The 2017 Best Novel Edgar Award - My Choice

The 2017 Best Novel Edgar Award - My Choice

Five novels published in 2016 have been nominated for the 2017 Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America.  The winner will be announced on April 27, 2017.  I have read and reviewed the five novels on this blog and now will pick my winner.  I will up date this blog on the 28th and we will see if I agree with the experts!

These are the five nominees, hyperlinked to my reviews:

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

The Ex by Alafair Burke

Where It Hurts by Reed Farrel Coleman

What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

The reality is that I liked all of these books.  There was not a single dud in the bunch.  I would recommend them all.  But, somebody has to win and somebody has to lose this award, so here are my rankings:

#5:

     This book was really good.  I appreciated the way the author incorporated a lot of modern technology into the story.  The characters were well developed but not very likable.  The plot was a bit convoluted for me, but the ending made sense.  All in all, a worthy nominee, but not my winner.

#4: 

     What Remains of Me was clever with interesting characters but I thought suffered from a bit of a convoluted plot.  The resolution of the story was surprising.  Again, a worthy nominee, but not my winner

#3:

     This book pretty much had it all: interesting and sympathetic characters, a well paced and believable plot and a satisfying conclusion.  My only gripe here was that the ending was a bit predictable.  I also thought that the media types presented here were a bit stereotypical.  Nit-picky complaints, though, given the great quality of this book.

#2:

     This book had great characters but could have had maybe a little tighter plot.  I thought that it dragged in sections.  That said,  I probably would have picked this as my Edgar winner in most years.

My Winner:

     If you had asked me before I had read any of these books, I would undoubtedly ranked this book last.  I had no expectations for this and thought that I would hate it.  Boy, was I wrong.  The writing is superb.  The plot moves along and the characters are all incredibly well developed.  I enjoyed every page of this book and was genuinely sad when I finished it.  This is not your typical "mystery novel", but is my winner by a long shot.  We'll see what the Mystery Writers of America have to say later tonight!

Update:  The Mystery Writers of American announced that Noah Hawley's Before the Fall won the Best Novel Edgar for 2017.  I can't argue with that at all.  Again, I thought all five books were  excellent and would recommend them all!  T.C.

Book Review: 2017 Edgar Nominee: Where it Hurts by Reed Farrel Coleman

Where It Hurts

Author: Reed Farrel Coleman

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Date of Publication: January 26, 2016

Pages: 368

    Reed Farrel Coleman is a veteran writer with many accolades.  He has twenty three previous novels.  Where It Hurts is the beginning of a new series featuring ex-cop Gus Murphy.  This author knows how to tell a story.  The dialogue here is crisp and moves the story along.  The author is very familiar with the Long Island setting and this gives the book authenticity.  This novel is character driven and the main character is very sympathetic.  You can't help rooting for Gus Murphy.

    While most ex-cops in these types of novels are alcoholics, Gus is not.  He is mired in grief over the loss of his only son.  His marriage disintegrates, his daughter goes off the deep end and his career is over.  He is pathetically sleep walking through a mindless job as a van driver for an airport hotel.   Gus is approached by a career criminal who asks for his help in solving the murder of his son.  Gus agrees to help this fellow, mainly because he is sympathetic over the situation.  Gus is gradually sucked into a serpentine investigation, crossing swords with his former co-workers in the police department as well as annoying members of organized crime, drug dealers and assorted other ne'er-do-wells.  

     This was an entertaining and well written novel.  My only complaint is that the action kind of comes and goes.   There are very slow sections where the author explores the characters more than moving the plot along.  Frankly, I got lost a few times.  All in all, though, this was a very good read and I would suspect that future installments will be even better.

Book Review - 2017 Edgar Nominee - Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

Jane Steele

Author: Lyndsay Faye

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Date of Publication: March 22, 2016

Pages: 432  

     I try to read the novels nominated each year for the Best Novel Edgar before the winner is announced by the Mystery Writers of America.  I pick my own winner and see how it stacks up against the Mystery Writers.  Each year there is one book which I dread reading;  usually that book is something way off of my usual reading path.  This year Jane Steele was that book.  Likewise, there is always one book each year which totally surprises me and makes me glad I read it.  Jane Steele was that book this year as well!

     This is not the classic "who-done-it" or police procedural.  This book reinvents Jane Eyre.  The reader follows the life of Jane Steele, the daughter of a British gentleman and a French lady.  Orphaned young, Jane leaves the family home for boarding school and, finally, to life in Victorian London.  The book comes full circle when, as a young adult, Jane is hired as a governess by the new owners of her childhood estate.  Each stop along the way Jane is involved in a mishap whereupon someone is killed.  Just as this book is not the usual mystery novel, Jane is certainly not the usual serial killer.

     The plot is almost incidental to the writing.  The author excuisitely describes mid-1800s life in  various locales in Britain.  The sections focused on London were particularly entertaining.  The various secondary characters are all vibrantly brought to life and add many dimensions to the story. The hero, though, is Jane herself, who ventures into self-discovery and survives devastating circumstances time and again.

     Here is an example of the author's ability to draw her characters.  Jane is in London, having abandoned the private school to which she had been sent after her mother's death.  She encounters a man selling newspapers:

     "Then I heard a strange voice calling out.

     'Most 'orrible and beastly murder done!  Most haudacious and black crime committed!'

     A man of middle age stood with a sheaf of yellow papers, crying out the latest atrocities.  He was bent over - I hesitated to call him hunchbacked, but he flirted with the appellation - a heavy, downward-leaning human whom I could imagine tracking rabbits like a bloodhound.  He owned a bloodhound's jaw too, a great slab on either side of his face framing his crooked teeth with fleshy drapery.  His hair was russet and his eyes a hard yellowish hazel like petrified wood.

     'Murder most'einous!' he cried.  'Murder most hunnatural!  Penny a page, miss.'" 

     So, this book succeeds on many levels.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and was genuinely sad when I had finished it.  I would not be surprised if Jane Steel was the Mystery Writers' pick for the Best Novel Edgar!

Book Review (2017 Edgar Nominee): What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin

What Remains of Me

(2017 Edgar Award Nominee)

Author: Alison Gaylin

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Date of Publication:  February 23, 2016

Pages:  384

     What Remains of Me is a clever and very well written mystery which also explores the unseemly side of growing up in Hollywood.  Kelly Michelle Lund is the daughter of a stunt man and a make-up artist who is sucked up into the wild social life of movie star children.  When an Academy Award winning director is shot in his home Kelly is arrested, tried and convicted of his murder.  A motive for the murder was never established.  Thirty years later Kelly is out of prison, married and working as a writer.  Kelly's father-in-law, a famous but aging Hollywood star, is murdered and Kelly immediately becomes suspect number one.

     Through a series of flashbacks we learn more of Kelly's family life and more of the history of her two parents.  The plot becomes more entangled when connections between Kelly's parents, Kelly's older sister (who committed suicide as a teen) and the two murder victims are revealed.

     I found this book entertaining but at times hard to follow.  Some of the relationships are curious and many of the characters (including Kelly) are difficult to like.  Some of this seemed to be straight out of "National Enquirer" but all in all it was an interesting read which does keep you guessing until the very end.  A worthy Edgar nominee, but probably not the winner (in my humble opinion).

 

Book Review (2017 Edgar Nominee): Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

Before the Fall

Author: Noah Hawley

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Date of Publication: May 31,2016

Pages: 400

     OK, thriller and mystery fans, this is the real deal.  Nominated for the 2017 Edgar Award for best mystery novel, Noah Hawley has crafted a book which keeps the reader turning pages all of the way to the end.  The set-up is fantastic:  Eleven people board a private charter plane leaving Martha's Vineyard for New York.  Sixteen minutes later the plane crashes into the Atlantic without explanation.  There were two survivors: a middle aged alcoholic artist and a small child.  

     The author expertly alternates chapters giving the backstories of each of the people on the plane with chapters telling the story of the search for the missing plane and investigation into the crash.  The backstories of the passengers are excellent character sketches.  In addition to the artist, there is an investment banker about to be indicted for laundering monies from countries such as Iran and North Korea.  There is a right wing media mogul who has created many enemies with his attack style journalism as well as his wife and two young children.  There is a former Israeli operative who is a hired security guard for the media mogul.  The crew includes a career pilot with an unblemished record, a playboy co-pilot who is the nephew of an influential U.S. Senator and a hostess who may be involved with the co-pilot.

     There are motives for the murder of most of the passengers and crew.  Until the downed plane is found there are multiple conspiracy theories as to who may have caused the crash;  or was the crash a mechanical failure or pilot error?  The media fans the flames of conspiracy and tarnishes the  reputations of all involved.  The artist/painter who survived becomes suspect number one (at least in the media) when it is discovered that his most recent paintings all depict tragic disasters: train wrecks, natural disasters and, yes, plane crashes.

     The author deftly brings all of these multiple story threads to a satisfying and surprising conclusion.  Noah Hawley is also a noted screenwriter and producer of hit TV shows such as "Fargo".  He has won an Emmy, a Peabody and a Golden Globe award in his career.  He has a gift for creating tension and suspense which moves the book along rapidly.  He has taken an intricate story with multiple moving parts (eleven people on the plane!) and woven a very intriguing story.  

     This is a great one and I recommend it highly!