SIMPATICO

by Shepard, Sam

Vinnie and Carter meet out West in a seedy hotel, where Vinnie has been living on the edge of the California desert. Having flown in from back East, Carter is surprised to discover Vinnie living in such surroundings, but has agreed to come help Vinnie, who has run into trouble with a woman and the law. It soon becomes clear that Carter and Vinnie are former partners who years before were involved in a racing scam involving the swapping of two horses. In the intervening years, Carter has gone on to big success in bloodstock, having stolen Vinnie’s girl and his Buick in the process, but Vinnie has always held onto some incriminating evidence which threatens to destroy him. The threat of police involvement with Vinnie troubles Carter, who now threatens to come clean unless Carter helps with his current difficulties. He visits Vinnie’s girl, Cecelia, only to discover that there was no arrest, and soon discovers Vinnie and the evidence gone. Convinced that Vinnie is selling his evidence to the highest bidder, in this case Simms, the commissioner who they hoodwinked years earlier, he returns back East with Cecelia, where a series of crosses and double-crosses takes shape as Carter’s world unravels with increasing speed until he and Vinnie have effectively changed places, with Vinnie cleared of a great weight while Carter heads for an inevitable disaster. “It is like a cross between a modern film noire, Ibsenesque thriller and revenge drama.” Evening Standard.