THE WINNER STANDS ALONE

Paul Coelho has been to the Cannes Film Festival—and apparently didn't like it. Here he creates a psychopathic Russian zillionaire bent on killing random people during the festival in order to get his ex-wife back. How serial murder is to accomplish this is murky, and Coelho is too busy disdainfully telling (not showing) what film and fashion worlds are like, according to him, to make his (too) many characters, jaded celebrities, and hopeful wannabes real. So what suspense one feels as to who will live or die is largely created by Paul Boehmer's sympathetic narration. Boehmer occasionally loses focus in the middle of a sentence, but otherwise earnestly labors to create some recognizable people in this uncomfortable welter of nihilism and celebrity dirt. B.G. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2009]