It’s the end of summer, so let’s grab what escape we can, which, for me, means reading suspense fiction.
The Intrigue, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Six years ago, I stopped eating mushrooms. The cause was Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s horror novel, Mexican Gothic, in which fungi become frightful. Moreno-Garcia, who excels at playing around with genre fiction, recently brought out a noir novel set in 1940s Mexico. Called The Intrigue, it’s so stylishly evil, it begs for a movie version, in black and white, of course.
The plot is a classic one in which a predator risks becoming a patsy. A con artist named Ulises makes his money by placing ads in the lonely hearts sections of magazines and waiting to see if any rich widows or spinsters respond. When Perla, the owner of a mansion-turned-boarding-house in the port of Veracruz, invites Ulises to visit, he thinks he’s in clover; but trouble awaits in the form of Perla’s niece, Inés.
Inés rightly wonders what a man who bears a resemblance to a movie star like Tyrone Power is doing courting her grim aunt. Moreover, Inés desperately wants out from under her aunt’s thumb. Who could blame her? Here’s a snippet of a scene where Perla announces to friends that she’s chaperoning Inés to a dance:
“I will escort her,” [Perla] said firmly. My father always told us ladies from good families are like delicate flowers, which must be carefully pressed inside a good book, and I agree with him.”
Inés’s hand wrapped around a fork, her fingers squeezing it tight. She wished she could stab her aunt with it. …
A carefully pressed flower, she thought. A dead thing.
The double and triple crosses — as well as the body count — mount in The Intrigue, which subverted all my guesses about who would be left standing at the end.
Under the Falls, by Richard Russo
This summer, Richard Russo brought out his first crime thriller. Originally written as a TV script, Under the Falls, is set in upstate New York in a place called Stone Mountain. The plot, like that of Moreno-Garcia’s novel, is indebted to noir, where the past is never really past.
Tyler Sinclair hasn’t been back to Stone Mountain since he ran off from an abusive father and romantic complications at 18. Now, 18 years later, he’s returning as a big-shot country-rock singer. The occasion is a fundraiser for one of Tyler’s old friends, nicknamed “Doc,” who was paralyzed in a diving accident when they were all teenagers.
But, as Doc now informs Tyler, not everybody in the Mountain is a fan of his:
“It’s not just that you made all that money,” Doc explains. “It’s that you made it writing songs about us. About our lives. Where’s our cut? is how they look at it.”
The benefit concert ends in multiple deaths, prompting Tyler and others to excavate his hometown’s secrets. Beyond the crime plot, though, Russo excels here at what he’s long excelled at: chronicling the world of working-class America and the limited opportunities for those in places like Stone Mountain.
The Blue Flame, George Pelecanos
George Pelecanos started writing his crime series starring African American private investigator Derek Strange in 2001. In the intervening years, Pelecanos has written for series like The Wire and Treme, but he’s always kept intermittent faith with Strange. Fourteen years after his last outing, an older-but-still-street-wise Strange returns in The Blue Flame, investigating two murders that have struck within a once-tight group of friends.
It’s been long enough that I can repeat a cliché about Pelecanos: Namely,
that he does for Washington, D.C., what Raymond Chandler did for LA. Strange takes us into the D.C. the tourists and politicians don’t know: from neat rowhouse neighborhoods to the D.C. Central Detention Facility. The title, The Blue Flame, refers to the fact that Strange, an ex-cop, still has that burning cop curiosity. I hope it’s never extinguished.
Transcript:
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Summer days are dwindling down to a precious few. So our book critic, Maureen Corrigan, is scooping up some of the season’s most interesting suspense fiction. Here’s her review.
MAUREEN CORRIGAN, BYLINE: It’s the end of summer. So let’s grab what escape we can, which, for me, means reading suspense fiction. Six years ago, I stopped eating mushrooms. The cause was Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s horror novel, “Mexican Gothic,” in which fungi become frightful. Moreno-Garcia, who excels at playing around with genre fiction, recently brought out a noir novel set in 1940s Mexico called “The Intrigue.” It’s so stylishly evil, it begs for a movie version, in black-and-white, of course.
The plot is a classic one in which a predator risks becoming a patsy. A con artist named Ulises makes his money by placing ads in the lonely hearts sections of magazines and waiting to see if any rich widows or spinsters respond. When Perla Inclan, the owner of a mansion turned boarding house in the port of Vera Cruz, invites Ulises to visit, he thinks he’s in clover.
But trouble awaits in the form of Perla’s niece. Ines rightly wonders what a man who bears a resemblance to a movie star like Tyrone Power is doing courting her grim aunt. Moreover, Ines desperately wants out from under her aunt’s thumb. Who could blame her? Here’s a snippet of a scene where Perla announces to friends that she’s chaperoning Ines to a dance.
(Reading) I will escort her, Perla said firmly. My father always told us ladies from good families are like delicate flowers, which must be carefully pressed inside a good book. And I agree with him. Ines’ hand wrapped around a fork, her fingers squeezing it tight. She wished she could stab her aunt with it. A carefully pressed flower, she thought, a dead thing.
The double and triple crosses as well as the body count mount in “The Intrigue,” which subverted all my guesses about who would be left standing at the end.
This summer, Richard Russo brought out his first crime thriller. Originally written as a TV script, “Under The Falls” is set in upstate New York in a place called Stone Mountain. The plot, like that of Moreno-Garcia’s novel, is indebted to noir, where the past is never really past. Tyler Sinclair hasn’t been back to Stone Mountain since he ran off from an abusive father and romantic complications at 18. Now, 18 years later, he’s returning as a big shot country rock singer. The occasion is a fundraiser for one of Tyler’s old friends, nicknamed Doc, who was paralyzed in a diving accident when they were all teenagers. But as Doc now informs Tyler, not everybody in the mountain is a Tyler Sinclair fan.
(Reading) It’s not just that you made all that money, Doc explains. It’s that you made it writing songs about us, about our lives. Where’s our cut is how they look at it.
The benefit concert ends in multiple deaths, prompting Tyler and others to excavate his hometown secrets. Beyond the crime plot, though, Russo excels here at what he’s long excelled at, namely chronicling the world of working-class America and the limited opportunities for those in places like Stone Mountain.
George Pelicanos started writing his crime series starring African American private investigator Derek Strange in 2001. In the intervening years, Pelicanos has written for series like “The Wire” and “Treme,” but he’s always kept intermittent faith with Strange. Fourteen years after his last outing, an older but still streetwise Strange returns in “The Blue Flame,” investigating two murders that have struck within a once-tight group of friends.
It’s been long enough that I can repeat a cliche about Pelicanos, namely that he does for Washington, D.C., what Chandler did for LA. Strange takes us into the D.C. the tourists and politicians don’t know, from neat row house neighborhoods to the D.C. Central Detention Facility. The title, “The Blue Flame,” refers to the fact that Strange, an ex cop still has that burning cop curiosity. I hope it’s never extinguished.
DAVIES: Maureen Corrigan is professor of literature at Georgetown University. She reviewed “The Intrigue,” “Under The Falls” and “The Blue Flame.”
On tomorrow’s show, Harrison Ford. He’s been nominated for an Emmy for his role as a therapist in the Apple TV series “Shrinking” for the second year in a row. We’re reairing our conversation from March in which he talked about the series, as well as doing action scenes, his real life plane crash and getting his start in movies with Lucas, Spielberg and Coppola. I hope you can join us.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIG JOHN PATTON’S “DEM DIRTY DUES”)
DAVIES: To keep up with what’s on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram – @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR’s executive producer is Sam Briger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our engineer today is Adam Staniszewski. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. For Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, I’m Dave Davies.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIG JOHN PATTON’S “DEM DIRTY DUES”)
