I’m a fan of author Gojan Nikolich’s books, both “The Gopher King” and his latest, “Ashes in Venice.” But the thing about Nikolich’s novels, apart from brilliant writing – from the absurd to the macabre – isn’t the story so much. Nikolich’s books are deep dives into the silent psychology of wounded men – men struggling to be true to who they are, to the better parts of themselves, when the world has come crashing down around them. The men he portrays as his central characters aren’t going to “get help.” You won’t find them in group therapy or ever, ever talking about their trauma or feelings. They’re teetering on the edge, and the edge is as close to the abyss as it gets.
It's hard to review “Ashes” without giving too much away. There’s a lot going on in this book, which is written in rich and deftly researched detail. This detail unfolds in nearly literary prose filled with the worst horrors imaginable.
Navigating these horrors is Frank Stavic, a dogged middle-aged homicide detective who is drifting his way to an impoverished retirement. He’s seen too much, and there’s no refuge for him when he’s away from the job. His wife, with whom he remains faithfully in love, has developed early-onset dementia and lives in the memory care unit of a nursing home. Insurance doesn’t cut the bill, and he’s tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Still, he is trying desperately to find a way to retire, to be there for his wife one hundred percent of the time – before she gets the boot from the nursing home for non-payment.
He gambles because that’s the Hail Mary to save the day. It doesn’t.
Meanwhile, Frank’s retirement is put off. The department needs him to solve a gruesome series of murders – though the victims are hardly to be mourned. The killer has a penchant for killing killers.
But Frank does his job, despite his entire life falling into every kind of ruin imaginable.
The killer who Frank is determined to find isn’t of the Dexter sort. He wasn’t a killer by nature, but when his world comes crashing down, he takes slow, methodical revenge. And he’ll take it for those who can’t as well.
For Frank, tiny and even improbable clues – perhaps purposefully left – allow him to put the puzzle pieces together. He’ll get his man. Maybe. Unless the man has other plans.
Nikolich lets the story unfold masterfully, as slowly and as calculated as his killer’s revenge play. There is a nasty but deserved brutality throughout the book. Yet you’ll never feel sorry for the victims.
Which side of the abyss his characters will fall becomes all too clear by the end.
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