Mouth to Mouth: ‘Gripping... Shades of Patricia Highsmith and Donna Tartt’ Vogue

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We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from. With a little bit of work he manages to find out the man's name and the fact that he survived the ordeal with only a few broken ribs.

Our narrator is uncertain why he has been chosen to hear Cook’s story, especially since Cook insists it is because he was ‘there at the beginning’ although they were not imitate friends. As he kills time at the gate, he bumps into a former classmate of his, Jeff, who is waiting for the same flight. I wanted him to be good, though, I wanted to feel that I had done a good thing not only for him but for all the people he came in contact with. In the rush of the novel’s opening pages, he lets on that he is a middle-aged father of two, an alumnus of UCLA, a little-known author with possible cult status in Germany and stuck in the purgatory of JFK airport awaiting a delayed flight. A flight delay from JFK to Berlin was perfect for passing the time conversing with a fellow passenger.This is one of those books that starts off with an intriguing premise that draws you in right away, after which the whole thing becomes a trudge. It is unclear why Jeff chose to tell his life story, given the story showing Jeff in a questionable moral light. Expert foreshadowing lets you know that the end is not likely to have been a good one for either the saved man or the savior. I’d said it before and meant it every time, but people always took it as an expression of false modesty. In the great tradition of morally murky narrators such as those in Gone Girl , The White Tiger or The Talented Mr Ripley , comes a compelling, one-sitting literary thriller of imposters and Faustian bargains, in which a man pulls another man from the rough surf.

Jeff Cook, smartly dressed for success, asked our narrator to join him in the first class lounge to await the Berlin flight announcement. Cook begins telling his tale to a college acquaintance in an airport lounge (he claims he is telling this 20 year old story for the very first time. This distance between Cook and the narrator is crucial for allowing readers the space to question his morality. We hadn’t been friends, exactly, barely acquaintances, but Jeff was one of those minor players from the past who claimed for himself an outsize role in my memories.I felt that things had happened to me without my knowledge, which they had, of course, and I was left with the uncanny sense that I wasn’t the same person who had gone under. Perhaps it will be more engaging to those readers who enjoy reading about art curators and art galleries. Turns out the man is a wealthy art dealer named Francis, and Jeff wiggles his way into his life, becoming his assistant and dating his daughter. There is space for doubt to creep into their minds as to whether his motivations are genuine and virtuous.

The chapters are short and leave your wanting more — I read this story quickly, staying intrigued throughout. He’s a clever guy, the author, and I was constantly looking up words I didn’t recognise and references I didn’t understand the meaning of.I like the way you’ve described the hints included; it sounds just perfectly balanced so that you remain uncertain but, that once you’ve finished, you can see how it was all there for you to discover but you didn’t know just how hard to look.