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Three February Must Reads and One Overhyped Novel

By Dustin Rowles | Books | February 17, 2022 |

By Dustin Rowles | Books | February 17, 2022 |


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The Devil House by John Darnielle — Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats fame) is a remarkably good writer, and The Devil House is not at all what I expected for a novel with that title. It’s about a true-crime writer who decides to move into a house where a pair of gruesome murders took place in the 1980s. While investigating the case, he also reflects on another true-crime novel he wrote that had been turned into a movie. The Devil House explores and subverts true-crime tropes by asking why we give such short shrift to the victims in favor of murderers, our need to see these true-crime stories framed in a specific way that makes them more palatable, and the effect they have on the survivors. It takes some interesting and unexpected turns, which might irk some readers who expect all the familiar beats, but that’s also the point. (Rating: 4 out of 5)

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka — Notes on an Execution is the story of a serial killer as told from the perspective of the women in his life — his mother, the investigating police officer, the twin sister of one of his victims. It takes pains not to romanticize the serial killer — in fact, he’s an ordinary, abusive asshole of remarkably little note — while elevating the stories of the women. Like The Devil House, it also explores our obsession with true crime but also asks us to stop trying to find meaning in these banal, sh*tty men, and instead find inspiration in the lives of women around those trifling boys. (Rating: 5 out of 5)

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb — I’d read good reviews of Slocumb’s debut novel, but I was initially put off by the low stakes of the premise: It’s about a $10 million violin stolen from a classical musician. What? There’s no murder? Is this YA? But holy shit, I’ve never felt so invested in the recovery of a violin, which belongs to a Black classical musician on the verge of his big break after struggling with so much racism in his profession, as well as the doubts of his family, who prefer that he get a job at Popeye’s over pursuing a career as a violinist. Slocumb himself is a Black symphony orchestra violinist, so he speaks from the experience of working in a white-dominated field where Black musicians are either ignored or their success is falsely attributed to affirmative action or diversity initiatives. While the writing is not perfect — he’s a trained musician, not a novelist — the story itself is beyond absorbing and the villains so detestable that I had a difficult time putting the book down. If anyone’s asking, this is the book I’ll be recommending for the foreseeable future. (Rating: 4.5 out of 5)

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont — Given the hype (it was a Reese Witherspoon Pick of the Month choice), I was expecting more from de Gramont’s fictionalized account of the 11 days that Agatha Christie went missing in 1926 after her husband informed her that he was leaving her for his mistress. It’s not a bad novel, but if you have 11 days in Christie’s life in which you can make up whatever you’d like, I think I might have gone for broke. The Christie Affair, told largely from the perspective of the mistress, is low-key, and the Agatha Christie-style murder mystery within the account is ho-hum. It’s a cool flashy premise, but de Gramont doesn’t do as much with it as she could have. (Rating: 2.5 out of 5)