Robert Dugoni's Damage Control Thrills with Black and White Strokes
Damage Control by Robert Dugoni
If Robert Dugoni's novel Damage Control were a painting, it would be a stark landscape done in bold blacks and whites with splashes of blood red and portraits made difficult to look at by their lack of shading.
He'd also force his viewers to re-evaluate their definitions of success based on the colors he chose to paint that particular holy grail.
But Dugoni didn't choose a landscape to tell his story. Instead, the novelist who stormed the New York Times bestseller list with his first novel The Jury Master returns to the thriller genre to ask his questions about the cost of success and how much of our soul and blood we must sacrifice to attain it.
Damage Control opens in a doctor's waiting room with attorney Dana Hill counting the billable minutes she is wasting while waiting for her diagnosis. It's quickly apparent, though, that her calculations are only a thin veil hiding her fears about the irregular breast exam results.
From there, we find that Dana is a woman with few compassionate people in her life. The one nurturing relationship she has is one she has found little time for of late — perhaps because he is the only one unwilling to place unreasonable demands on her. So when this understanding twin brother is murdered, Dana's world is shaken. With the help of detective Michael Logan, she hunts his killer while re-evaluating the emotionally abusive work and home relationships she is steeped in.
Poor Dana attracts tragedy like a blood does a shark. In less than a week's time she has to face alone the diagnosis of breast cancer, the murder of her brother, the discovery that her husband is cheating on her, and threats upon her own life.
Dugoni creates a black and white world in which it is easy for readers to identify the actors worthy of cheers and those who should elicit boos. The characters smack of melodrama in that they are either completely likeable or totally despicable. The only well-rounded characters in the novel are Dana's mother Kathy and Elizabeth Meyer. Not that the presence of flawed vulnerabilities in either of those characters make them ambiguous in reader sympathies.
Perhaps it is the nature of a thriller, though, that bad guys must be bad and good guys good. Certainly the looks we get into the soul of the serial killer is chilling. His creepiness as he hunts and taunts his prey truly inspires goosebumps. Dugoni expertly weaves in plenty of foreshadowing to produce a frightening climax.
As the detective, Michael Logan is almost background noise. He provides Dana with one of the few compassionate voices in her life and offers her a look at what the alternative to her life could be. His role in this thriller isn't so much to solve the crime as it is to force Dana to realize it is possible to have a spouse who can see past disease and with whom a life of beauty can be created. He forces her to look beyond the allure of materialism.
Far more interesting is the artist William Welles who functions as a sort of fortune teller, moving Damage Control from traditional thrillerdom into more mystical realms. It is through this character that Dugoni injects an undefined spiritualism into his story, crossing over from natural realism into a more impressionistic work.
Blended into the work is a frightening look at spousal abuse and an exploration into why women put up with abusive behaviors from their husbands. The answers are different for each of the women in the book and perhaps the flimsiest reasons are presented by the woman who suffers the greatest abuse. Whereas each of the other women have an inner strength that allows them to choose what they will and will not tolerate, the victim of the most severe abuse has had most of her spirit battered from her.
There are moments in this book that are political, but while one of the more smarmy and despicable characters is a Democrat, it isn't his politics that make him offensive. Rather, it was simply necessary to place him in one party or another and the comparisons to Kennedy's Camelot provided for several strong parallels to Jackie O.
Dugoni's Damage Control is an easy read in part because the villains are villains and the heroes are loveable. No mental stretching is necessary. Instead, Damage Control is simply a well-written book with a fast-paced plot and a few surprises along the way.
It's a painting that trades subtle shadings for bright, stark contrasts, leaving the reader with few doubts.
