So, this book is doing weird things in the meta--one of the conceits is that the first-person POV character, the "I" of the novel, has written "how to write a mystery novel" books, so the narrator goes to great lengths to demonstrate that he's "playing fair." That ... strangely, doesn't interfere with this working as a reasonable modern take on a Fair Play Mystery, at least to my not-deeply-involved-in-the-genre taste, without at all coming across (to me) as anything like a satire. The voice is reasonably engaging, and the characters are ... fun to find in a book, though I honestly wouldn't want to spend more real-world time with them than necessary.
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Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin
So I read another novel by Ms. Heaberlin and it was pretty good, so I grabbed this one while I was at the library, and it's also prett...
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A beautiful novel about life as a mobster (in 1940s Tampa) and all the contradictions and complications of it. Lehane clearly has an ear f...
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This is early Vachss, all taut and violent, more than a little murky to my mind. It is not good to be a sexual offender in a Vachss novel....
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A beautiful novel of violence, vengeance and pain, set against a backdrop of small-town bigotry. If you see this, or *Razorblade Tears*, t...

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