Review: Delusion: A Novel of Suspense

Delusion: A Novel of Suspense by Peter Abrahams
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Alvin DuPree was sent to prison on the testimony of Nell Jarreau, who witnessed the murder of her young boyfriend. Two decades later, evidence turns up in the wake of a horrible flood that exonerates Dupree. Nell is forced to confront the horrifying possibility that she sent an innocent man to prison while trying to unravel what really happened that dark night, twenty years ago.

Peter Abrahams' Delusion is a flawed book falling squarely in the camp "beach reads". One of the biggest faults of the novel is one of ambition, as Abrahams simply tries to fit too much into a book that isn't long enough to do it justice. The multiple layers of conspiracy, recently released con who has spent more of his life in jail than out, racial tension in the deep south, wealth disparities within a tense community, crumbling family dynamic, possible police corruption, various tortured pasts, and flood disaster commentary make for a lot of content for a book that comes in under 300 pages. It's inevitable that some of these end up short changed. Unfortunately, some of the most interesting elements are the ones that get the least attention.

The main plot--is DuPree innocent or not, and if he is, what really happened--is pretty standard "suspense novel" fare. Most readers will probably have figured it out long before poor clueless Nell does (note to the author: please stop having your protagonist repeatedly tell the reader that she isn't smart enough to figure the plot out). The strained relationship with a child subplot felt overwrought and extraneous--I would much rather have had more content about the relationship between Clay (Nell's husband/chief of police) and his former partner.

The cast of characters is a very mixed bag. DuPree is the most interesting character, and the one I think gets short-changed the most by Abrahams. His narrative arc should have been the most compelling aspect, but, by the end of the book, he's largely thrown away. Nell, despite being the protagonist, is too much of a milquetoast to be particularly enjoyable, and her husband is mostly a block of wood moving from scene to scene. The reporter and a number of the secondary characters felt far more fleshed out and interesting than most of the main cast.

Ultimately, the thin, predictable plot (including the unsatisfying end to DuPree's part); the largely forgettable characters; and the overstretched themes make this one a pass.

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