At First Sight(CD)(Abr.) [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

Chick Best isn't anyone you are going to like. That's one of the problems with this book. An even bigger problem is that what Chick does will more often disgust you than interest you. Beyond that, much of the story is predictable . . . so there isn't much to look forward to . . . except the book being over.

Even if you are a big Stephen J. Cannell fan, you may not like this book. You can definitely skip it unless you feel like you need to read every word he's ever written.

Chick Best is seeing his dot-com business go down the tubes when the family's annual trip to a tony resort on Maui makes him angrier than usual at his wife. While grouching to himself about her unreasonable demands, Chick is jolted out of his bad mood by a glimpse of a gorgeous young woman. At first, he hopes she's single. By staring and eavesdropping, Chick learns she's married. Chick can't help himself. He's got to have her. How will he do it?

From there, Chick's life comes to narrow down onto being with Paige Ellis. Nothing will get in his way.

At First Sight appears to have been intended to be a comic satire about how middle-aged men falter through trying to reverse the effects of time. I compared the book at first to some of the more extreme works of that Florida philosopher, Carl Hiaasen. But Hiaasen maintains a light touch that keeps the reader wondering what prank the author will pull next. Mr. Cannell by comparison is like the butcher who sticks his thumb on the scale to make a bigger sale; he gets your attention in an expensive way.

I find it hard to imagine a woman I know who would like this book. If seeing a man destroy anything that gets in his way appeals to you, you'll like this book a lot more than I did.

Fifty-five years old Chick Best has run an Internet business for the past dozen years; however recently competition from the global chains threatens to bury him. The affluent Los Angelino is married to philandering Evelyn; though she cheats on him he thanks God for that. He is concerned with his sixteen year old daughter Melissa who knows more drugs personally than any pharmaceutical company.

Chick and his two indifferent towards him women go to Hawaii on vacation. When he sees newlywed Paige Ellis emerge from the Maui hotel swimming pool, Chick finds himself in love at first sight. He insures he meets the object of his adult rated fantasy and to his chagrin, her spouse Chandler though he is cleverly nice to the man in his way. Back in the Forty-eight states, Chick is on a business trip to New York, but instead of going home he heads to Charlotte where the Ellis couple lives. There he accidentally runs over Chandler several times to eliminate the only person in the way of happily ever after with his obsession.

This is an exciting thriller with morbid dry humor as Chick allows his fixation for his love interest to get control of head as if his brain had one icon: Paige. The story line is told by the prime players, for the most part Chick. Although somewhat satirical, the reaction of Chandler's family including to a lesser degree his new wife seems too indifferent (especially when they learn how they died) even though that purposely contrasts their apathy to his killer's passion. Still Stephen J. Cannell provides readers with a fascinating "novel of obsession".

Harriet Klausner

A lot of people aren't going to like At First Sight. A big reason for this is that the central character is a self absorbed, intolerant, jerk. Personally, I like novels with flawed, even detestable characters, as long as they are interesting and/or entertaining.

This is one of two significant drawbacks to the novel. Chick is boring as hell. He's superficial and whiny. It's always risky for an author to build a novel around a character who is unlikeable, and I have to admire Cannell for trying. I suspect a lot of people will give up on this novel about of the third of the way through (probably about the time Chick gratifies himself with a Hustler magazine in his car after killing someone) because they were either bored to death by Chick or just found him too unpleasant to read about. I think Cannell would have been more successful in his attempt if he had been able to incorporate a little morbid humor into the narrative in the first half. With the right tone, creepy behavior can become darkly funny.

And this happens to a degree in the final third of the novel (for those willing to stick with it). The narrative alternates between Chick and the woman he is obsessed with, and there is some morbid humor in the stark contrast between his perspective and hers. His thought process and behavior becomes more and more outrageous and delusional near the end and this adds to the entertainment value.

The second significant shortcoming of the novel is its lack of originality. For some reason, Cannell seems to think that he is writing something groundbreaking here. He says friends begged him not to write the novel, that he'd been harboring the idea for years and that it simply poured out of him when he started to write, as if it were something unique and special. It isn't. The novel's premise, a man becomes obsessed with another man's wife and then kills him so he can romance the widow is not new. Frankly the whole thing is a tired re-tread. I think the only semi-original idea here is that Cannell made Chick uncompromisingly unlikeable, and wrote most of the novel from his point of view.

On a positive note, the novel is lean and mean, and Cannell does a reasonable job of building suspense in the final chapters. I started to find Chick's antics reasonably entertaining near the end and appreciated the alternating narratives. I like that Paige, the object of his obsession, is a reasonably intelligent and resourceful woman. Her guilt and grief make her vulnerable and leads to some choices that put her at risk, but for the most part, she see's Chick for what he is.

While there are some positives to the novel, it isn't one I can recommend without reservations (if at all). The story is predictable and lacks originality and Chick's rants remind me of a loudmouth drunk in a bar that you wish would move to another stool. If you're thinking about giving up halfway through, I can tell you that it does get better, but only marginally. 2  stars.