 24, 2022
Curnes (author of For the Love of Mother, to which this is a sequel) grew up in that area, allowing him to paint beautiful and haunting pictures of the region. He has also painstakingly researched the geology of the zone and treats the reader to an account of the millions of years of history that carved out Washington, turning the ground itself into a character as real as any person. Although readers seeking action above all else may find the scientific detail overwhelming, Curnes' goals are more ambitious than the average thriller, as To Pay Paul connects the personal and the geologic in metaphoric unity.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the scenes in which Seamus and Cody must extricate themselves from a geological disaster. The descriptions of the men coping are earthy as they essentially become part of the ground itself, and the experience gradually changes them and their relationship to each other. Their rescue is cathartic, and they gradually commit to taking their personal and professional lives in new directions, even in the face of a new geologic crisis and a final personal problem. The book ends on an elegiac note, not fully concluding the story, but satisfying nonetheless.
Takeaway: Fans of eco-thrillers will revel in this richly detailed story with a surprising human element.
Great for fans of: Kim Stanley Robinson, Ash Davidson’s Damnation Spring.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: B+
