Ruth
Sims, author of the best-selling The
Phoenix reviews Bought and
Paid For by Michael HalfhillRuth Sims' Phoenix
Available through
Ingram or Midpoint Trade Books
Phone orders: 800-497-0037
Email orders: Orders@Midpt.com
Author's email: rsims@writerscollective.org
BOUGHT AND PAID FOR by Michael Halfhill
Paperback: 178 pages, $13.95
Publisher: iUniverse (January 1, 2004)
ISBN: 0595304907
Reviewed by Ruth Sims (The Phoenix)
This is a fascinating book, to say the least. From the striking cover, which depicts a disturbingly young and vulnerable-looking boy, to the last word on the last page, the reader is hooked. And disturbed.
Why disturbed? Because three basic situations are initially off-putting: a mother throws her teenage son away; the teenage son is forced by circumstance to attempt hustling; a powerful older man isolates the young protagonist and forces sex on him. And yet, the way these situations are presented and their final outcomes, leaves the startled reader sympathetic, if not exactly empathetic, to the mother and the man. As for the boy, the reader is rooting for him from the beginning. Choices are made by them all, with sometimes tragic consequences.
On page one, the reader is privy to a conversation between teenage buddies Jan Phillips and Bobby O'Farrell who, despite Jan's underage appearance, are eighteen. This matters because Bobby is trying to convince Jan he can make easy money servicing chicken hawks in the tenderloin district of Philadelphia. Jan is outraged. He may be a poor kid from a large, impoverished Catholic family, but he intends to make something of himself and being a hustler is not part of that plan. Doggedly he starts looking for work, but jobs are scarce.
Shortly afterward, Jan's widowed mother stuns him with a harsh order to leave home; she can't afford to keep him anymore and he's got to sink or swim on his own. With no money, no job, no one to turn to Jan finds himself considering the unthinkable. Though the idea nauseates him, in desperation he tries to sell himself. And fails miserably.
Enter Tim Morris, a thirty-something lawyer with "a weakness for young guys." His luxury apartment overlooks the tenderloin ("Mary-Go-Round", as he thinks of it) and he takes to watching a pretty young boy (Jan) who is obviously hustling and just as obviously not very good at it. It's as if his heart just isn't in his inept efforts to get picked up. One day both Jan and Tim are caught in a fortuitous thunderstorm, which gives Tim chance to get acquainted with the boy . and Tim has more on his mind than just getting acquainted.
I won't detail any more of the story because I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't read it. But suffice it to say Tim is much, much more than a rich lawyer, and his reason for taking Jan in is far more complex than just sex, though there is plenty of that.
BOUGHT AND PAID FOR is a short book at 168 pages, but it is dense with explosive (literally!) action, evil plots, dead bodies and gore. And though it's a stand-alone book, it segues nicely into the second book of the series, "Scimitar," which is now available. And hopefully there will be even more adventures of Jan Phillips to come from author Halfhill.