Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder
While breaking into a financial network, a hacker falls for a dangerous artist.Based on the buried events of one of the largest criminal frauds in history, Paper Targets digs into the motivation of criminals on the fringe. Critics and reviewers are calling it "Wonderfully written," "A novel to read now," and "A literary thriller with a soul."Set in Montana, Paper Targets simmers with greed and love before boiling over along the red-flagged path between lost and found. Praise for Paper Targets:"A wonderfully written thriller with Big Sky country as a setting." -
Kirkus Reviews
"An astonishing novel. Highly recommended to everyone, especially those interested in noir, art, a blazing narration, and all of our deeply unsettling subconsciouses. Saroff also seems capable of laying down the perfect sentence on command." - Michael Fitzgerald, author of Radiant Days and founder of Submittable "His tale has something of the spirit of Hemingway stories... his spare prose seems designed to step out of the way but is arresting in itself." -
Kirkus Reviews
"Readers will be immediately invested in Enzi's fate, and Saroff expertly intensifies the plot through unfolding backstories and quiet tension. Lyrical yet succinct, Saroff's first person narrative is well crafted, granting readers an inside view of Enzi's sentiments." -
Publishers Weekly
"Wow isn't enough. Just amazing." - Russ Fletcher, MATR "It's rare to find a thriller and crime story that also embraces such literary foundations; but Paper Targets represents art in and of itself." -
Midwest Book Review
From the Publisher:Near the beginning of Paper Targets, the narrator, Enzi, says, "Every lie is a bent wheel, something that wobbles no matter how many attempts to straighten it and then keeps wobbling right up to its last hard turn." He says this foreshadowing his wrongs that he will try to undo. And what wrongs he has done. Some for love. Some for money. And this doing and undoing make quite the story.Paper Targets reads like a confession from someone double-cursed with the skills to make money and the sort of love that makes sorrow. It is a captivating story. What got me on the first read of the manuscript was the writing. Stark, yet emotional. Dark while still being relevant and heart-breakingly clear. For a few pages, I wondered to what genre the story belonged. Then I didn't care because all I wanted to know was what would be revealed on each page turn. Paper Targets is a story of modern crime set in Montana with connections and events in the money world of New York, Seattle, and London. The descriptions of Montana rock and sky blend and flow easily -- with only the slightest of wobbles -- with the descriptions of technology and cityscapes of grey concrete.Near the middle of the book, a chapter concludes with an observation and an instruction: "Like the entertainment of a wreck on a sharp curve - that wheel which finally wobbled off its axle - the flashing lights say, 'slow down and look at what went wrong.' If you have come this far with me, touch what is near to you now, as I touch this paper." I am glad Mr. Saroff touched his paper (and I pictured Enzi writing in one of his small notebooks), and I was happy to hold and read this marvelous debut novel.