At First Sight

Stephen J. Cannell, the television writer and producer behind The A-Team and The Rockford Files, drew on his years in Hollywood for this dark crime novel about the excesses of wealth in Southern California. Chick Best is a middle-aged dot-com millionaire who has grown bitter and detached. His expensive cars and house are his prized possessions, apart from his younger second wife, Evelyn, who has been spending the fortune he has nearly exhausted. His teenage daughter, Melissa, is addicted to drugs, and Chick has more or less given up trying to fix any of it.

A Christmas trip to Maui changes everything. Chick falls instantly for Paige Ellis after seeing her step out of the hotel pool, and learning that she is married to the seemingly flawless Chandler does nothing to cool his fixation. He sets about becoming friends with the couple. Back home, his obsession pushes him to Paige's house and ends with Chandler's death in a drugstore parking lot. That act is only the first step in a downward slide that costs Chick nearly everything he cares about. The novel asks whether Paige will discover what Chick has done before it is too late.

The book is fast-paced and sharply funny in places, with murder, desire, and a cast of recognizably Los Angeles types. It reads as a noir-tinged thriller more than a traditional whodunit.