THE CONTORTIONIST'S HANDBOOK by Craig Clevenger, 2002, 193156115X.
Like most books I forgot why I put this on hold. Crime novel set in mid-'80s with a drug addicted forger. Mostly about him growing up and learning his trade. A bit of a high IQ autist with art skills he is mainly self taught and VERY detailed oriented.
He regularly builds up identities with details and either backable data or "County Courthouse burned down, must be a real birth certificate." Current day story - 1980 something - is set in a L.A. County mental health facility after narrator ODs and is under observation to judge whether he is suicidal. Narrator tells his tale and the tale is compellingly told and fun to read. Plenty of detail added about forging and growing up with absent parents and teenage legal trouble.
But, narrator is trying to avoid bad guys and I never quite believed the threat of the bad guys. Only a smal portion of the plot includes Bad Guys and they are assumed to be mob guys with a lot of money, power, and reach.
I enjoyed the read but it's not a crime or mystery novel as much as a character study. ANd Clevenger does put together a neat character.
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