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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9781593154820
ISBN number: 1593154828
Label: Vanguard Press
Manufacturer: Vanguard Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: July 08, 2008
Publishing house: Vanguard Press
Sale Popularity Level: 160258
Studio: Vanguard Press
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
In his newest and most distinctive novel, Stephen J. Cannell channels his insider experiences into a tautly drawn noir look at the materialistic Hollywood lifestyle.
Meet Chick Best—a middle-aged, selfabsorbed, disaffected, California dot.com millionaire. Other than his house and high-priced foreign cars, Chick’s most expensive possession is his trophy wife, Evelyn. Evelyn is good at spending Chick’ money, money that has pretty much run out. Another problem is his drug-addled sixteen-year-old daughter, Melissa. Though concerned about his life and family, Chick has resigned himself to a miserable state of acceptance. That is, until he, Evelyn, and Melissa take a Christmas vacation in Maui. With this, Chick’s life changes…
Chick experiences unrequited love at very first sight when he observes Paige Ellis emerging from the hotel swimming pool. His obsession, exceeded only by his need to possess her, isn’t diminished when he learns that she is happily married. Instead, he befriends Paige and her near-perfect husband, Chandler. A short time later, back from Hawaii, Chick’s obsession compels him to drive to Paige’s house, where he runs down and kills Chandler in a drugstore parking lot. But this is just the beginning of Chick’s nightmare as his life spirals homicidally out of control, resulting in the destruction of everything he holds dear. Will Paige learn the truth about Chick before it’s too late?
Fast paced, filled with wry humor, murder, lust, and dead-on L.A. characterizations, Cannell has written his most explosively saleable novel yet.
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Rated by buyers 
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Mr. Cannell is one of the most creative authors so far in the literary market, but somehow he might trust his creativity too much and would allow himself gone wild a bit too far sometimes.
Suggestion One: Don't try to write something read like too tabloid. This "At First Sight" is just the one Mr. Cannell should try to avoid. Novels in such kind and taste would only turn Mr. Cannell into a tabloid writer, just like what Stuart Woods had turned himself into. Not worth it, at all. Definitely a big NO, NO.
Suggestion Two: Leave the fatherhood of Shane Scully out of the picture, phase out the son figure and let him and the football crap appear less and less, please.
The "Shane Scully" novels have proved that he really knows what he's writing about with an insider's real touch. All his writings about the LAPD read pretty authentic and realistic, the jargon, the terminology, the attitude, the investigation process and so on, all look pretty vivid and believable.
Mr. Cannell has put a tough heroine as Scully's wife, a higher ranking female officer with a cooler and more rational way of thinking; although it's a bit over-stretched but that's fine and still acceptable.
But putting Chooch in the whole police series don't make Scully look more human or fatherly, nor the stories more interesting. The son figure instead caused more digression and slow down the pace of all the detective's investigation. Even in some of the series, the son got involved in the action, but it only made the story look false and impossible.
Rated by buyers 
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The book held my attention. The story was original and interesting. I had never read this author before, and I look forward to reading his other books.
Rated by buyers -
A lot of people aren't going to like At First Sight. A big reason for this is that the central character is a self absorbed, intolerant, jerk. Personally, I like novels with flawed, even detestable characters, as long as they are interesting and/or entertaining.
This is one of two significant drawbacks to the novel. Chick is boring as hell. He's superficial and whiny. It's always risky for an author to build a novel around a character who is unlikeable, and I have to admire Cannell for trying. I suspect a lot of people will give up on this novel about of the third of the way through (probably about the time Chick gratifies himself with a Hustler magazine in his car after killing someone) because they were either bored to death by Chick or just found him too unpleasant to read about. I think Cannell would have been more successful in his endeavor if he had been able to incorporate a little morbid humour into the narrative in the very first half. With the right tone, creepy behavior can become darkly funny.
And this happens to a degree in the final third of the novel (for those willing to stick with it). The narrative alternates between Chick and the woman he is obsessed with, and there is some morbid humour in the stark contrast between his perspective and hers. His thought process and behavior becomes more and more outrageous and delusional near the end and this adds to the entertainment value.
The second significant shortcoming of the novel is its lack of originality. For some reason, Cannell seems to think that he is writing something groundbreaking here. He says friends begged him not to write the novel, that he'd been harboring the idea for years and that it simply poured out of him when he started to write, as if it were something unique and special. It isn't. The novel's premise, a man becomes obsessed with another man's wife and then kills him so he can romance the widow is not new. Frankly the whole thing is a tired re-tread. I think the only semi-original idea here is that Cannell made Chick uncompromisingly unlikeable, and wrote most of the novel from his point of view.
On a positive note, the novel is lean and mean, and Cannell does a reasonable job of building suspense in the final chapters. I started to find Chick's antics reasonably entertaining near the end and appreciated the alternating narratives. I like that Paige, the object of his obsession, is a reasonably intelligent and resourceful woman. Her guilt and grief make her vulnerable and leads to some choices that put her at risk, but for the most part, she see's Chick for what he is.
While there are some positives to the novel, it isn't one I can recommend without reservations (if at all). The story is predictable and lacks originality and Chick's rants remind me of a loudmouth drunk in a bar that you wish would move to another stool. If you're thinking about giving up halfway through, I can tell you that it does get better, but only marginally. 2 ½ stars.
Rated by buyers -
Chick Best isn't anyone you are going to like. That's one of the problems with this book. An even bigger problem is that what Chick does will more often disgust you than interest you. Beyond that, much of the story is predictable . . . so there isn't much to look forward to . . . except the book being over.
Even if you are a big Stephen J. Cannell fan, you may not like this book. You can definitely skip it unless you feel like you need to read every word he's ever written.
Chick Best is seeing his dot-com business go down the tubes when the family's annual trip to a tony resort on Maui makes him angrier than usual at his wife. While grouching to himself about her unreasonable demands, Chick is jolted out of his bad mood by a glimpse of a gorgeous young woman. At first, he hopes she's single. By staring and eavesdropping, Chick learns she's married. Chick can't help himself. He's got to have her. How will he do it?
From there, Chick's life comes to narrow down onto being with Paige Ellis. Nothing will get in his way.
At First Sight appears to have been intended to be a comic satire about how middle-aged men falter through trying to reverse the effects of time. I compared the book at very first to some of the more extreme works of that Florida philosopher, Carl Hiaasen. But Hiaasen maintains a light touch that keeps the reader wondering what prank the author will pull next. Mr. Cannell by comparison is like the butcher who sticks his thumb on the scale to make a bigger sale; he gets your attention in an expensive way.
I find it hard to imagine a woman I know who would like this book. If seeing a man destroy anything that gets in his way appeals to you, you'll like this book a lot more than I did.
Rated by buyers -
I love Mr. Cannell. His novels are fun to read, and always entertaining. Not this. He says in the intro his friends begged him not to write this. Listen to your friends. This was just not good. At least it was a fast read.
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