This Great American Novel is a Thriller and a Reader’s Delight
Pittsfield, MA, April 11, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Outskirts Press, Inc. announces the publication of True Detective, a novel by James A. Huebner.
Eighteen months after 9/11 two NYPD detectives investigate a series of crimes possibly related to a once and future terrorist. One detective, Cross, sees a deeper meaning as he seeks vindication for past failures. The other, the narrator Marlowe, finds himself drawn into his partner’s obsession and must confront his own past as he struggles to understand. Provocative, profane and profound, full of surprises and startling images, and told with biting humor, True Detective offers readers of every stripe an absorbing and intense experience that will keep them reading, keep them guessing, then keep them thinking.
Genre-bending, genre-blending, genre-transcending, but always absorbing, True Detective is serious fiction masquerading as a police procedural, or, as one early reviewer put it, “…a metaphysical novel in wolf’s clothing…”
The title resonates. While suggesting a lurid dime novel it is literally perfect: this is the story of a detective searching - or rather forced to search – for the truth. Marlowe sounds like Chandler’s hard-bitten hero, names himself after the atheistic and combative playwright, but is closest to Conrad’s creation as he grapples within the darkness spreading from Ground Zero. Other hints of the lurid – beautiful women, rough sex and drug (aka “misdemeanor”) murders - spin the reader into unexpected directions by commenting on the assumptions invoked, not by violating or exploiting them. Marlowe, unlike a conventional tough guy, is a lazy man with a volatile temper; unlike a conventional plotline he contends less with criminals than with his partner and, primarily, with himself.
The timeframe resonates: an America swathed in grief and anxiety has troops advancing on Baghdad. New York Times headlines of uncertainty, triumph and foreboding shadow the plotline with implied allegory. Now, five years after, reports of defiant Iraqi demonstrators being killed by GIs and the “end of combat operations” haunt us more as tragedy than irony, as they will for years to come.
The narration resonates. The story is told with an emphasis on dialogue that makes the characters come alive. The plot tracks the detectives’ case against a murderous drug dealer named Ba’boy. They must also respond to the finding of bodies – or parts of bodies - in Battery Park, on Chase Plaza and within Ground Zero itself. During hours of surveillance they clash over matters of faith and fact. As Cross grows in certainty that he is on the trail of evil, Marlowe’s shell of skepticism and indifference begins to crack. An attempt to take Ba’boy down goes sour and gets bloody. The histories of both detectives become foreground. Both men step over the line. Minor characters are strongly written and fascinating in their own right. The missing Towers loom throughout, as does the City itself “…the insular Manhattan as it sails, serene and majestic, cleaving a wake in the dark waters surrounding it, towards a destination unknown,” as Marlowe describes it.
True Detective is at once a terrific read and a meditation on religion, money and power in the so-called Age of Terror. Memorable characters, crackling dialogue, unexpected situations and a stunning conclusion offer crime-novel lovers an unusual but rewarding treat. Serious readers would be criminal to miss it.
James A. Huebner lives with his family in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts.
True Detective is available worldwide through Amazon and Barnes & Noble and can be ordered by retailers or wholesalers from the Outskirts Press wholesale online bookstore at www.outskirtspress.com/buybooks.
ISBN: 9781432717698 Format: 5.5 x 8.5 Paperback 316 pages SRP: $21.95
For more information or to contact the author, visit www.outskirtspress.com/truedetective.
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Eighteen months after 9/11 two NYPD detectives investigate a series of crimes possibly related to a once and future terrorist. One detective, Cross, sees a deeper meaning as he seeks vindication for past failures. The other, the narrator Marlowe, finds himself drawn into his partner’s obsession and must confront his own past as he struggles to understand. Provocative, profane and profound, full of surprises and startling images, and told with biting humor, True Detective offers readers of every stripe an absorbing and intense experience that will keep them reading, keep them guessing, then keep them thinking.
Genre-bending, genre-blending, genre-transcending, but always absorbing, True Detective is serious fiction masquerading as a police procedural, or, as one early reviewer put it, “…a metaphysical novel in wolf’s clothing…”
The title resonates. While suggesting a lurid dime novel it is literally perfect: this is the story of a detective searching - or rather forced to search – for the truth. Marlowe sounds like Chandler’s hard-bitten hero, names himself after the atheistic and combative playwright, but is closest to Conrad’s creation as he grapples within the darkness spreading from Ground Zero. Other hints of the lurid – beautiful women, rough sex and drug (aka “misdemeanor”) murders - spin the reader into unexpected directions by commenting on the assumptions invoked, not by violating or exploiting them. Marlowe, unlike a conventional tough guy, is a lazy man with a volatile temper; unlike a conventional plotline he contends less with criminals than with his partner and, primarily, with himself.
The timeframe resonates: an America swathed in grief and anxiety has troops advancing on Baghdad. New York Times headlines of uncertainty, triumph and foreboding shadow the plotline with implied allegory. Now, five years after, reports of defiant Iraqi demonstrators being killed by GIs and the “end of combat operations” haunt us more as tragedy than irony, as they will for years to come.
The narration resonates. The story is told with an emphasis on dialogue that makes the characters come alive. The plot tracks the detectives’ case against a murderous drug dealer named Ba’boy. They must also respond to the finding of bodies – or parts of bodies - in Battery Park, on Chase Plaza and within Ground Zero itself. During hours of surveillance they clash over matters of faith and fact. As Cross grows in certainty that he is on the trail of evil, Marlowe’s shell of skepticism and indifference begins to crack. An attempt to take Ba’boy down goes sour and gets bloody. The histories of both detectives become foreground. Both men step over the line. Minor characters are strongly written and fascinating in their own right. The missing Towers loom throughout, as does the City itself “…the insular Manhattan as it sails, serene and majestic, cleaving a wake in the dark waters surrounding it, towards a destination unknown,” as Marlowe describes it.
True Detective is at once a terrific read and a meditation on religion, money and power in the so-called Age of Terror. Memorable characters, crackling dialogue, unexpected situations and a stunning conclusion offer crime-novel lovers an unusual but rewarding treat. Serious readers would be criminal to miss it.
James A. Huebner lives with his family in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts.
True Detective is available worldwide through Amazon and Barnes & Noble and can be ordered by retailers or wholesalers from the Outskirts Press wholesale online bookstore at www.outskirtspress.com/buybooks.
ISBN: 9781432717698 Format: 5.5 x 8.5 Paperback 316 pages SRP: $21.95
For more information or to contact the author, visit www.outskirtspress.com/truedetective.
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www.outskirtspress.com
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