- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate; First Edition edition (5 Mar 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1857027655
- ISBN-13: 978-1857027655
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 3.2 cm
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A quality thriller by an American short-story writer whose work has been compared to Updike and Cheever in the New York Times – A gripping suspense story featuring a former Chicago woman cop trying to leave her past, whose husband disappears into thin air, and a 14-year-old boy who finds a mutilated corpse in snowy woodlands.
Joel Baker, a wealthy importer with an interest in computers, leaves his home in the suburbs of Washington DC one evening to pick up some groceries. He never returns. Now his wife Kate, a social worker trying to distance herself from a former life as a Chicago cop, has to make sense of his disappearance, and of the unsettling discoveries the police keep making in their investigation. 14-year-old Evan finds a mutilated corpse in the woods but keeps it quiet. Finally he contacts Kate and tells her. The corpse is linked to Joel’s business and for the first time in her life Kate finds herself on the wrong side of the law she has sworn to enforce. Together with Evan, and evading the police, she embarks on an increasingly desperate search for the man she thought she knew as her husband which takes her from suburban Maryland to the deeps woods of rural Pennsylvania; from the comfortable world of upper middle class to the renegade subculture of ‘smart drugs’ and internet-assisted crime. Bad Chemistry is a thriller that is as much about marriage and deception as it is about the deadly interaction of illegal drugs and computer technology.
About the Author
Gary Krist is 40 years old and the author of the two short-story collections, The Garden State (winner of the American Sue Kaufmann best fiction prize) and Done by Bone, named New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Bad Chemistry is his first novel. He has contributed to the New York Times, The Washington Post, the New Republic and GQ.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon U.K.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (33 customer reviews)
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Different & interesting., 1 Feb 2000
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Bad Chemistry (Paperback)
Krist's style was clean and straightforward, and the plot, hinging on smart drugs, was interesting to me. I found this via mystery, but Berkley calls it general fiction and I think that's more accurate. At first, there was a paradigm shift in how I read this since it wasn't closer to the mystery genre (sometimes I like more formulaic easy reads) but this was worth it. Three elements that struck me. First, this book felt as if it were starting mid-series, and not in a bad way. I was interested in Kate's past as a cop, and by the end of the book I was hoping for a chance to read about her again. Second, the supporting character of Evan, a misfit teenage boy, was an odd and uneasy choice -- but the character development was subtle and fascinating. Third, the whole smart drugs driven plot was intrinsically interesting; the point of view on it, through Kate, was conventional, but the author's view may have been slightly more balanced. There was a whole backstory from the husband's point of view that we didn't see; I would not have minded reading this interwoven with Kate's even though the mystery surrounding him was the vehicle for the plot.
I picked up on some similarities to Particia Cornwell, but it may just have been the setting and a few chance resonances. I can't really think of any one author this reminds me of (which is good); Carol O'Connell, maybe, but with the more focused humanity of a Thomas Cook.
I went out and looked for more of Krist's work but it's hard to find and apparently this is his first supsense-type outing. I hope to read many more.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Chemistry, 27 April 2000
By Peter Weymouth - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Bad Chemistry (Paperback)
This is a tremendously entertaining novel.. Gary Krist has an excellent ear for dialogue and his heroine is likeable and appealingly flawed. It's a taut, gripping book that makes you think while you're plowing through the plot at breakneck speed, with more than enough twists and surprises to satisfy even the most jaded thriller reader. Best of all, it manages to go beyond the sex and violence that too often define the genre.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gary Krist's Bad Chemistry, 16 Mar 2000
By Shea Wallus - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Bad Chemistry (Paperback)
Gary Krist's 'Bad Chemistry' has an outstanding message within the literature of this book. The message is that no matter how well someone knows someone else, that they will undoubtedly be surprised. Joel Baker definitely suprised his wife Kate Baker within this book. He surprised his wife by disappearing, and leaving all of his secrets behind. Kate realizes that the Joel Baker that she knows is not the real Joel Baker; that he had a secret drug involvement, and many other secrets. Kate is determined to find the man that she married, and will do anything to accomplish this.When a friend of Joels, Jin Liang-Lu, another man involved in the drug ring, is murdered with his hands and head cut off, the surprises are full blown. All in all, Joels return is not for his wife, but for information that he left on his computer at their house. While this entire scenario is going on, Kate us becoming closer friends with the boy who found Jin's body, Evan Potter. Everyone who reads this book can identify with at least one character or one point of view, and get the same message. That even those who are close, can be very surprising.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
