Come Back to Me
by Chris Paynter
Pages: 213
Date: September 15 2014 (Orig. Published May 1 2010)
Publisher: Companion Publications
Series: None
Review
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: June 12 to 13 2016
My fourth book by this author and first that is not part of a series. The first three books I gave 5 stars to; this one I gave just three stars.
I forget how many years it had been, but two characters meet up again after a longish separation. During college, for a brief moment, Angie Cantinnini and Meryl McClain were lovers and friends.
Prior to their meeting each other, Angie had come out to her family during a Thanksgiving meal (it’s thanksgiving, what are they going to do, toss me out? Yep, that’s what they are going to do) as lesbian. This became the source for a short story that Angie wrote for a creative writing class. Meryl, along with others, critiqued the story.
Using that story as a basis to strike up a conversation, the two circled each other, until the two became friends, then lovers. Then everything fell apart. Because there was a semester break and Meryl decided to come out to her family. Her grandmother, who apparently actually ‘knew’ long ago, screamed at Meryl. The father demanded that she stop being a lesbian. Her mother looked disappointed. Sadly, the family is/was super rich, and the father was the kind to use the power that came with that amount of wealth. And he threatened his daughter that he would destroy the one who had ‘ruined’ his daughter if the two didn’t stop, immediately, seeing each other. By killing Angie’s scholarship. Angie who got tossed out of her home after coming out, and was only able to go to school because of said scholarship. Naturally Meryl couldn’t accept that fate to befall Angie. Then the father said that Meryl would have to change schools. Meryl ‘needed’ to go to that school, so the father gave her a choice – go to that other school, or remain in the current school, never make contact with Angie, and date a specific man the family wanted her to date. Naturally, or not, Meryl ended up married to that man.
All of that above is, for the most part, back-story. For the book opens some years later. I might have known a week ago when I finished the book, but I no longer recall how much time has passed between the college relationship falling apart and the start of the book.
Angie now lives in Key West. She got talked into a particular contract by her bitchy agent – see, she, Angie that is, had written a rather ‘good’ little mystery book. But she couldn’t get anyone to publish it. Mostly because she, a lesbian, had written about a really macho man type character and no publisher believed a woman would be believable/sellable as the author of that type of book. So, Angie agreed to use a pen name (even though that basically meant that Angie was giving away her soul or agreeing to kill puppies yearly or whatever fucking bit of weirdness developed here – basically Angie apparently believes using a pen name makes her an immoral and/or amoral lying horrible bitch . . . or something). But, as noted, Angie agreed with the contract. To use a pen name. And never, upon threat of death (okay, law suit), reveal that she, Angie, was Zach England.
So, that’s what Angie did after the relationship with Meryl imploded. Wrote and sold a few lesbian mysteries, made a tiny amount of money from that, then ‘sold her soul’ (again, apparently, judging by Angie’s reactions about it) and used a pen name to sell a bunch of macho man mysteries. Which pile in massive wads of money, and have a tv series be created based on the series. By the time the book opened, her eighth book in the series has just been released. This is important because the New York Banner has released a review about that book. A negative review. Under the byline of Meryl McClain. Angie’s ex.
So, after splitting up, Meryl did what is obviously natural for a lesbian (there was some comment somewhere that lead me to believe that she didn’t actually fancy men, so that she would not be bisexual, though it has been 7 days since I read the book) to do, she married a man, worked as a professor, then went off to be a book columnist. Her horrid treatment of Zack England’s latest novel is Meryl’s first review while with the New York Banner.
Then, based on several conversations she had (maybe just one with a friend), Meryl looked over England’s books again. Agreed with her initial impression, and review, but noticed something interesting. This macho macho man really seemed to ‘know’ women. Therefore, Zach England must be a woman. Just as the publishers couldn’t believe that any woman would be acceptable to the reading public as an author of a macho man book; Meryl believes that no man could ‘get’ or ‘know’ women like Zach England appears able to do. Therefore – woman. Meryl writes an article based on this thought process – well the England must be a woman part. Then, through a fluke, learns that a specific agent, who appears to mostly just represent Zach England, has a lot of mail that goes to and is received from Key West. Naturally, this means Meryl needs to immediately go down there and spend a week investigating. Because, again naturally, randomly walking around Key West asking people if they are (1) a woman; (2) Zach England; is the way to find Zach England.
Okay, I do not actually know how Meryl really expected to wander around and find Zach, because her mission got sidetracked immediately. But that appeared to be what Meryl had planned to do. Randomly wander around Key West. For a week. On the off-chance that there’d be some woman there who might really be Zach England. So, as noted, she got side-tracked immediately. Because she ran into a female mystery writer who just happened to live in Key West. Naturally she put 1 and 1 together and got . . . nowhere, because, seriously, she never once even thought that the mystery writer woman she bumped into, who lived in Key West, would be Zach England. That was kind of . . . . dumb.
The only and I say that this only is flimsy, reason that Meryl didn’t look deeper into this female mystery writer is because that writer was, and people probably already know this, none other than her former lover, Angie Cantinnini.
Angie has a weird brain disorder when she learns why Meryl was down in Key West and decides that the best thing to do is to lie to Meryl.
It has been a week. As might be seen from how I’ve written this review, I’m still disappointed might be putting things mildly, angry would put things too severely, but something. I’m still annoyed by how this book unfolded. The way both people reacted and interacted with each other at each step of their relationship – with each other and with their parents.
Well, no matter, I’ll stop babbling now.
June 20 2016
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