Vendor
	Liepman Literary Agency Marc Koralnik
Original language
English
Categories
Fiction & Related items

MY DARLING DETECTIVE

Howard Norman

WITTY, ENGROSSING HOMAGE TO NOIR, the novel follows Jacob Rigolet, the assistant of a wealthy art collector whose life changes forever when his mother flings an open jar of black ink onto a renowned piece of artwork at an auction in Halifax. Jacob's police detective fiancée is assigned to the ensuing investigation into why this woman committed this bizarre crime, while Jacob's understanding of the man he has always assumed to be his father unravels against the darker truth of a Halifax police officer suspected but never convicted of murdering two Jewish residents during the shocking upswing of anti-Semitism in 1945.

HOWARD NORMAN is a three-time winner of National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and a winner of the Lannan Award for fiction. His novels THE NORTHERN LIGHTS and THE BIRD ARTIST were both nominated for a National Book Award. He is also author of THE MUSEUM GUARD, THE HAUNTING OF L, WHAT IS LEFT THE DAUGHTER, I HATE TO LEAVE THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE, and NEXT LIFE MIGHT BE KINDER.

Available products
Book Published 2017-03-01 by Houghton Mifflin

Comments

Norman is gifted at establishing atmosphere and character, and he pleasurably engages with oldfashioned crime-story patter an unconventional, lively literary mystery.

Interview: Howard Norman's 'My Darling Detective' Pays Homage To Film Noir Read more...

The signature elements of Howard Norman's fiction are everywhere in this book. Like his previous novels, it's set in Canada's Maritime Provinces and toys with his trademark preoccupations: libraries, photography, radio, poetry. But despite its noir trappings, My Darling Detective isn't as dark as some of his others. The Bird Artist, Next Life Might Be Kinder and What Is Left the Daughter were as taut and as finely tuned as harpsichords, literary with a capital L. None were what Graham Greene would have called entertainments. This one is. There's obviously a more playful hand at work. Norman knows how to weave an enticing and satisfying mystery, one tantalizing thread at a time. And he left me wanting more of Jake and Martha. Read more...

A crowd-pleasing old school mystery novel.

Norman punctuates literary noir's darkness within' with both poignancy and a penchant for humor.