Review: Harlan Coben’s Six Years in the Washington Post

As I write in my Washington Post review of the new novel Six Years, Harlan Coben has long since established himself as the master of a certain kind of tale: the story of “a life suddenly unraveling, the past summoned back into a swiftly shifting present, secrets peeling back to reveal more secrets.” In this novel, college professor Jake Fisher seems to have the chance to reconnect with a lost love—if only he could prove that she actually exists! This latest outing displays clockwork precision in that regard, and while some aspects of the book defy reality, the overall effect is still both mesmerizing and surprisingly affecting. See my full review here. — Art Taylor

Review: Emily Winslow’s “The Start of Everything” in the Washington Post

An American author living in Cambridge, England, Emily Winslow has now published two mysteries set in her new home. The latest, The Start of Everything, follows five narrators to piece together a complex tale centered on the corpse of a young woman found caught in a fen sluice gate. Here’s the start of my review in today’s Washington Post:

Fr. Ronald Knox, a founding member of Britain’s famed Detection Club, concluded his 1929 “Decalogue” for detective fiction with this rule: “Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.”

Despite being set in Cambridge and then in an English manor house, Emily Winslow’s second novel, The Start of Everything, is far removed from the Golden Age of British mysteries, but with the persistent doubling that dominates this intricately plotted tale, I could hardly help thinking about Knox’s rules. People are frequently mistaken for others. Pairs of objects play central roles (watches and sweaters, specifically). While no actual twins appear, the novel features two sets of brothers, and in one case the likeness between them provides both a poignant, unsettling scene of impersonation and a legacy of tension and trouble.

Read the full review here. — Art Taylor

Review: Dashiell Hammett’s Return of the Thin Man in the Washington Post

I’ve long been a big fan of Dashiell Hammett‘s stories and novels (my favorite is his first book, Red Harvest), and like most folks, I also greatly admire the films adapted from his work: from tight adaptations like John Huston’s version of The Malteste Falcon to looser ones, including the Coen Brothers’ Miller’s Crossing. And then there’s that delightful series of Thin Man films that rose from Hammett’s final and most successful novel.

Fellow fans of those films will appreciate Return of the Thin Man, a new collection of screen stories Hammett wrote after the first Thin Man achieved such overwhelming success. But in some cases, those same fans might find themselves wanting to just turn back to the films themselves—necessarily so in some cases, as in Another Thin Man, when Hammett has Nick Charles explain “the electric-cord-gun-paper-water trick as it was used by the murderer” but doesn’t actually explain it himself! (Cue the DVD to see how it works….)

The central problem then, with these stories, is that they’re not finished products in their own right but just steps along the way to the final creation of the films themselves. But there’s still much to admire here, too. For a rundown of strengths and weaknesses of the new collection, check out my review in the Washington Post here. And for some additional perspectives, here’s NPR’s coverage of the new collection as well, including an interview with one of the book’s co-editors and a noted Hammett biographer, Richard Layman. — Art Taylor

Review: B.A. Shapiro’s The Art Forger in The Washington Post

Having worked for many years at an art museum myself, I was very excited about the opportunity to review B.A. Shapiro’s The Art Forger, which takes readers into both the art world and the art forgery world through a tale inspired by the famous Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery. There’s much to admire here, including both the main character, aspiring artist Claire Roth, who makes a Faustian bargain for a shot at fame, and — not unrelated — the novel’s overriding sense of moral consequence. But a central artistic decision kept nagging at me throughout the book, related to both the pleasures and the challenges of building a work of fiction on top of an actual event. Here’s my attempt at a catchy opening for the review:

In March 1990, two men disguised as police officers stole 13 works of art from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum — works collectively valued as high as $500 million, the largest art heist in history. More than two decades later, authorities have still failed to produce any solid leads in the case, but pop culture has had fun locating the loot in a number of unlikely places. In May, Stephen Colbert confessed that he’d stolen Vermeer’s The Concert, the most valuable of the missing paintings. And two years ago on “The Simpsons,” Springfield police came across the same painting in the basement of Mr. Burns’s mansion. “Is it a crime to want nice things?” Burns asked.

Now another of the stolen masterworks seems to have turned up in B.A. Shapiro’s first novel, The Art Forger — but that word “seems” functions on a number of levels here.

Check out the full review here in The Washington Post. — Art Taylor

Review: Ariel S. Winter’s The Twenty-Year Death in the Washington Post

Today, the Washington Post published my review of Ariel S. Winter’s three-novel debut, the all-in-one-volume trilogy The Twenty-Year Death, which models each of its books, in succession, on the works of one of three true legends of mystery and suspense writing. Here’s the opening paragraph of the review:

If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery, then crime fiction maestros Georges Simenon, Raymond Chandler and Jim Thompson are feeling the love these days. Baltimore writer Ariel S. Winter has summoned up the stylistic spirits of each legendary novelist for his own debut, a massive and marvelous trilogy called The Twenty-Year Death.

My impressions of the novel(s) weren’t exclusively positive (as you’ll see), but really, with a book this bold — and such fun to read — it’s tough to find too much fault. Check out the full review here. — Art Taylor