Pick up Exit if you’d like to sample a very new way of building a crime novel with an unusual pace. It has something of Jasper Fforde in the compiled coincidences, and more of the relentless yet methodical pace of, say, Mario Giordano or Oliver Potzsch. There’s humor here, but it is very, very dry, alternating with tender—with the kind of protagonist who may eventually have to 'blow his nose with happiness.'
As the plot thickens, the cast enlarges ... Ms. Bauer’s book achieves a delicate balance of humor and poignance, evil and good. And she saves one final bittersweet twist for her story as it sails into the sunset.
In Bauer's darkly comic thriller, an elderly widower discovers no good deed goes unpunished when his act of charity goes horribly wrong ... Bauer’s lively and amusing comedy-of-errors narrative alternates between Felix's and Calvin’s perspectives as both men seek answers. In the process, the endearing, gentlemanly Felix, who has stocked his own nitrous oxide cylinders for the day he joins his wife and son in the cemetery, gains a new interest in life, and Calvin, long ashamed of his family’s criminal history, develops confidence in his abilities. A supporting cast of well-drawn, oddball characters adds interest. A touching crime novel that explores the nature of life and death with heart and soul.
Lonely widower Felix Pink, the protagonist of this droll whodunit from British author Bauer, belongs to a right-to-die group, the Exiteers, whose members assist the terminally ill who are in pain and discomfort, and quietly sit with them when they die ... Each distinctive character has a sense of humor sure to prompt belly laughs from the reader. Bauer knows how to entertain.
