The most immediate attraction to Douglas Kennedy’s The Big Picture was the font cover. Everything is in colour, except the female, who is pale and almost washed out.

Then, as I do with all the books that I buy, I read the first page to see if it interested me, and immediately I took a liking to the writing style, which was sharp, witty and detailed. I decided then to buy the book, but didn’t touch it for months as I read others.

The image of the woman in the picture haunted my mind as I looked for the book, which eventually I found amongst odds and sods, along with a pile of other books. I love the cover, and I guess it was a bigger draw to read the book than the first page, much to my shame. The picture is Cover landscape photo © Image Bank/Getty & Photo of woman © Corbis. So an image on top of an image. Still, nice.

In any case, the book has taken me a month or so to read. The last half of the book was essentially read in one sitting, or in this case in bed until the early hours of the morning. Having read it on and off, much of the brilliance of the tension, the pace and the desperation of the character was lost. Now I remember why reading a book in its entirety in one sitting is so important, as the impact is monumentally bigger and better.

So it was, as I read the last line, that I finally completed the book, and what a ride it was. From start to finish (when reading I still remember the entire book, even if I take my time over it) it was superbly gripping. I’m disappointed that I was distracted so often, because this book deserves full attention, and in return it rewards you with twists, turns, blackmail, hoax suicides, murder, and human disaster.

Ben decides that living in the past is no longer an option, and begins to create a new life for himself

Ben Bradford is a very well educated individual working for a legal firm on Wall Street. His life seems great, as he has two beautiful children, and a gorgeous wife, as well as his job, which earns him a six figure salary. When Ben finally discovers, that the reason he hasn’t been getting sex wasn’t because of their new born baby, but because his wife decided sex from another man was more to her enjoyment, he decides to discover who it is, much to his shock, and much to his own detriment.

This isn’t a simple case of a man who seeks revenge, this is a man who seeks revenge, gets it, and then attempts to escape it. Giving up his life to live another one, with a new identity, no connection to his family, nor to his past, Ben decides that living in the past is no longer an option, and begins to create a new life for himself. However, the reality for Ben is that the past always catches up, and when it does, the question is what do you do, and is the price for escape worth it?

The book pulls no punches, and at times it does feel rather cold (or that could just be my room). However, as you read, knowing full well you’re turning pages and reading words, you become drawn into the world of Ben Bradford, running from the past with him, feeling his anxiety, his fear, watching his deceptions and his elaborate plans to start a new life. You forget this is a fictional character, and are absorbed by the reality with which this character lives. He’s smart, but he isn’t a genius, and he is, like everyone else, flawed. Temptations, mistakes, he falls foul to them all, and this in turn makes the character very convincing.

you become drawn into the world of Ben Bradford, running from the past with him, feeling his anxiety, his fear

Pace is also quite fantastic. The whole thing is set by the events in the book, as Ben lives a normal life, oblivious to his wife’s affair, living the suburban life style, shopping at GAP Kids and so on, the pace is controlled, but never hogging or slow. You watch and read as Ben turns from the dedicated husband and devoted father of two children, to an accidental killer on the run, in convincing fashion, with the pace paralleling the incidents that take place, at times with breakneck speed.

I’ve really enjoyed this book. I guess I have been fortunate that all the books I have read recently have been quite entertaining. This type of book for me is a slight departure from what I normally follow as well. I have to admit, I thought when I read about the affair, it was going to be one of those stories about how the guy just exacts revenge and covers it up like a Murder She Wrote episode. You do sort of follow it, and hope against hope it isn’t like that. Thanks to Kennedy’s writing, it isn’t. Instead it’s dark, funny at times, very tense and you feel a huge amount of empathy for a killer you’re morally not supposed to.

Without giving the game away, it’s unfortunate that the guy had so many tragedies befall him, because in the end, he becomes what he wanted,and it’s taken so brutally away from him, so what he finally is, is perhaps what he never wanted to be. It’s a tale of morality, in some respects, that what goes around comes around; that you can’t live off a murder, and justice will get to you in some form. Yet you will him on, and you want Ben to succeed, against the moral issues. You like Ben, and you don’t quite want him taken away by the cops.

The writing and perhaps the story is similar to that of The Dice Man, the idea that you can reinvent yourself completely. Whereas that was highly unrealistic, this is the opposite, providing a gripping, taut read over 380 pages of fast paced writing, some morally flawed characters, and a very unlucky, determined, and desperate lead who is trying to fix his life, and in the end continues to destroy the lives around him.

Verdict: At times dark, at times humorous, every moment a compelling, page turner.