The suicide of a teen is always a tragedy, and often leads to soul-searching by those around them. Sometimes the survivors try to pin blame on outside influences, but without the first-person testimony of the suicide, it is impossible to know why a young person might take his or her own life. David Carnoy’s novel Knife Music offers that kind of first-person testimony in a case that tests the validity of diary entries, eyewitnesses, and the reputation of an influential adult.
At 16, Kristin Kroiter is in a terrible car accident. A talented ER doctor and surgeon, Ted Cogan catches the call, and is instrumental in saving Kristin’s life. After a few routine visits, Ted discharges Kristin, which should be the end of the story. But when Kristin’s parents discover her diary, with entries that claim she and Ted slept together, Kristin kills herself rather than face their anger. And when those entries are corroborated by Kristin’s close friend, police detective Hank Madden decides to investigate the suicide as murder. It doesn’t help that Kristin had created a potentially explosive compilation CD of tunes Ted can use in his operating rooms–hence the term “knife music.”
Cogan has an image problem–he’s not interested in relationships and is quite upfront in letting women know that he’s happy with casual social activities and sex. He’s also known to pursue younger women, and it isn’t difficult for people who don’t care for his easy ways to extend that into statutory rape. He also has another significant problem–Kristin and her friend, accompanied by a female college student, came to his house late at night after sneaking into a fraternity party and getting drunk. They ask Cogan to put them up for the night rather than have Kristin go home. That’s the night, Kristin writes, that the two of them had sex.
Carnoy spins a number of subplots that cast doubt on each of the characters. The most effective has Detective Madden, his co-workers, and Ted questioning the detective’s motive for aggressively pursuing the doctor. The reader can find Ted both repelling and sympathetic, and comes to wonder about the reliability of the witnesses. By changing points of view, and by alternating between real-time and in flashbacks, Carnoy slowly builds his way to a shocking confrontation that helps to resolve the reason for Kristin’s death.
This is Carnoy’s debut, and it offers hope that he’ll bring his talent for thoughtful writing and strong plotting to more stories.
Check the WRL catalog for Knife Music
