By Kurt Wenzel
Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover

Kyle Clayton is a has-been drunkard author trying to write his second novel ten years after his first. He has already spent the advance for his second novel, which is about Muslims, and can’t seem to get past the first twenty pages. And his new agent is obnoxious.

Could Clayton’s writer’s block be caused by writing trash about Islam? After all, he is a recent convert to Islam, brought about by his desire to marry Ayla, who comes from a Muslim family. Or is Clayton really a one-shot wonder?

Clayton adds to his misery by deciding he must take a mistress. This brings us to Erin Wyatt, a former lover of Clayton’s who is now his waitress at City restaurant and the second main character. Kyle doesn’t realize who Erin is, but when he does, he plots to make her his mistress.

Gotham Tragic Excerpt “As a would-be Muslim, Kyle couldn’t even manage Step One: accepting Muhammad as his prophet. He found Muhammad a magnificent though deeply troubling figure. A man of epic paradoxes. Muhammad, the enemy of greed but also the savvy merchant who at twenty-five marries Khadija, the forty year-old widow of immense fortune. . . . The Warrior Prophet! Another term Kyle could never cozy up to. “ ©2004 Kurt Wenzel Published with permission from Little, Brown and Co.

Erin is trying not to give up on her dream of being an actress and spends her free time helping her dying Aunt Helena bring order to a cluttered apartment. Erin is also hoping to uncover the legendary book written by Aunt Helena proving the existence of God.

The third main character is Lonny Tumin, who rivals Clayton as to who can be the most obnoxious. He is the owner of City Restaurant where he makes and breaks his deals in a private room with a private waitress, Erin. Tumin tries to climb to number-one rich man on the backs of everyone he meets. His latest step up is creating a fake company and selling stock for it. Ah, and Lonny also wants Erin as his mistress.

Kyle is hired to interview Tumin and gets more than he bargained for when Erin, who has had enough of Tumin, spills all of Lonny’s secrets to Kyle.

One the eve of the new millennium, all the characters come together at a New Year’s blowout party at City and some not-so-surprising events take place.

Bookworm's Briefing
Gotham Tragic needs to be edited and sent back for a re-write. Wenzel is a much better writer than this. The best parts of the book were the stories of the supporting characters of Erin and her Aunt Helena; Don Westly, Tumin’s caretaker; and a waiter at City, Abu Hussein, a Muslim caught in a loveless marriage who keeps his integrity throughout the story.

Perhaps this book would appeal to a male audience but it's tiresome as well as demeaning to the female reader. Wenzel’s approach takes up the storylines of the three main characters after an important event has already happened and continues their tales with unimportant details, interspersed with a plethora of profanity and vulgarity that is both unnecessary and repulsive.