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Just don’t call it a mystery novel

May 15, 2012 by Dave Knadler

I love mystery novels, to the extent that for quite awhile I read nothing else. I was a little embarrassed by it, too. People would talk about the serious books they had on the nightstand and then ask what I’d been reading. They’d mention something like Anna Karenina and I’d cough into my fist and mutter something like Kiss Me, Deadly.

But then I realized that all the best books are mysteries, whether they’re classified as crime fiction or not. Every good book turns on conflict, and all good writers make a mystery of how that conflict will be resolved. Even Atlas Shrugged is a mystery novel when you squint at it: Who is John Galt, baby? And why does the damned book have to be so damned long? Very mysterious. Riddles wrapped in enigmas.

While I still love mysteries, I admit I’ve grown a little weary of American crime fiction, particularly all the series characters and their never-ending sequels. Sue Grafton is dangerously close to the end of the alphabet and John Sandford is scraping the bottom of the barrel for “Prey” adjectives. To get good, surprising crime fiction these days, you have to look abroad.

charles frazier's nightwoodsOr, you look to authors who have never bothered to focus their efforts at a particular genre. Charles Frazier, the author of the fine and literary Cold Mountain in 1998, is such a writer. His latest book, Nightwoods, is literary too — and just happens to be the best crime novel I’ve read since No Country for Old Men. Set in the early '60s, it’s the story of a young woman who finds herself the unwilling guardian of her murdered sister’s two children.

Read the first few lines and see if they don’t make you want to read more:

Luce’s new stranger children were small and beautiful and violent. She learned early that it wasn’t smart to leave them unattended in the yard with the chickens. Later she’d find feathers, a scaled yellow foot with its toes clenched. Neither child displayed language at all, but the girl glared murderous expressions at her if she dared ask where the rest of the rooster went.

The children loved fire above all elements of creation. …

What follows is a story with all the elements of a good crime novel: a memorable villain or two, some dark secrets, and yes, some missing money. But Frazier’s flawless language, his flawed characters, his sense of time and place and season — they all add up to a novel that can’t be confined to a genre.

I haven’t sworn off crime fiction, far from it. But a book like this could make a fan of the genre a bit more picky about what he considers good.

More along these lines:

  • Let us consider the best of the worstLet us consider the best of the worst
  • A long trek with Tolstoy
  • helene heggemanWhen talent is a license to steal
  • grant biography ron chernow historyIt could be worse.
    Just ask Grant
  • A couple of books worth reading

Filed Under: Books, writers

About Dave Knadler

Obscure writer. Lazy photographer. Bashful guitarist. Perhaps too fond of wine. Tireless nemesis of New York Times crosswords, Wordle, Semantle and all other puzzles du jour.

Comments

  1. Erin says

    May 15, 2012 at 5:04 pm

    That squealing you heard was my mouse zooming off to add this title to my library waiting list!

    • Dave Knadler says

      May 16, 2012 at 9:14 am

      I got my copy from the library. It’s one of those I kind of wish I’d bought.

  2. Maxine says

    May 16, 2012 at 9:10 am

    Try a bit of Euro crime! Last Will by Liza Marklund is out in the US and is a great crime thriller in my view.

    • Dave Knadler says

      May 16, 2012 at 9:15 am

      I’ll check that out, Maxine. Thanks for the recommendation.

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