'A little boy murdered in the most tragic of circumstances, and avenging angels intent on revenge. Obsessed, unscrupulous art collectors and the international antiquities thieves who service their desires. The Olympic Games and an elite group of corrupt Chinese agents double-crossing each other. An organised crime family on the path to redemption. What could they all possibly have in common? Livia Galvin - grieving mother, Olympic shooting champion, art gallery owner, and now, an unwitting participant in a conspiracy with a billionaire oligarch. Attacked by would-be assassins on her way to Beijing airport, Livia finally arrives home to find her family in chaos after the unexplained death of her godmother. It's only the beginning of a quest in which Livia will need all of her considerable strength of purpose and character to accept her unexpected new role when the most startling and life-changing surprise of all is revealed. With new revelations and threats at every turn, Livia Galvin and her most faithful supporters must truly 'imitate the actions of the tiger, and summon up the blood' in this novel of intrigue and passion that stretches from Bogota to Boston, and from Beijing to London, with its ultimate source in sub-tropical River City on the 27th parallel: the sunniest place in the world for some of the shadiest people you'll ever meet.' (Publication summary)
Creating A Custom Fit In An Off-The-Rack Genre World : The Proximal Investigator, The Corpse of Convenience, and Their Family of Circumstance in Crime Fiction
Gaythorne
:
Jay Verney
,
2016
9363433
2016
single work
criticism
'Creating A Custom Fit In An Off-The-Rack Genre World is about the three main kinds of characters found in murder fiction: the investigators, the victims, and the suspects. It is possible to place these characters along a creative continuum. from the relatively formulaic to the relatively unique, from stock characters to more fully-realised human beings. Custom Fit takes a fresh perspective on these characters, suggesting new terms for each role. The detective or investigator becomes the Proximal Investigator, and the victim the Corpse of Convenience. The collective term for the suspects is the Family of Circumstance, remembering that, initially at least, everyone in a murder novel is suspect.
'Using examples from novels by Peter Hoeg, Henning Mankell, Walter Mosley, and Sara Paretsky, this text asks questions such as: how do murder fiction’s characters achieve a sense of difference in their roles, even as they abide by established conventions, demonstrating traits and behaviours similar to other investigators, suspects and victims? How do they flout convention while following it? And how do they contribute to the genre’s evolution and development?
'Creating A Custom Fit in an Off-the-Rack Genre World is a stand-alone text but also a companion essay to the novel, Summon Up The Blood, both of which formed the author’s doctorate in Creative Writing, which received a University of Queensland Dean’s Award for Outstanding Research Higher Degree Thesis.' (Publication summary)
