Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder

I have to admit that I was skeptical about wanting to read Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder by Steve S. Saroff. It was not a book that had been on my radar or an author that I had previously read. I had noticed some favorable reviews for it on Goodreads and had been gifted a digital copy by the author in exchange for a voluntary review so I decided to give it a try. When I saw that Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder was also available as an audiobook and that it was narrated by the author Steve Saroff, I decided to go back and forth between the digital version and audiobook. I really appreciate when an author narrates their own book. Steve Saroff’s performance was flawless. I appreciated how he was able to distinguish between the characters. Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder was a thrilling and captivating mystery crime thriller. It was character based and very well written. Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder was fast paced, well plotted and told in the first person narrative. Once I began alternating between reading and listening to Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder, I was captivated by the characters and the plot. It was hard to pull myself away.Enzi was the son of immigrant parents. He was born in America and his parents were well educated and held positions at a university. Enzi’s father was a scientist and his mother was a professor of literature. As a young boy, Enzi had great difficulty learning how to read. The letters appeared flipped or reversed to him. It was evident that Enzi was dyslexic. Enzi also stuttered and he was painfully shy. The children at school bullied Enzi relentlessly. His teachers tended to ignore him since he could not read. School was not a happy place for Enzi. The trees, clouds and patterns Enzi observed around him calmed him and made life more bearable. They made Enzi feel connected. When Enzi was twelve years old, his mother died from cancer. His father was so distraught that he began to drink to numb his pain and loneliness. When Enzi’s father continued to drink, he started to get DUI’s so his place of employment was forced to let him go. Social Services soon showed up and took Enzi away from his father. Enzi was placed in the foster care system. For about two years, Enzi attended several different schools where he continued to be bullied and was assigned teachers who had no idea how to teach Enzi how to read. By the time Enzi turned fourteen, he had had enough and he ran away.In the beginning, Enzi tended to avoid cities, took whatever jobs he could find and constantly lied about his age. Over that time, Enzi discovered that he had a natural aptitude for numbers, math and patterns. Although reading had been difficult to master, Enzi was brilliant when it came to his aptitude for math. Enzi would frequent libraries in the places he was working. He borrowed math books and self taught himself very advanced and complex math concepts. Eventually, Enzi found himself in Missoula, Montana. Enzi loved the Montana for its skies, clouds, trees and trails. He was still socially awkward but he had managed to start a computer programming company with a partner. Things started looking up for Enzi until he met Tsai from Texas at a computer conference and a woman named Kaori from Tokyo at a local party. Both Tsai and Kaori changed Enzi’s life in ways he never could have imagined. Tsai convinced Enzi to become a criminal computer hacker by luring him with excessive greed. Large sums of money for simple hacks sounded very enticing. Right? Who wouldn’t want easy money? What would the personal cost be for Enzi though? Kaori was in jail for breaking and entering, attacking her former boyfriend and his new girlfriend and assaulting a police officer. She had called Enzi to bail her out of jail. Although Enzi had only briefly met Kaori at that party, it was pretty obvious that Kaori wanted nothing to do with Enzi. Kaori had had a boyfriend. She had met him in Tokyo and followed him back to Montana. Although the boyfriend had moved on, Kaori was stuck in what she felt should have been. She believed in one love. Kaori was an exceptional artist and she drew what she saw, felt and experienced. Her art would be her downfall and only aid in the suspicions about Enzi. Kaori was a troubled woman. Would Enzi be able to recognize her troubles before it was too late?I loved Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder and was so glad author Steve S. Saroff offered me a digital copy to read in exchange for my honest review. The plot became even more heightened as previous events, experiences and backstories were revealed. The characters were rich, well developed and believable. Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder was so thought-provoking. It was about greed, love, friendship, kindness, right vs. wrong, choosing, survival, recognizing one’s own errors and having the courage to correct them and being satisfied and content with what you have. I look forward to reading more books by Steve S. Saroff. If you enjoy suspenseful, edge of your seat and character driven books then I highly recommend this book.

Great story telling! I enjoyed the writing style and the characters felt developed and true. Hope to explore more from this author.

"Secrets that are shared but still not understood remain secret.""I had tried to understand strutting words that became nothing other than the noise of ego.""I looked at the faces in the dark, trying to decide if there was anyone I could like. But it was a money place. The drinks were money. Even the chairs were money.""I'm sorry, I said, "I don't need another. Let me have some water instead." The bartender replied, "What kind?" I wanted to say, 'water,' but I caught myself. I remembered where I was, remembered that I was so drunk that I had spilled a drink, and realized that my voice was slurred. So I said, "Any type," and the bartender opened a blue bottle and poured the blue liquid into a glass filled with blue ice cubes. I took a blue bill out of my pocket and handed it to him, and he turned to get change. I said, "Keep it," and he smiled a blue smile and he put the bill in his pocket and asked, "Where you from?"Steve Saroff's novel, Paper Targets: Art Can be Murder, is an exceptional novel with all of the classic noir components including the feelings of darkness, the femme fatale, dingy rooms, miserable pasts and noirish aphorisms (such as the quotes above - I could have gone on forever, there were so many that I loved). The protagonist, Enzi, who is a dyslexic computer programmer and mathematical genius, finds himself going deeper down the rabbit hole, as he involves himself in some illegal data manipulation. Consequently, the novel has a feeling of hopelessness not only for the primary character, but for all those with whom he associates. Now one might feel that you wouldn't want to read a dark novel such as this, but if you start it, you most certainly will not want to put it down. Mr. Saroff tells an amazing and engaging story that will not let you go. You simply must find out what is going to happen.In my opinion, all characters were well carved out, and by the end of the novel, the reader will see each of them as if they were admiring a sculpture from an accomplished artist. The settings are well defined, whether it was out in the Montana wilderness, some night club in New York City, or in an office building in Seattle. His descriptions of various events are phenomenal such as the juggling incident. Overall this is a professionally developed novel that any reader who likes Mickey Spillane or Dashiell Hammett would devour with joy.The only slight drawback I found with the novel was the existence of a couple of social issues that appeared to rise to the surface. I have found that these type of concerns, no matter how subtle, will, in most cases, irritate fifty percent of your readers and simply shouldn't be included in novels that are meant to entertain. Regardless of how popular the issue is, it will turn off readers or viewers to the point where they will walk away and find something else. Just an observation, and a suggestion.Other than that slight, what I consider weakness, this was an excellent novel, and I would love to read another by this author. I just couldn't put it down.

For most of the novel, Paper Targets: Art Can Be Murder by Steve S. Saroff feels more like literary fiction. However, the last part of the book takes off and readers will know they are reading a thriller. This first-person story features Enzi and is largely set in Missoula, Montana.This is a story of secrets, but it’s also a story of a lonely, dyslexic, and bullied boy who became a successful man. Other themes include relationships, greed, loneliness, lost chances, and death.The book started slowly and was more telling than showing. However, that gave insight into Enzi’s thoughts, observations, and feelings. Additionally, there are occasional timeline shifts without any preamble which interrupted the flow of the story. Despite this, the overall premise and ending were good. The character building was well-done.Overall, this was an interesting character study.Thanks to the author for a complimentary copy of this novel and the opportunity to read and provide an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This was a compulsively readable thriller which has a completely unorthodox set of characters which makes a refreshing break from the cookie-cutter domestic suspense dramas, superhero level vigilante escapades and gloomy, angsty cop/detective investigations which glut the market these days.Through various flashbacks you get the back story on lead character Enzi's life as a runaway and blue collar worker who eventually finds his niche in computer coding. His company builds security apps which make them the target of acquisition by larger firms involved in international banking. Enzi becomes the target of profiteers who seek to gain an edge in corporate trading via un-secure back channels. Meanwhile he is attracted to and ends up bailing out Kaori, an artist with anger management issues. A quirky bail bondsman named Pascal becomes his sometime partner in the resultant subplots. Pascal, among other tics, keeps referring to Enzi in the 3rd person as "a fella". In the end it becomes a cat-and-mouse game where Enzi seeks to escape his criminal conspirators and entanglements. He is not necessarily helped by Kaori's apparently photographic memory.This is definitely recommended if you are looking for an unorthodox story that is not your run of the mill suspense thriller.

Much more "artsy" than my usual reads. The writing is outstanding, beautiful and haunting, the story engrossing, the characters solidly real. I rarely say "couldn't put it down", but this one was so utterly compelling that it's worthy of the cliché. Stunning, original and thought-provoking, as well as a damned fine read.

When the author wrote to me and asked that I read his book because I would like it, I told him at the time after reading the blurb, that I did not think it was for me. The blurb did not explain what it was really about and I lasted until 76%, but it just wasn't really my type of book Steve. I have no idea what coding is, why Enzi did it or just how he did what he did.An example as to why it did not work for me is that two guys who hardly know each other drive out into the Montana wilderness, share a bottle of whisky, shoot a gun at whatever, wake up in a foot of snow, then go their own way. Maybe Montana men do this Why Enzi was interested/obsessed with a crazed Japanese murderer in the first place just did not make any sense to me.Just not for me, but thanks for offering Steve. I'll give it 2.5 stars as I did make it three quarters through though.