Wednesday Paperback Cover

That ain't Estelle Getty.

Review of How the Dead Live

Some books are gone when you close the back cover. Even if you enjoyed them, they just don’t make a long term impression. Then there are books that refuse to go away weeks after you read the last page. Derek Raymond’s How The Dead Live (Serpent’s Tail, 2007) is one of the latter. The third in Raymond’s Factory series featuring a nameless London detective who has born more tragedy in his personal life than any non-fictional human could bear, it has been long out of print, and should not be confused with Will Self’s novel of the same name, with which is shares nothing in terms of subject or tone. Self, who wrote an introduction for the new edition of Raymond’s book, cheerfully admits stealing the title without ever having read the book.

How the Dead Live finds the Detective sent away from London to investigate the disappearance of a doctor’s wife in a small town. It is no ordinary disappearance, however. The missing woman, who was once a vibrant, social creature, had taken to wearing a black veil and whispering when she appeared in public. As if that’s not enough, she’s been missing for six months and the local police have made only a token effort to find one of the town’s most prominent residents. This state of affairs does not sit well with the Detective, who has little patience with incompetence and even less patience with corruption, which is what he finds himself faced with the moment he starts his inquiry.

Raymond’s book has many of the trappings of Gothic horror; a veiled woman, a decaying mansion, mysterious voices, but this window dressing serves only to contrast with the real horror. There are no ghosts, no voices reaching out from the great beyond to guide or torment the living. Supernatural horror is a crutch in disguise, something that reassures while it supposedly terrifies. If a ghost can live forever why can’t you? In Raymond’s world no one lives forever, no matter how desperately they want to. The Detective exists in a world where the only constant is death.

For all its horror and police conventions, however, the greatest surprise of How the Dead Live is that, in the end, it’s not a police procedural or a horror story. It’s a romance. The central conspiracy the Detective uncovers is not one motivated by malice or greed, but by love. True, there is no shortage of villains in this book, but, at the very core of the book, where one expects to find the worst humanity has to offer, Raymond substitutes the best. It should be a relief. It’s not.

Harwood meets Grammar Girl

I don't know how he does it. With one day left until Jack Wakes Up is available (a.k.a. Palms Sunday) Seth Harwood continues to show up in the darndest places. He's managed to get himself onto the Grammar Girl podcast to discuss his use of present tense in JWU. If Seth's career as a teacher and novelist doesn't work out I really think he could make the big bucks in publicity and promotions. The guy's unstoppable. He's got all the angles covered. Color me impressed.

Fifty to One

Hard Case Crime has announced it's fiftieth title. It's by publisher Ardai, and it's got a pomo/retro vibe to it. Just take a good look at the cover, and read a bit about the novel's premise here. This one look likes it's going to be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, you've got to wait until December to lay your hands on it.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

It's not every day you see a woman with glasses on a paperback cover.

At Central Booking

I've finally taken some time to poke around Sandra Ruttan's new site, At Central Booking, and there's some good stuff there. I particularly like the Lie Detector, which I think is a novel concept. There's also an audio story by Allan Guthrie, who will presumably not be the only author reading there for long. You ought to be able to find something to interest you there.

The Bigger the Lie, The More They Believe

(THIS POST CONTAINS SOME MINOR SPOILERS ABOUT THE WIRE SEASON 5)

I'm almost willing to take back some of my earlier criticism of this season of The Wire. The last two episodes were as good, maybe better, as anything that came before it. I still have some questions about the McNulty storyline, which didn't quite hang together, but in light of the final scene I'm willing to forgive a certain gaping plot hole, which seems to have escaped the writers. I'm willing to believe they overlooked it on purpose for dramatic effect, and that's okay with me because it worked.

Overall, though, I was surprised it ended on such an optimistic note. For the most part the good guys came out unscathed. They didn't exactly win, but this ending was as close to a triumph as The Wire could ever get. Simon and company actually hold out the possibility of redemption for just about everyone, even the dope dealers. The final scene with Cheese serves as a repudiation of the ruthlessness and raw ambition of Marlo and his crew.The values of Prop Joe, imperfect though they were, aren't forgotten. Marlo walks, true, but he can't walk away and save himself. Even Dukie's undeserved descent is balanced out by Bubbles' trip up the stairs to his sister's dining room. And Michael found his place.

Lester and McNulty both made it out the other side, even after the rules they broke. I was surprised they got off so easy and ended up happy. Before the finale I was certain McNulty would end up putting a gun in his mouth. I was relieved when he ended up making peace with himself and with his girlfriend, even if it seems a little too convenient. I believed it. I believed it all.

The Long Tail

Q: What do Industrial music icons Nine Inch Nails and first-time novelist Seth Harwood have in common?

A: The Long Tail.

Nine Inch Nails, following the lead of Radiohead, put out a double album of instrumental music this week under a Creative Common license under the theory that true fans will pay for something even if you give it away. So has Harwood. He's been putting himself out there for a long time with his podcast of three crime novels, the latest of which just started two weeks ago. Now, weeks before his first novel, Jack Wakes Up, is going on sale, he's released a pdf version of the book out there to generate interest. This sort of thing has been going with sci-fi authors for a while, and I am curious to see how Harwood's Palms Sunday promotion will turn out. The Internet is a huge new tool that allows people to connect with each other and seek out work they like. I like Seth, and I admire his willingness to promote his work so completely. He's got a grasp of this new media environment, and he's really reaching out to people who aren't the traditional audience for crime fiction, which is something I think the genre needs. I wish him luck.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

This is wandering off the reservation a bit, but the image above is from a Yugoslavian edition of Naked Lunch. It makes me wonder if anyone read the book because the image sure as hell wasn't inspired by anything Burroughs wrote. It appears to have come from a painting. If you recognize it, let me know. More Burroughs covers here.

Bleak House Book Club

Bleak House books is starting a book club. To kick it off they're asking readers to pick the book they think should be the first title to get the treatment. After the winner has been selected there will be an opportunity for 10 folks to score a copy of the selected title gratis. For more details check out the announcement.