Crime in the past, but not that long ago

Citizen Vince by Jess Walter published 2005 I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get to this book – I read and loved the author’s Beautiful Ruins a few years ago, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter – and have had this one, a very highly-acclaimed book, an Edgar-winner, on my Kindle for ages. It was written 20 years ago, and set 20 years before that: at the time of the 1980 US election, Reagan vs Carter. This gave me a jolt when I started it, because I had literally that day met someone I hadn’t seen in years, who made me remember where I was the night of that election. (This is of no interest to anyone but me, but it was disconcerting) The plot follows a few days in the life of Vince Camden, who is living in Spokane, a reasonably-sized city in Washington State but not the bustling heart of the world. He is under a witness protection programme, so that’s not his real name. We follow his daily round, meet his friends, consider his low-level criminal activities (you can take the boy out…