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Set during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the massive damage done by the storm to wide areas of the Northeast, Everything to Lose is another up all nighter by Gross.
Hilary Blum, a divorced mother of a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome, has just lost her job. Unable to force her ex-husband to pay her many expenses, she is at her wit’s end when she witnesses a freak accident in which a deer darts in front of the car in front of her, forcing the vehicle off the road. She runs down to the scene of the crash, finding the driver dead and next to him on the front seat, a satchel filled with money.
Suddenly caught between her inherent honesty and the need for money she throws the satchel out of the car into a dense group of trees to possibly come back for it. The amount of money in the bag could probably solve her financial problems immediately and also allow her to help her parents, who coincidentally have run into financial woes. Her decision to keep it plunges her into a maze of unforeseen consequences starting with a 20 year old murder, problems with the Russian Mafia, and into the company of a New York City detective that by coincidence has ties to the funds.
Gross ponders the subject of callous and unemotional kids which weighs heavily in the details of the novel. While he does not suggest that actions be taken to find these children and treat them, he does describe their abnormal reactions to people and situations in telling the story. The book is typical of Gross, well thought out, fleshed out characters and a plot that grabs and holds the reader. Well done, and awaiting his next novel with interest.
4/14 Paul Lane
EVERYTHING TO LOSE by Andrew Gross. William Morrow (April 22, 2014). ISBN 978-0061656002. 336p.
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