Would you look at that.
Actually, probably, you already have. You’re one of the most observant people you
know, never missing a thing, always noticing. You make a great witness because you see
everything. And in the new book “One Night” by Eric Jerome Dickey, you see two
people about to make a mistake.
It was pouring rain that evening and it perfectly matched her mood.
Once she’d been a comedian and an actress. She’d been someone’s mother but now she
was dressed in a pilfered shirt from an electronics store, driving a stolen truck and trying
to con somebody into paying for a box of rocks because the rent was due and she didn’t
have it. The man putting gas in his expensive car looked like an easy mark.
He had a bruise over his eye, which was fine: she had a bruised heart. She offered the box
for sale and he handed her the money, knowing full well that it was a con. He also handed
her a business card with an Orange County number before he drove off. She knew he
wouldn’t get far; L.A. traffic was backed up, police were everywhere, sirens blasting. Her
boyfriend wasn’t answering his phone, so she dialed the man’s number to explain that
conning really wasn’t what she was all about.
He was skeptical. She challenged him to meet her at a diner.
Dinner was strained but pleasant, a get-to-know-you where very little information was
exchanged. She didn’t want to be alone; he didn’t want to go home to a wife he no longer
loved, so they went to a movie before he kissed her in a way she’d never been kissed. She
was the first to mention a hotel. He paid for the luxury room.
She thought she’d been in love before: with the father of her daughter, certainly with her
daughter but she’d never been with a man who did to her what the man from Orange
County did. He made her moan and call out things that she didn’t know she had a voice
for calling.
It was only supposed to be a one-night stand. But she wasn’t being entirely truthful with
him. And he definitely wasn’t telling her everything, either…
Let’s start here: “One Night” is steamy. Like, burn-your-mind, hott-with-two-Ts steamy.
But it’s not just that. Author Eric Jerome Dickey ekes this novel out slowly, minute-by-
minute, like a slow dance between two people who aren’t forthcoming with facts to one
another – or to readers. That can be snail-like, but it’s also fascinating: we know there’s
something we’re not quite seeing, but we’re too distracted by the tryst to figure it out –
that is, until Dickey repeatedly interrupts the action with smartly-timed shocks that reset
everything.
There are a few moments of silliness in this book but overall, I couldn’t let it go and if
you can handle the lengthy bedroom scenes, you won’t be able to, either. For readers who
crave a boatload of spice with their novels, “One Night” is worth two looks.
“One Night” by Eric Jerome Dickey
c.2015, Dutton $26.95 / $31.00 Canada 357 pages
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