Matala by Craig Holden
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The unpredictability of human nature is Holden's trump card in this small but potent tale of a young girl's initiation into the sophisticated corruption of a world where opportunists gather around a potential victim like sharks circling a flailing swimmer. When Darcy Arlen breaks from her boring European tour while in Rome, she intends only to briefly escape into the "real" city, to sample off-tour reality. It is entirely by chance and the fickleness of fate that Darcy encounters the prematurely world-weary Will, an American on the downside of an offbeat adventure far from home. Finding the young man eerily familiar, Darcy strikes up a conversation, the two drawn into a seductive relationship that begins with dinner (Will hasn't eaten for two days) and segues into an unexpected detour for Darcy, who bolts her tour for the exciting unknown beside her new friend.
What Darcy doesn't realize, but soon learns, is that Will is not alone, attached for the last two years of his wandering to Justine, an older, more jaded traveler, a natural con who has been schooling Will in the fine art of fleecing the innocent to support an unpredictable lifestyle, fencing credit cards, indulging in other petty crimes when expedience demands. The relationship between Will and Justine is unusual, to say the least, peripatetic lovers and thieves grown weary of the game by the time Darcy presents herself, too ripe and full of promise to be ignored. Taking advantage of the nineteen-year-old, well-heeled young woman proves remarkably easy, irresistible, in fact. When Justine makes arrangements to deliver a package to far-away Crete, Darcy is surprisingly accommodating, financing the journey and happily accompanying her two new friends.
The unpredictable element in this short, shocking tale of treachery and deceit is Darcy, perched on the edge of discontent the afternoon she meets the handsome stranger, her indulgent parents sufficiently distant to allow a margin of rebelliousness. Her eye on Will, Darcy indulges Justine's need to control the situation, soon becoming a worthy and unexpected adversary. As the package moves closer to its destination, the balance of power subtly shifts, the trio enacting their own small drama from bar to bedroom, largely oblivious to the criminal element that infects each city they visit. At the end of the line, the devil demands his due, Darcy, Justine and Will confronted with the price of their reckless odyssey. Sharp-witted and exotic, Holden's novel provides the dark thrills of the forbidden, a knife's edge of danger creating a precarious balance of impulse, abandon and greed.
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