Interrupting a nice, big, gaudy cover is a sticker that touts \Matchstick Men"" as ""next summer's big movie."" While this boast may have the backing of Ridley Scott's direction and the star power of Nicholas Cage, it would be preferable if the narrow book could support the supposed story. While the author may see some quick cash from a filmed story, it is the novel that suffers.
Rather than offering much depth, the story instead consists of shallowly rendered characters and the easily crafted con games they play. Instead of reveling in any sort of depth and development, ""Matchstick Men"" relies on little more than a pair of guys grabbing up whatever cash they can milk from unsuspecting folks along the way. The book jumps from scene to scene, like the movie is half done and Ridley Scott is demanding another take because the camera is rolling.
""Matchstick Men"" follows Roy and Frankie, two swindlers with years of street experience behind them. They know every trick and have invented a few, ranging from fooling convenience store clerks out of petty cash in ""twenties"" to running forgeries of forged paintings for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The tension that eventually agitates Roy and Frankie comes up early and lingers, never really coming to a climax. The dialogue rarely gets beyond an exchange of obscenities and one man listing the annoying habits of the other. The book begs to get beyond the money games and the grifterspeak after the first 50 pages.
Fortunately, Roy discovers that he has a long lost daughter, Angela, floating around from an almost-forgotten marriage. She swoops in with a teasing smile and quick affection and provides some background to Roy. He and Angela pair off, with Roy teaching his daughter how to fool someone out of a small fortune. Their shopping and stealing sprees possess some of the brighter moments of the book but create shadows as Frankie steps away from the plot line.
Though a crime novel does not beg for much more than a twisting plot and some hidden corners, ""Matchstick Men"" still seems slim. Without any significant subplot or enduring antagonist, the book suffers from its own pace. The confrontations come too quickly and end before they gain any momentum. Like the ninety-minute movie it is destined to be, ""Matchstick Men"" wraps itself up before there is enough time for it to mature. Hopefully Nicholas Cage and Ridley Scott can milk a little more out of the book than Eric Garcia did.
""Matchstick Men"" is published by Villard.
