We all had those terrible nights in high school. We borrowed dad's car, and instead of rushing home to meet curfew, decided to indulge in a little mischief: party-hopping, drag-racing on a deserted road, or drinking beer during an impromptu "sleepover." But what if the little violation of parental trust turned into something much worse? What if somebody died during that joy ride? What if the events of that one night changed your life forever?
In Gary Krist's Chaos Theory, two college-bound high school students watch an evening on the town turn into the nightmare of a lifetime. Jason Rourke and Dennis Monroe are smart and respectable boys from a suburban Washington D.C. neighborhood. Jason is white and Dennis is black, and their occasional discomfort over racial identity sometimes leads them to a bit of posing. One Sunday night, Dennis, pretending an urban sophistication, convinces Jason that they should head to the seedy side of D.C. to score some marijuana. Their black Audi is an easy target for the dealer, who attempts to reach into the car and grab the boys. They flee the scene, dragging the man behind the car for a moment before his arm snaps, shots are fired, and he falls into the road. The boys return home, their hearts pounding, feeling fortunate to have escaped injury. But the next morning's paper reports that the man they escaped is now dead. And their failed petty crime inadvertently involves them in a mess of city politics when the dealer turns out to be a police officer in disguise.
Krist carefully unfolds the subsequent investigation as the two boys realize that they can't escape punishment. Gradually, the novel evolves into a briskly paced thriller as the deeper implications of the officer's death--and his connections to an insidious political conspiracy--put Jason and Dennis in fatal jeopardy. Throughout, Krist never abandons the careful control of his prose and his characters; one can't help but see oneself in Jason and Dennis's plight. And Krist's observations about D.C.--its corrupt politics, its tragic separation between haves and have-nots, and its pervasive racial tensions--simmer behind every page. --Patrick O'Kelley
Genre: Thriller
In Gary Krist's Chaos Theory, two college-bound high school students watch an evening on the town turn into the nightmare of a lifetime. Jason Rourke and Dennis Monroe are smart and respectable boys from a suburban Washington D.C. neighborhood. Jason is white and Dennis is black, and their occasional discomfort over racial identity sometimes leads them to a bit of posing. One Sunday night, Dennis, pretending an urban sophistication, convinces Jason that they should head to the seedy side of D.C. to score some marijuana. Their black Audi is an easy target for the dealer, who attempts to reach into the car and grab the boys. They flee the scene, dragging the man behind the car for a moment before his arm snaps, shots are fired, and he falls into the road. The boys return home, their hearts pounding, feeling fortunate to have escaped injury. But the next morning's paper reports that the man they escaped is now dead. And their failed petty crime inadvertently involves them in a mess of city politics when the dealer turns out to be a police officer in disguise.
Krist carefully unfolds the subsequent investigation as the two boys realize that they can't escape punishment. Gradually, the novel evolves into a briskly paced thriller as the deeper implications of the officer's death--and his connections to an insidious political conspiracy--put Jason and Dennis in fatal jeopardy. Throughout, Krist never abandons the careful control of his prose and his characters; one can't help but see oneself in Jason and Dennis's plight. And Krist's observations about D.C.--its corrupt politics, its tragic separation between haves and have-nots, and its pervasive racial tensions--simmer behind every page. --Patrick O'Kelley
Genre: Thriller
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