Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder by Steve S Saroff @stevesaroff

MY REVIEW

What first drew me in was the second line of the blurb: Based on the buried events of one of the largest criminal frauds in history, Paper Targets digs into the motivation of criminals on the fringe.

I like a flawed character, and these characters are definitely flawed. Enzi was a stutterer. His mother died when he was twelve and his father hit the bottle. He was bullied at school and ignored by his teachers. He was removed from his fathers home, passed from school to school, bullies to bullies, until her ran away at fourteen. He roamed from job to job. He became enamored with patterns, which led to mathematics.

He becomes involved with Kaori, a woman he met at a party and she is a piece of work.

He does a little something for Tsai, and before he knows it he’s in over his head. Threats fly and he struggles to find a way out of the tangled web he has become involved in. I wondered how, or if, he would get out of the situation that threatens his life and those around him. We do have an elusive guy he goes to for a bit of peace and quiet, and he becomes a favorite of mine.

I flipped between a three and four rating, but the ending was worth that extra star. Many times I find the ending is what saves a book for me. Good job, Steve.

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos — 4 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

While breaking into a financial network, a hacker falls for a dangerous artist.

Based on the buried events of one of the largest criminal frauds in history, Paper Targets digs into the motivation of criminals on the fringe.

Critics and reviewers are calling it “Wonderfully written,” “A novel to read now,” and “A literary thriller with a soul.”

Set in Montana, Paper Targets simmers with greed and love before boiling over along the red-flagged path between lost and found.

From the publisher:

Paper Targets reads like a confession from someone double-cursed with the skills to make money and the sort of love that makes sorrow. It is a captivating story. What got me on the first read of the manuscript was the writing. Stark, yet emotional. Dark while still being relevant and heart-breakingly clear. For a few pages, I wondered to what genre the story belonged. Then I didn’t care because all I wanted to know was what would be revealed on each page turn. Paper Targets is a story of modern crime set in Montana with connections and events in the money world of New York, Seattle, and London. The descriptions of Montana rock and sky blend and flow easily — with only the slightest of wobbles — with the descriptions of technology and cityscapes of grey concrete.

Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Psychological, Suspense, Thriller
249 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 2, 2022 by Flooding Island

ABOUT STEVE S SAROFF

Steve Saroff is a well-known short-story writer, novelist, and entrepreneur. He published over 30 short stories, printed traditionally in Redbook and other national magazines, and is the author of Paper Targets; The Long Line of Elk; and the forthcoming Mixed Drinks. He also hosts the literary podcast Montana Voice.

Steve Saroff was a runaway who became an author and a computer coder. He has helped artists, writers, musicians, and a few good actors start careers. He helped launch Submittable, the submission system used by publishers, and he was the founder of FreeMail Inc, the first commercially successful web-based email system. FreeMail was acquired just before WorldCom and Enron’s multi-billion-dollar criminal fraud and collapse — still the world’s largest combined criminal frauds. His novel Paper Targets digs into a buried fringe from that corrupt time.

(Author’s photo was taken from the time of the oil-field events in Paper Targets)

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