Unforeseen
by Nick Pirog
Welcome to the world of Thomas Prescott, a jaded, sarcastic, immature, and ultimately hilarious former cop who stars in all four of Nick Pirog books. He’s a little snippy, has a constant internal monologue cutting down everyone around him, and he gets in his own way with regards to personal relationships – but I can’t stop reading him! I accidentally read the second book Gray Matter first, and as I annoyed everyone on the airplane with my constant laughter, I knew if I bought the complete collection (and read it when I wasn’t surrounded by a hundred strangers) I’d be very happy.
In the first book, Unforeseen, Prescott is brought back to the police force to deal with the return of a serial killer. I know it doesn’t sound very funny, but trust me, it is. The murders take a back seat to both Prescott’s flashbacks and present timeline as we see him do the ever-familiar push-pull dance with two women involved in the case. Female readers will have another appreciation for Pirog’s writing, as he clearly knows (from personal experience, perhaps?) that men self-sabotage and find it very difficult to mature.
As the protagonist is admittedly immature, you can expect some jokes that aren’t considered politically correct anymore; but if you’re in the groove of Pirog’s/Prescott’s humor, you’ll laugh all the same. “…two guys appeared over my left shoulder. They were both clad in dark suits with black ties and I had the eerie feeling I was on the set of Men in Black III. If I had two words to descript each of the people before me they would be: short & pretty and tall & black. I’d actually worked with tall & black on a couple of cases prior to this one, and we hadn’t hated each other, which is a rarity with me. I can be a touch annoying.”
For me, when an author thinks he’s being clever, it comes across as smug. When an author just knows he’s funny, and a bit ridiculous, it’s hilarious. I’m looking forward to more of the Pirog/Prescott series.
In the first book, Unforeseen, Prescott is brought back to the police force to deal with the return of a serial killer. I know it doesn’t sound very funny, but trust me, it is. The murders take a back seat to both Prescott’s flashbacks and present timeline as we see him do the ever-familiar push-pull dance with two women involved in the case. Female readers will have another appreciation for Pirog’s writing, as he clearly knows (from personal experience, perhaps?) that men self-sabotage and find it very difficult to mature.
As the protagonist is admittedly immature, you can expect some jokes that aren’t considered politically correct anymore; but if you’re in the groove of Pirog’s/Prescott’s humor, you’ll laugh all the same. “…two guys appeared over my left shoulder. They were both clad in dark suits with black ties and I had the eerie feeling I was on the set of Men in Black III. If I had two words to descript each of the people before me they would be: short & pretty and tall & black. I’d actually worked with tall & black on a couple of cases prior to this one, and we hadn’t hated each other, which is a rarity with me. I can be a touch annoying.”
For me, when an author thinks he’s being clever, it comes across as smug. When an author just knows he’s funny, and a bit ridiculous, it’s hilarious. I’m looking forward to more of the Pirog/Prescott series.