The Up and Comer

Bret Easton Ellis

Beyond the sheer speed and undiluted excitement...lie a cruel comedy of manners about overprivileged, spoiled New Yorkers...sleek entertainment...

Douglas Kennedy

Howard Roughan is a natural. He tells a story with deceptive ease, making you compulsively turn pages...a winner...a terrific debut.

Entertainment Weekly

...engagingly written, with some sly satire tucked into its edges...

Jerry Stahl

With pitch-perfect ear and dialogue...Roughan has written a funny, smart, and start-to-finish riveting chronicle of life...among...upwardly mobile, urban young Americans...

John Lescroart

...touches all the bases-great beginning, lots of laughs, airtight plot, rational conclusion...a great read...the suspense never rests.

Robert Ferrigno

...a screamer. Fast, fun and dead-on compelling. A great ride of a book.

Publishers Weekly

The strain of living an excessive, brazen, lavishly upper-tier Manhattan life in an "incredibly self-centered, every-man-for-himself world" takes a disastrous toll on the narrator of Roughan's supremely hip, brazen debut. Right from the opening pages, married 30-something cutthroat attorney Philip Randall shamelessly admits to enjoying an extramarital affair with Jessica, his best friend Connor's girlfriend. He's definitely not a likable guy, especially when spewing smug commentary on just about every aspect of city life, and when socializing with wife Tracy's haughty Greenwich, Conn., family. But enter penniless "stoner" Tyler Mills, a prep school buddy of Philip's, who has unexpectedly blown into town, and this time Philip's arsenal of designer labels and street-smart manipulation fails him. Tyler, flashing his "Manson Family grin," has been busy spying on his school chum's secret rendezvous with Jessica and predictably proceeds to blackmail him. Outraged at his friend's audacity and escalating threats, Philip hatches a double-crossing scheme. As Roughan wraps his crafty plot around some impressively tense moments, the novel morphs into an engaging, cinematic page-turner. Auxiliary characters, particularly Philip's robust boss, Jack Devine, and Jack's kind, innocuous wife, Sally, are well-drawn and convincing, adding the depth and humanity necessary to counteract Philip's almost robotic duplicity. The novel's atypical conclusion, awash in wincing retrospection and a refreshing comeuppance, offers a satisfying and sentimental balance. Time-Warner audio book. (June 5) Forecast: Already optioned by USA Films, with the movie version slated to be produced by Michael Douglas, this derivative but slickly vibrant book will doubtless trade on the hype. Targeted marketing transit advertising in the New York area and Wall Street giveaways should help, and jacket blurbs by Bret Easton Ellis, among other yuppie dignitaries, will heighten the buzz. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Up and comer Philip Randall is about to be a down and outer; a prep school buddy has spotted him with his mistress and resorts to blackmail. Numerous foreign rights sales and a forthcoming film make this a debut to watch. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

First-timer Roughan knocks one out of the park with this satisfyingly lean and propulsive thriller. As the titular up-and-comer, Philip Randall narrates his story with an easy confidence that's almost impossible to resist. A cocksure young lawyer at the Manhattan firm of Campbell & Devine, Randall's just about reached the tipping point of complete, unalloyed success. His wife, Tracy, is acquiescent and from money, and his tough-as-nails boss, Jack Devine, has taken a shine to him. Not one to leave things as they are, though, Randall complicates matters by conducting a torrid affair with Jessica, wife to one of his friend Connor. The author deftly elides Randall's hollow conscience by the casual callousness of the affair, never letting Randall slide into a caricature of an American Psycho—style Master of the Universe: he's not a monster, he's just a cold-hearted heel who really doesn't care much about anything or anybody. Having drifted into law simply because it was something he could do and make money at, Randall is more believable a protagonist than the brainy, suited Supermen who populate so many legal thrillers. Roughan's created such a compelling character that he wisely waits until almost halfway through the story before springing the trap.Tyler, one-time pothead and pseudo-friend of Randall's from his prep-school days, pops back into his life unexpectedly with some upsetting news: He's been following Randall and photographing his liasions with Jessica. The price for his silence: $100,000. From this point on, Roughan tightens the screws on Randall with steady, masterly skill. Randall's sly cynicism is ground away by Tyler's relentlessly sadistic hounding, slowlyturning Randall into the kind of nervous wreck that he would have mocked from his once-lofty perch. The dénouement is classically noir, a penitence spoken with the grave, self-mocking humor of one brought low by his own arrogance. An impressive debut. Film rights to October Films and Michael Douglas