I just finished reading Leavin' Trunk Blues by Ace Atkins,
the second book featuring Nick Travers, Blues tracker. It
brought a couple of related issues to mind:
This is not a new trend, but it seems to be on the rise,
opening with a glimpse at the climax, then going back to the
beginning of the story. For instance, this book opens with a
2 1/4 page prologue. The first chapter opens with the note
"Five Days Earlier." The book gets back to the material in
the prologue on page 297 of 322. While I have read books in
which this strategy has been used effectively (Stark's Parker
series uses it a lot), it most often seems to evidence a loss
of nerve, the fear that the reader will not have the patience
for a slow build. All in all, I would have liked this book a
lot more without the teaser. It messed with the pacing,
especially if you got the inside joke -- it told too
much.
Which is my other topic, inside jokes. This, too, can be used
effectively, as in the book Shooting Elvis. Everyone is
chasing a
"dingus" in that book. Although the dingus is clearly
described, its significance is never explained; it's as if
Hammett forgot to provide the provenance of the Rara Avis.
The dingus in Shooting Elvis is a real item. I doubt it hurts
the enjoyment of the book if the reader does not know what
makes this particular item so special, may even make it kind
of surrealistically amusing that all of this to-do is over
this item, but awareness of its significance brings a knowing
smile to someone who is in on the joke. The inside joke in
Leavin' Trunk Blues is not so subtle.
SPOILER ALERT *** SPOILER ALERT
That tease mentions Stagger Lee. The entire plot hinges on
whether or not Ruby Walker really killed Billy Lyons. Now,
anyone who knows the song Stagger Lee (AKA Staggerlee or
Stack O' Lee), which is just about anyone who knows anything
at all about the blues, knows that Stagger Lee killed Billy
Lyons. So by introducing his name at the beginning, Atkins
has already told us that Ruby is, indeed, falsely imprisoned.
This changes the pacing of the whole book, makes the reader
impatient with Travers as he too slowly comes to believe
Ruby's declaration of innocence. If he had skipped the teaser
which tells us of Stagger Lee's real existence, we might have
thought he was nothing more than an urban legend, as Travers
does when his name is first introduced much later in the
book.
And when that name does come up, Travers asks, "LIke the
song?" However, he never mentions the irony (as he does not
yet believe there is a real Stagger Lee), that the victim is
named Billy Lyons. There are a lot of variations on that
song, but they all agree that Stagger Lee killed Billy
Lyons.
I still liked the book quite a bit, but I think the teaser
introducing the inside joke way too soon works against it
being as good as it could have been. I don't mind being a bit
ahead of a protagonist, but I don't like being that far ahead
of him, except in a book which gives the detective and the
killer equal play, which this doesn't -- although there are
asides featuring other characters, this is clearly Travers's
book.
Mark
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