Riskin, Boris

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Riskin, Boris

PERSONAL: Born in Brooklyn, NY; married; wife's name Kiki (a sculptor); children: one daughter, one son. Education: Attended University of Michigan.

ADDRESSES: Home—Sag Harbor, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Five Star Books, 295 Kennedy Memorial Dr., Waterville, ME 04901. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. Worked at a variety of jobs, including dishwasher, busboy, factory worker, and discount clothes salesman.

WRITINGS:

Scrambled Eggs (fiction), Five Star (Waterville, ME), 2005.

Short stories have appeared in literary magazines and in New Yorker.

SIDELIGHTS: Boris Riskin is an established short-story writer who tells the story of retiring Shakespearean professor Jake Wanderman in the novel Scrambled Eggs. Although he is looking forward to retirement, the sixty-year-old Jake suddenly is confronted by his wife's declaration that she is leaving him. As narrated by Jake, who often quotes Shakespeare when under stress, he is despondent over what appears to be the end of his twenty-five-year marriage to a woman he dearly loves. In fact, Jake appears to have lost his will to do much of anything. Nevertheless, he reluctantly attends the party of a friend and meets the beautiful Cynthia Organ, whose husband, Boris, recently died. Cynthia tells Jake she has found an attaché case her husband owned containing gold bars and six Fabergé Imperial eggs worth a fortune. Before long, Jake is involved in a mystery involving the Russian mob, the FBI, and his estranged wife and her new rich, boyfriend. After getting beat up by some thugs, Jake is on the case and soon discovers his wife and her lover tied up in her lover's house, which also contains a dead FBI agent, who may actually be an imposter. "Riskin's debut is less Brighton than Coney Island, with thrills, spills and double-crosses beyond number," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Harriet Klausner, writing in MBR Bookwatch, noted that "the story line is fast-paced, but held together by the likable professor." Klausner also wrote that "sub-genre fans will enjoy this tale told by a bard filled with fun and fury."