Bent Triangle Reviews

I loved Croft’s Wayward Spy. The Wayward Spy is a masterpiece of espionage fiction, and I hope the author will write more in the genre. I immediately purchased Bent Triangle, knowing it was a different type of book, a different genre, and a different style. As anticipated, it is a well written but very dark story. For some reason I found it reminiscent of Marek Hlasko’s Killing of the Second Dog, with a post modern somewhat eastern European flavor. The book is clever and sad, an unusual combination. The ending is too realistic to be satisfying. The sex, both straight and gay, was well placed and necessary to the story, and heightened the sense of exploitation of the innocents by the scoundrels. I am not certain that I think the “Collins” subplot is necessary to make the story work, although the kidnapping of his daughter by Enrico sets the stage for the resolution of the plot. Croft does a better job of character development than most writers, and his maturity shows in his work. If he writes it, I will read it.bt
Amazon.com review by LINDA A. ROOT
The atmospherics are reminiscent of Somerset Maughan, though the sex/love scenes are perhaps more explicit. It’s salutary tale how a ruthless but attractive con man takes a advantage of a young couple of heirs to a big fortune.Enrico Malloff, a fictional precursor of pyramid schemer Bernie Madoff (the book was written in 2001),is a charming seducer who entraps a brother and sister who, in financial affairs and their love lives,are ingénues .His partner in the financial seduction is Jack Collins,a rich Canadian stock promoter who owns a ‘boiler room’ in the City–London’s financial center. [boiler rooms depend on fast-talking telemarketers who sell dud shares to naive punters.]
The novel is fast-paced and full of twist and turns: the young male heir is gay and pays the ultimate price,succumbing to a sudden onslaught of AIDS (the story takes place in ’84).His attractive sister’s innate intelligence fails to prompt her to detect or suspect Malloff’s self-serving schemes. As the climax approaches, we are treated with shrewd insights into Montreal’s ruthless Mafia who over the years have insisted on ‘partnering’ with Collin in his financial scams. They finally exact their bloody pound of flesh in the wake of the final debacle.
Amazon.com review by JF JAY