Settings & Atmosphere - Fiction, Detective Fiction, Phases of Life - Fiction, Occupations - Fiction

Death Row

Name: Death Row
Author: Jon Katz
ISBN: 9780385479226

by Jon Katz

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Overview

Kit DeLeeuw has just about come to terms with his not-quite-acceptable status in the town of Rochambeau, New Jersey, when he is faced with contempt at home: his newly adolescent daughter suddenly decides he's just another uncool moron, like all the other adults in her life. And right when his domestic situation has reached unprecedented evels of turmoil, he is shattered by the news that his friend and mentor, Benchley Carrolton, has suffered a stroke. Benchley has been transferred to Elston Manor, the crown jewel in a chain of nursing homes run by a powerful local senator. Elston Manor prides itself on providing comfort, good food, excellent care, and airtight security - security so tight it makes Kit suspicious. Why won't the armed guards let him in? What makes Big Nurse so hostile? And what's the true story behind two recent "accidental" drug overdoses?

About the Author, Jon Katz

Formerly executive producer of the "CBS Morning News," as well as media critic for Rolling Stone and New York magazine, Jon Katz is now media critic at Wired. He writes regularly for other national magazines and has twice been a finalist for the National Magazine Award. The author of the novel Sign-Off as well as four earlier Suburban Detective mysteries and Virtuous Reality, a critical look at the new media, Katz lives in northern New Jersey with his wife, daughter, and two yellow Labs. He can be reached at [email protected].

Biography

"I really don't know anyone in media who's been given the freedom I've had to spout off on a wide range of subjects," Jon Katz wrote in his 1998 farewell column for HotWired. As a writer for web venues such as HotWired and Slashdot, Katz has waxed enthusiastic about Internet culture and championed "geek life." As a contributor to Wired and Rolling Stone, he's written articles on technology, politics and culture. And as a book author, he's penned mystery novels, memoirs and more, at the rate of nearly one per year since 1990.

Katz began his career in traditional media, as a reporter and editor for the Boston Globe and Washington Post and as a producer for the CBS Morning News. His experiences in television became fodder for fiction in his first novel, Sign Off, which Publishers Weekly called "an absorbing, well-paced debut" about the corporate takeover of a television network.

Disenchanted with the world of old media, Katz signed on to the cyber-revolution as a contributor to Wired magazine and its then-online counterpart, HotWired. As pundit and media critic, Katz became a prominent voice of the libertarian, countercultural, freewheeling spirit that prevailed on the Web in its early years. After HotWired underwent a corporate transformation, Katz moved to Slashdot, a free-for-all e-zine that allowed him to continue spouting off on a wide range of subjects (for Katz, "open source" is not just a method of software development, it's a metaphor for free expression).

Meanwhile, Katz began a series of "suburban detective" books featuring private investigator and family man Kit DeLeeuw, who operates out of a New Jersey mall. The intricately plotted mysteries serve as "a framework for the author's musings on suburban fatherhood, a subject on which he is wise and witty and honestly touching," wrote Marilyn Stasio in The New York Times.

In 1997, Katz's digital-age pontifications took book form in Virtuous Reality, which tackled censorship, online privacy and the shortcomings of the media. Katz struck a more personal chord with Geeks (2000), a work of gonzo ethnography that follows two computer-obsessed teenagers and their struggle to escape the Idaho boonies. "Katz's obvious empathy and love for his 'lost boys,' his ability to see shades of his own troubled youth in their tough lives, gives his narrative a rich taste that makes it unlike other Net books," said Salon writer Andrew Leonard.

Katz turned to himself as the subject for a meditation on middle age, Running to the Mountain (2000) which chronicles the three months he spent alone in a dilapidated cabin in upstate New York. The result is "a funny, moving and triumphant voyage of the soul," according to The Boston Globe.

Then there's Katz's other pet subject: dogs. In A Dog Year , Katz writes about a high-strung border collie -- a canine "lost boy" he adopted and gradually bonded with. "Dogs make me a better human," said Katz in an interview. Given his recent contributions to The Bark magazine, dogs may make Katz an even more versatile and prolific writer, if that's possible.

Good To Know

Katz is so persuaded of the power of interactivity that he's refused to have his work printed by publishers unless they'll run his e-mail address with it. His published e-mail addresses include [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

After a Slate writer made a disparaging comment about Katz's basement, Katz wrote a column describing the basement office where he works. Its accoutrements include a wooden cherub, portraits of Thomas Paine and Abraham Lincoln, and a collection of gargoyles. A Haitian voodoo "frame thingy" (in Katz's words) graces his computer.

In our interview, Katz told us more fun facts: "I see every movie that comes out, usually alone in a megaplex. I love the New York Yankees because they win a lot. My one brilliant move in life was marrying my wife Paula."

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Kit DeLeeuw, the "Suburban Detective" whose last appearance was in "The Fathers' Club" (1996), still presents himself not only the primary caregiver for his suburban New Jersey family but also the last sensitive male. Thankfully, however, he also holds on to his role as sleuth in this series of nimbly plotted mysteries. Kit's closest friend, octogenarian Benchley, has had a stroke that leads to a stay at Elston Manor, a maximum security managed care facility, owned by a prominent politician, which boasts pristine lawns and a fine reputation. But Kit, who experiences initial difficulty in getting information about Benchley and then finds his friend acting scared, wonders what the staff and administration are being so secretive about. His investigation turns up a charge of incompetence leading to death (settled out of court) and the recent dismissal of the director for accepting kickbacks from a drug company. Kit discovers that the drug involved in the fatality is still in use and that the fired doctor is still on the premises; then he himself is threatened and shot at. After Benchly dies from an overdose, Kit lines up a team of unlikely associates to carry out a neat sting operation. While the pacing is slick, getting past Kit's vapid and sometimes pompously delivered worldview isn't easy. Readers may sympathize with Kit's daughter who directs a teenage surliness towards her dad.

Kirkus Reviews

Lethal nursing homes are the latest snakes in the Eden of Kit DeLeeuw, the Suburban Detective ("The Father's Club", 1996, etc.)-as Kit discovers when he storms the battlements of Elston Manor to liberate his stricken friend Benchley Carrolton, only to have Benchley die at home, his blood pumped full of a villainous new drug, leaving Kit himself under suspicion.