Item: The Darkest Glare
Rating: 3.00
Author: quirkycat

by Chip Jacobs

Late-seventies Los Angeles was rampant with killers and shady characters, but all the go-getters at Space Matters saw was possibility. Richard Kasparov was handsome and charismatic; his younger associate, Jerry Schneiderman, brilliant and nerdy. When the pair hired a veteran contractor to oversee construction, the space planning firm they operated out of a hip mansion in LA’s Miracle Mile district appeared poised to transform the boundless skyline into their jackpot.

After the promising team imploded, however, the orderly lines on their blueprints succumbed to treachery and secrets. To get even, one of the ex-partners launched a murder-for-profit corporation using, among other peculiar sorts, a bantam-sized epileptic with a deadeye shot and a cross-dressing sidekick. The hapless criminals required a comical number of attempts to execute their first target. Once they did, on a rainy night in the San Fernando Valley, the surviving founder of Space Matters was thrown into a pressure cooker existence out of a Coen Brothers movie. Threatened for money he didn’t have, he donned a disguise, survived a heart-pounding encounter at the La Brea Tar Pits, and relied on an ex-Israeli mercenary for protection. In the end, he had to outfox a glowering murderer, while asking if you can ever really know anyone in a town where dirty deals send men to their graves.

In The Darkest Glare, Chip Jacobs recounts a spectacular, noir-ish, true-crime saga from one of the deadliest eras in American history. You’ll never gaze out windows into the dark again.

Included as a bonus is an original true crime short from the same unhinged era. In “Paul & Chuck,” a flashy, crusading attorney wages war against the messianic leader of a bloodthirsty cult determined to teach the world to stay away.

I received a copy of The Darkest Glare in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Darkest Glare, written by Chip Jacobs is a true crime novel, one that, as the title promises, is full of murder, blackmail, and so much more.

Set in 1979 Los Angeles, this novel dives into a very real series of crimes. It follows Richard Kasparov and Jerry Schneiderman. Two construction workers, by most appearances. But anybody who has spent time reading a crime novel, true or not, knows how deceptive looks can be.

Before I dive into my review, I want to be upfront about something. I don't typically read true crime novels. It's not my cup of tea, and in general, I have no problem with violence or gore, but when I know it really happened? Then it tends to be too much for me.

Yet there was something about The Darkest Glare that caught my attention. Maybe it was simply because I was able to actually read a sample on BookishFirst – not something I generally get to do with books outside of my preferred genres.

Whatever it was, I wanted to give The Darkest Glare a proper chance, and read it all the way through. Overall, I found it to be a fascinating (yet dark – naturally) read. It wasn't what I expected, but I consider that to be a positive thing.

One thing that impressed me (but might prove how little true crime I read) is just how much research went into this novel. You can really tell how much work Chip Jacobs put into getting it all together, and it all seems to flow pretty smoothly. There's no sense of info-dumping, for lack of a better description.

Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

The Darkest Glare

by Chip Jacobs

Reviewed by Quirky Cat on Mar 8, 2021

Reading updates