Guevara (A Circle with Two Corners) likewise aspires to electric blanket lit, telling the story from a variety of perspectives (each chapter’s narrator is clearly marked) and investing in the textures of life of Marion and his everyday challenges, and in Credence, both romantic interest and suspect, as well as her cohort of dancers. The first person perspectives illuminate the lives of the cast (“Chelsea was my name then. It had a lot of that fantasy toy sound to it,” says a woman who now calls herself Neva, short for “Nevada”) and the crimes of the past. Marion’s own headspace is distant and observant of all around him, yet when he meets the dancer Credence he finds himself defending a woman he barely knows. “Who am I to judge, with no solid facts, a being I happen to ache for?” he asks.
Readers who love the romance of literate noir will find pleasure here. Guevara writes beautifully, though it can be challenging to put the puzzle pieces of the mystery into place, with leaps from past to present feeling jarring—readers will have to stay as sharp as an investigative journalist to keep up.
Takeaway: A humane noir finds a reporter is drawn to a dancer connected to murders.
Comparable Titles: Viking Hendricks, Andrew Vachss.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A-