a writer's journey
with apologies to the artists*
You
spin
me
right
round
baby
right
round
like a record
baby
right
round
round
round
*”You Spin Me Right Round” was written by Richard Stannard, Stephen Coy, Tim Lever, Julian Gallagher, Peter Burns, Michael Percy, and Richard Breen
As an unpublished author, awards are dreams beyond the dream. And award winners are also opportunities to learn. In January, the Edgar nominees were announced, and since then my reading has been focused on these. I’ve now finished all five nominees for the Edgar Award for Best Novel, and (unsurprisingly) they are all great. Here are my reviews (in the order I read them), and my pick for the Edgar.
The Venice Sketchbook – Rhys Bowen – This beautifully drawn historical drama is set primarily in Venice near the start of World War II. Nazism and Fascism cloud the future, while impossible love burns both brightly and painfully. The mystery (which you might not find very mysterious) unfolds via the perspectives of both the period protagonist and a modern relative trying to piece things together.
How Lucky – Will Leitch – Quirky, funny, engaging story with an unconventional protagonist—a disabled . The inevitability of our demise is omnipresent, but life’s strident will. Most of all, I enjoyed seeing life (and death) through the eyes of this protagonist with a severe, debilitating disability who is also so very able, so alive, and so real.
No One Will Miss Her – Kat Rosenfield – City meets Country in this tale of murder with some interesting twists. It’s sometimes hard to know who to root for in this mixup, but it’s an entertaining blend.
Razorblade Tears – S.A. Crosby – This is a tale of two ex-cons, one Black and one White (the former enterprising and successful, the latter living in squalor) whose married gay sons are murdered, and of the colliding inevitability of their path. But it’s also a story of loss, of learning, of growth, of friendship found in unexpected places, of acceptance, love, and hate, all told in a compelling narrative. It’s worthy of the accolades it has received, and I look forward to reading more from S.A. Crosby.
Five Decembers – James Kestrel Don’t be fooled by the pulp fiction cover of this book (it really does the book a disservice). Though it starts with the slow burn of a seemingly conventional noir tale, the story that unfolds is an epic quest that spans the five Decembers of the title. The initial investigation into a bizarre and gruesome murder, set a few days before the attack on Pearl Harbor (and with that impending attack looming in our minds) leads to a series of events that I’m sure most readers won’t anticipate. I’m tempted to say more about the story and what it tells us, but I won’t—just read it.
All five nominees are worthy, but two stand out above the others to me. I won’t be surprised if Razorblade Tears wins, and I’ll even go so far as to say it probably will. But Five Decembers drew me in the deepest, kept me guessing, and ultimately was the nominee that I was most glad to have read.
My prediction: Razorblade Tears by S.A. Crosby
My pick: Five Decembers by James Kestrel
I got a good start on my reading list in January. Also, I added to it, and it’s growing faster than I can read, though I read a lot. Writing, not so much. I know that writing every day is where I need to get, but for now reading is the daily work I’m doing. I’m learning a lot and there’s a lot to admire and model in these books.
Station Eleven: A novel — Emily St. John Mandel – I had high expectations for this novel that has been made into a series. The idea of a traveling “symphony” (really a troupe of theater and music performers) after the viral apocalypse was novel and interesting. Ultimately, though, it wasn’t enough to distinguish this book from others in the genre.
The Last Thing She Ever Did — Gregg Olsen – Engaging while I was reading it, but unfortunately it wasn’t particularly distinctive or memorable.
Welcome to Cooper — Tariq Ashkanani – So noir you can almost smell the smoke, taste the whiskey, and feel the air of Cooper, Nebraska pressing you down, down, down. This first novel by Scot (!) Tariq Askanani grabbed me from the opening page and kept me reading to the end. A couple favorite lines: “She leaned in close and her perfume leaned closer.” “I tasted blood in my mouth and it wasn’t mine.” I only caught one Britishism: “torch” for “flashlight”.
Her Name Is Knight (Nena Knight Book 1) – Yasmin Angie – This novel about a kick-ass assassin with the darkest imaginable backstory unfolds in two parallel threads: past and present, and both are compelling and (too often) disturbing. I can’t wait to see that Nena in Book 2, coming later this year.
Norwegian Wood — Haruki Murakami – I’m not sure entirely why I picked up this book—something about the title and a picture of a Japanese wood gave me a sense of intrigue and, at the same time, peace. Unfortunately, though often told beautifully, I didn’t really care about the characters, their angst, or their sex lives (and there wasn’t much else there). Maybe it was ground-breaking in 1987, but I think maybe this was a literary moment that I just missed, or that missed me (this was, after all, the same era as Less Than Zero, another book filled with self-loathing characters I didn’t care about when I read it back then). To be honest, I did something I very rarely do: I skipped ahead to find that the inevitable conclusion was reached, and half the book was enough (too much, really) for me.
In January, the Edgar nominees were announced. I started reading the five nominees for Best Novel and finished these three before the end of January. I’ll give a more complete report in a later post when I rate the nominees and pick my winner.
The Venice Sketchbook – Rhys Bowen – Beautifully drawn historical drama set in Venice with the backdrop of Nazism and Fascism and the start of the second World War, with a modern protagonist trying to piece things together.
How Lucky – Will Leitch – Quirky, engaging story with an unconventional protagonist.
No One Will Miss Her – Kat Rosenfield – City meets Country in this tale of murder with some interesting twists.
The Mystery Writers of America have announced this year’s nominees for the Edgar Awards. I’ve listed the nominees from two categories below. I’m in the process of reading these and will review them when I complete each category. For other categories and nominees, see the link above.
Congratulations to the nominees, and good luck!
The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen (Amazon Publishing – Lake Union)
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby (Macmillan Publishers – Flatiron Books)
Five Decembers by James Kestrel (Hard Case Crime)
How Lucky by Will Leitch (HarperCollins – Harper)
No One Will Miss Her by Kat Rosenfield (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
Deer Season by Erin Flanagan (University of Nebraska Press)
Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian (Harlequin Trade Publishing – Park Row)
Suburban Dicks by Fabian Nicieza (Penguin Random House – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
What Comes After by JoAnne Tompkins (Penguin Random House – Riverhead Books)
The Damage by Caitlin Wahrer (Penguin Random House – Viking Books/Pamela Dorman Books)
I’ve obviously spent too much time thinking about the 6-word Mystery contest run by the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. But that’s not going to stop me from sharing some of these thoughts with you for each of the 2021 winners and finalists.
Overall, I think this year’s finalists and winners were great. I think the voters valued puns over stories, and some read a bit more like headlines than I’d prefer, but the finalists and winners are all worthy. I wonder if puns should have their own category? Probably not.
I’ve also included my own entries with some thoughts on how I tried to craft them as stories. Next year I’ll definitely work on my wordplay for at least some of my entries.
I’d love to hear what you think in the comments!
This was the category winner. A little headline-y, but does tell a story. Has a pun(ch) line, which the voters apparently like. But does the pun make sense? While I’m sure it’s possible for someone to be shot through a hearth, it’s awkward to picture? Is this a mystery, or just a stretch?
Solid entry. Tells a story that unfolds in a surprising way. Mysterious. This is my vote for winner among the finalists here.
Bit of a story, bit of a pun. Leans toward headline more than story, though.
The overall winner gets another finalist here. There’s a double-pun here (dyed/died, roots/roots), which is hard to pull off in six words, so props to Jean.
Paints a picture, and I see murder in it. Extra points for doing it in just five words. Solid.
You can see here that I’ve tried to paint a visual picture. We see the broken cup first, then we learn that a cat (probably) has walked through puddled blood. Next, we learn the worst—the victim is dead.
This category winner is another punny entry. There’s the beginning of a mystery, but it is cut off before the bells toll.
I’m not sure what to make of this one. It’s more of a rhetorical statement than a story.
An alliterative headline. “Dame’s disappearance” might have been stronger, and left room for another word of story.
Again our overall winner has another finalist. Here we see another pun, and it could be a headline, but it does provide a story: We meet the accountant and learn they’re an embezzler who works for the mob, before finding out their unsurprising fate. Overall a solid entry and my pick as winner of the finalists in this category.
This one is visual, which I like (especially for noir), but the story ends too soon and doesn’t draw me in. It’s just too wide open to be engaging.
We see a glass (or bottle?) of whiskey, then learn the narrator is drunk. Ironically, it’s his cross-eyed drunkenness that leads to the realization at the end. What’s more noir than that? I admittedly took some liberties here with “waidaminit” as one word, but that, too, sounded noir to me.
Another punny category winner. Starts to tell a story, then turns into a joke.
Another joke, but this one is more literary (it’s a Kafka reference). Bit of a story, but the payoff is more shaggy dog than police procedural.
Yet another finalist from Jean Garrison (congrats, Jean!). It’s funny and the punchline on the last word is good, but is it a police procedural or just a joke?
This one is interesting. We get the ending, then the story. It’s the only entry that isn’t trying to be a joke, and my vote for winner among this category’s finalists.
Not much going on here beyond the pun. Perhaps more headline than story.
None of the finalists above described any police procedures, but this one does. It sounds like a routine job, until we learn that the prints are the narrator’s! Don’t you want to know more?
Jean Garrison’s fourth finalist in our list is the strongest, and it’s a good choice for the overall winner. It’s got an intriguing story and it’s topical.
This one’s a little funny, but doesn’t tell a story that draws me in.
I gather the florist was at the end of their rope after dealing with Bridezilla, but “knotted noose” is awkward and it’s headline-y.
This one is good because it makes me stop and think. It only makes sense if the narrator is the who kept “his” (not the narrator’s) promise. I.e., the person who kept the promise is not the person who made it. It’s intriguing but would have benefitted from a couple more words. “He promised his heart; I kept his promise.” Or I’m completely misunderstanding.
Ah, here we have a murder and it’s a story. Second best to the overall winner, which is not bad.
Okay, I’m guilty of a bit of wordplay here, but it’s in service of story, I think. It starts out sounding like something from a romance novel, then we learn that the lover is dead. Perhaps my least favorite of my entries and, but still a story.
This one is clever. It’s only weakness is it’s a situation more than a story, but it’s a solid choice for winner in this category (though not my choice).
I don’t really get the story here, but I see the scene and it’s intriguing.
Gross. Okay, funny, but more of a headline or blurb than a story.
The grammatical error here is disqualifying for me (“spat”). It does paint a picture with some potential intrigue.
This is my choice for the winner among these finalists. We get a story, and a complicating event—what’s the next installment?
The scene is set. We see two seconds left, but is that the game clock or a detonator clock—or both? Then we hear a wire snipped… Did it work?
I hope you’ve enjoyed my reviews here; they’re as much practice for me as a writer as anything. The 6-word Mystery Contest is fun, and the critiques here are offered with my tongue half in cheek. It’s not lost on me that I’ve written more words about these micro-stories than the stories themselves contain.