‘Trading Saints for Sinners’: Many Genres, One Great Story
“Trading Saints for Sinners”
Written by Roman Colombo
Review by Gene Selassie
(Buy it here.)
I have to admit, it’s been a while since I’ve read a novel that started as one thing, evolved into another thing, then in the end mutated into something so beautiful and apropos that I’m left speechless. “Trading Saints for Sinners” does all of this, and Roman Colombo makes it appear effortless.
Our protagonist, Caden Conrad, is one of those fruits that the most dramatic juice can be squeezed out of. He is a man trying to atone, not only for the past mistakes of his personal life, but the present ones that he’s made into a professional career. Along the way, he meets Ariadne (the irony of this character’s name is not treated with a heavy hand in the least). She teetered close to the “prostitute with the heart of gold” cliché in the first act, but thankfully Roman’s narrative zagged when I thought it was going to zig. Their fates are tied closer together than either of them thought when a mysterious benefactor, aware of Conrad’s past sins, comes to offer one chance for atonement. The characters here are so fleshed out, and in so few pages to boot, it’s a wonder how well this was done without becoming the requisite exposition dump.
The characterization isn’t the only spot-on aspect of this novel. From the opening pages, this dark and grimy world that Roman created evoked the dreariness of a Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett, but from his other works that I’ve read this is Colombo’s own personal stamp. From the sex and scandal that permeates the Red Light District in Frankfurt, Germany, to the enthralling structures and tourist sights of Milan, Roman far more than succeeded at the task of transporting me there.
My only two issues revolved around the mysterious benefactor, who was such a great character that I wanted more of him, and the same could be said of the story itself (the novelista deserves War and Peace treatment as far as novel length is concerned). But this was overall a thrilling and heart wrenching story with just the right amount of dark humor and genre-mashing that I will recommend to anyone, no matter what genre you prefer. – 8.5 out of 10.
