P.P.O. Kane reviews Private Midnight, the acclaimed novel from Kris Saknussemm on The Compulsive Reader: "As an all-lights-blazing tour of one rogue cop’s interior hell, Private Midnight makes for a compelling psychological thriller. It is best seen, though, as a synthetic remolding of the crime novel, rather than a wholly original take on it. The ‘cult of woman’ or Fem Dom aspect is implicit in much hard-boiled fiction and many noir films (perhaps Hitchcock’s Vertigo, above all) . . . There is an old movie called The Seventh Victim, which like Private Midnight combines elements of detection and the supernatural. It ends with a woman, dressed for life and laughter, stepping out into the night. That is what we see. Yet what we hear is the sound of a chair falling – which is, as we know from previous frames, the sound of another less fortunate woman stepping off it and into a noose. We next hear the words, ‘I run to death and death meets me as fast. And all my pleasures are as yesterday.’ It is a stunning ending: elegiac, joyous, strange and perverse. Private Midnight has something of this same contradictory, impossible-to-process-all-at-once quality. Read it."
Showing posts with label kris saknuussemm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kris saknuussemm. Show all posts
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Another Rave for Kris Saknussemm's PRIVATE MIDNIGHT
P.P.O. Kane reviews Private Midnight, the acclaimed novel from Kris Saknussemm on The Compulsive Reader: "As an all-lights-blazing tour of one rogue cop’s interior hell, Private Midnight makes for a compelling psychological thriller. It is best seen, though, as a synthetic remolding of the crime novel, rather than a wholly original take on it. The ‘cult of woman’ or Fem Dom aspect is implicit in much hard-boiled fiction and many noir films (perhaps Hitchcock’s Vertigo, above all) . . . There is an old movie called The Seventh Victim, which like Private Midnight combines elements of detection and the supernatural. It ends with a woman, dressed for life and laughter, stepping out into the night. That is what we see. Yet what we hear is the sound of a chair falling – which is, as we know from previous frames, the sound of another less fortunate woman stepping off it and into a noose. We next hear the words, ‘I run to death and death meets me as fast. And all my pleasures are as yesterday.’ It is a stunning ending: elegiac, joyous, strange and perverse. Private Midnight has something of this same contradictory, impossible-to-process-all-at-once quality. Read it."
Friday, February 06, 2009
Kris Saknussemm's PRIVATE MIDNIGHT Receives Starred Review in Publishers Weekly
Kris Sakussemm, author of the acclaimed sci-fi smash Zanesville, is back with a new novel, Private Midnight. This sexy, seedy look at the underbelly of life is crime noir for a new generation, and Publishers Weekly has given Private Midnight a starred review in next week's issue: "James Ellroy meets David Lynch inthis addictive mix of noir and supernatural horror from Saknussemm. Det. Birch Ritter investigates the suspected suicide of California real estate magnate Deems Whitney, who apparently doused his Mercedes with gasoline and died in the resultant explosion a day after changing his will to benefit his trophy wife and disinherit his grown children. Before the cop can interview Whitney’s widow, Ritter receives a cryptic message from his ex-partner that steers him to the enigmatic Genevieve Wyvern. Wyvern, who disconcerts Ritter with how well she knows his past, plunges him into a surreal world of bondage, domination and mind games. Despite being humiliated by Wyvern, Ritter finds himself unable to stay away from her lair. An unexpected and bizarre twist well into the novel jolts the fairly standard plot off the rails, but the powerful narrative voice will compel readers to follow."
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