Book Review: “The Fix” by Steve Lowe, Broken River Books, 2014, 142 pages.

This short novel is not so much about boxing as it is about boxing; that is the oft told bitter side of the sweet science and the rotten apples that pollute it. As you probably can guess this about a fixed fight or a dive but as you can still probably guess the real story is never with the phantom punch, it is about the double cross of the dive and the hijinks that ensue.
 
Tales of fight fixing and double crossing has been at the heart of crime story telling since the late 1800s. It is a proven plot line like a guy turning into a wolf or another guy wearing a dinner jacket climbing out of a coffin to attack swooning babes with a peck on the neck.

So I have no issue in the premise; no issue with very familiar plot.

The book reads fast and well enough; as a collection of seemingly disparate though colliding vignettes. The character description and development is exceptional, however though I think the plot is uneven in terms of action and chronology leaving transitions, in a couple of chapters, short- handed. And for me, characters seem to be buried and lost for a time to the point that they are forgotten.

The ending I found to be predictable and disappointing. While vengeance is always a hallmark of these stories to rectify the evil with good; the ending couldn’t sucker punch me because I saw the round house coming a mile away.

While “The Fix” is an entertaining tale for the most part, I counted it out.