RARA-AVIS: Small Crimes

From: Nathan Cain (IndieCrime@gmail.com)
Date: 06 Sep 2008

  • Next message: Ron Clinton: "RE: RARA-AVIS: Small Crimes"

    I just finished Dave Zeltserman's Small Crimes this morning, and it's my favorite book of the year so far as new fiction goes. Zeltserman's small town bad cop noir obviously owes a lot to Jim Thompson, but it ends up being more than an imitation because the only person Zeltserman's protagonist is fooling is himself. Everyone else seems to have him figured out. Since it's in first person and the narrator is unreliable the reader has to rely on external cues to try and figure out to what extent the main character is deceiving himself. It's a very effective technique for keeping the book interesting. If it had been more straightforward the story would have had less impact. All in all a well told tale.



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