{"product_id":"the-twentyyear-death-isbn-9780857689184","title":"The Twenty-Year Death","description":"\u003cb\u003e“Bold, innovative, and thrilling – \u003ci\u003eThe Twenty-Year Death\u003c\/i\u003e crackles with suspense and will keep you up late.” - Stephen King\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHERE’S NEVER BEEN A BOOK LIKE THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e A breathtaking first novel written in the form of three separate crime  novels, each set in a different decade and penned in the style of a  different giant of the mystery genre. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e 1931—\u003cbr\u003e The body  found in the gutter in France led the police inspector to the dead man’s  beautiful daughter—and to her hot-tempered American husband.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e 1941—\u003cbr\u003e A hardboiled private eye hired to keep a movie studio’s leading lady  happy uncovers the truth behind the brutal slaying of a Hollywood  starlet.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e 1951—\u003cbr\u003e A desperate man pursuing his last chance at redemption finds himself with blood on his hands and the police on his trail...\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Three complete novels that, taken together, tell a single epic story,  about an author whose life is shattered when violence and tragedy  consume the people closest to him. It is an ingenious and emotionally  powerful debut performance from literary detective and former bookseller  Ariel S. Winter, one that establishes this talented newcomer as a  storyteller of the highest caliber.\"This is a smart, audacious, finely-honed work of fiction.\" \u003cb\u003e- Five Leaves Book Shop\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The most audacious crime-fiction novel of 2012 is also a debut: Ariel S. Winter's \"The Twenty-Year Death,\" a hat-trick of linked books written in a pastiche of genre-masters Georges Simenon, Raymond Chandler and Jim Thompson. The work's linking character, Shem Rosenkrantz, is first encountered in France in 1931, married to a beautiful woman with connections to a killer hunted by an Inspector Maigret-like detective. Ten years later, he and his wife are in Southern California—she now a fear-ridden movie star, he a philandering author, with their travails watched by a Philip Marlowe-style private eye. Rosenkrantz takes the narrator's role for the final section, set in 1951 Maryland, where the washed-up writer, in a Thompson-like mode, returns to his hometown in hopes of a life-saving legacy. Mr. Winters's superb mimicries avoid stylistic excess and cut to the dark heart of the matter.\" – \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"...it’s  difficult not to feel a little spellbound by “The Twenty-Year Death.”  In the final oddly triumphant image of Shem — “And I grinned all the  way” — I thought I could glimpse the author’s giddy glance back at his  achievement here: outrageous, obsessive, playful. Such qualities should  win over aficionados of the writers emulated here — and make them fans  of this fresh new voice in crime fiction.\" – \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hard  Case Crime originals are notable for capturing the feel of pulp  classics without slavish imitation—which makes this first novel somewhat  unusual. Winter, a “literary detective” and former bookseller, tells an  epic tale in the form of three novels written in the style of three  different crime-fiction legends. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook 1, \u003ci\u003eMalniveau Prison\u003c\/i\u003e,  channels Georges Simenon as Chief Inspector Pelleter tries to  deduce how a murdered prisoner escaped the prison walls. Book 2, \u003ci\u003eThe Falling Star\u003c\/i\u003e,  is the Chandleresque story of a private eye, Dennis Foster, who’s hired  to reassure a paranoid movie star and maybe take the rap for a murder. A  recurring character in both books is Shem Rosenkrantz, an American  writer who first seeks seclusion in France and then squanders his  talents in Hollywood. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn book 3, \u003ci\u003ePolice at the Funeral\u003c\/i\u003e, Rosenkrantz  takes over the narration with the voice of a washed-up Jim Thompson  protagonist, and, as he unravels, we see how the stories are stitched  together. This is audacious and astonishingly executed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWinter  understands the difference between mimicry and interpretation and opts  for the latter, capturing the writers’ voices, not merely their vocal  tics. What might seem at first like an amusing exercise for  crimefiction buffs becomes by the end immersive, exhilarating, and  revelatory.\" \u003ci\u003e— \u003ci\u003eKeir Graff\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cb\u003eBooklist Starred Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Bold, innovative, and thrilling – \u003ci\u003eThe Twenty-Year Death\u003c\/i\u003e crackles with suspense and will keep you up late.” - \u003cb\u003eStephen King\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Not content with writing one first novel like ordinary mortals, Ariel  Winter has written three – and in the style of some of the most famous  crime writers of all time for good measure. It's a virtuoso act of  literary recreation that's both astonishingly faithful and wildly,  audaciously original. One hell of a debut.” - \u003cb\u003eJames Frey\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e             \u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eThe Twenty-Year Death\u003c\/i\u003e is  a bravura debut, ingenious and assured, and a fitting tribute to the  trio of illustrious ghosts who are looking – with indulgence, surely –  over Ariel Winter’s shoulder.” -\u003cb\u003e John Banville\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eThe Twenty-Year Death\u003c\/i\u003e is an absolute astonishment. Ariel S. Winter manages to channel three  iconic crime writers and pull off a riveting story of a two-decade  ruination in which it is the things not said that somehow have the  loudest echoes.” - \u003cb\u003ePeter Straub\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “As an old-school fan of Georges Simenon, I read MALNIVEAU PRISON with awe and delight.” - \u003cb\u003eAlice Sebold\u003c\/b\u003e on Book 1 of \u003ci\u003eThe Twenty-Year Death\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Expertly summoning the most sinuous strains of Chandler, THE FALLING STAR sinks you into its dark, sleek world.” - \u003cb\u003eMegan Abbott\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eon Book 2 of \u003ci\u003eThe Twenty-Year Death\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “If ever there was a born writer, Mr. Winter is one…Mr. Winter's work  is sharp, smart, original, intensely interesting and ingenious.” - \u003cb\u003eStephen Dixon\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A tour de force, or rather three different, ingeniously interwoven,  tours de force.  An exciting book that will make many commuters miss  their stop.” -\u003cb\u003e Richard Vinen\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eThe Twenty-Year Death\u003c\/i\u003e is an exceptionally ambitious, inventive crime novel that echoes three  classic authors while extending the idea of what a crime novel can do.  The scope and versatility are breathtaking. Bravo to Ariel S. Winter and  Hard Case Crime.” - \u003cb\u003eDavid Morrell\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “As  distinguished a first-novel in the noir fiction genre as any I know of.   Indeed, it is three novels in one, and each is in its own way a tour de  force.  If this is the level of excellence that Winter can achieve at  the very start of his career, then his future in this genre is  unlimited.” -\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"John T. Irwin This isn’t a first novel so much as  a series of three discrete but interrelated first novels, each written  (with apologies from the author) in the style of a different iconic  thriller writer—Georges Simenon, Raymond Chandler, and Jim Thompson,  respectively. This is a bold, not to say supremely cheeky, conceit—and  if Winter hasn’t completely channeled the hard hearts and gimlet styles  of these dark, departed legends, the good news is that he delivers  something even better: a hell of a lot of fun. The noir triptych is  nominally linked by the presence of an alcoholic (but of course!)  American writer, Shem Rosenkrantz, who remains largely—if menacingly—in  the background for the first two installments before emerging (in first  person) center stage in the last, best story. Set in the fictitious  Verargent, France, circa 1931, the first book, Malniveau Prison,  revolves around the mysterious death of a prisoner—the father of one  Clothilde-ma-Fleur Meprise, Rosenkrantz’s beautiful wife. (Along the  way, some children—and Clothilde herself—go missing.) The search for the  killer leads to a mysterious psychopath with a penchant for torturing  tots, as well as a coverup at the titular prison. In the second, The  Falling Star, set in 1941, Rosenkrantz is a womanizing L.A. screenwriter  on a self-destructive slide. His wife, now working under the name Chloë  Rose, is a successful but unstable starlet who suspects she’s being  followed. A suitably laconic Chandlerian PI, Dennis Foster, is enlisted  to help the troubled star—but is he really being set up for a homicidal  fall? In the third, and arguably darkest, tale, Police at the Funeral,  it’s 1951 in Calvert, Md., and Rose has been institutionalized, leaving  Rosenkrantz—now a remorseful has-been—roiling in the tide of his boozy  dissolution. “Yeah, I’d always gotten a raw deal, and I was too pathetic  to do anything about it, and I hated myself for that” pretty much sums  up the self-inflicted purgatory this antihero wallows in. The stories  work wonderfully well individually, but taken together create a tapestry  of associations and reflections, sort of like mirrors trained on other  mirrors. The whole, as they say, is greater than the sum of its parts.  Along the way, Winter manages to deliver more than a few winking nods to  genre tropes without ever descending into the arch or the obvious.  Though there’s clearly something meta (not to say postmodern) about the  whole endeavor, Winter never loses touch with his genre heart; the books  practically radiate grassroots passion. No, he does not entirely  capture Chandler’s verbal color or masterful use of metaphor (but who  does). Nor does he completely conjure up Thompson’s furious fusion of  horror and hilarity (but who does). He comes damn close to capturing  Simenon’s slick, spare procedural vibe. But in the end all these  comparisons are, yes, odious—because Winter has created something more  than a facile feat of literary ventriloquism. He has written a truly  affecting and suspenseful triple treat that transcends the formal  gimmick at its heart. Agent: Chelsea Lindman, Nicholas Ellison Agency.  (Aug.) Reviewed by J.I. Baker, who is the author of The Empty Glass,  which Blue Rider Press will publish in July.\" \u003ci\u003e–\u003cb\u003e Publishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“A pastiche of a legendary crime writer.” – \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eDaily Express\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “It's been 573 years since Johannes Gutenberg came up with movable  type, so chances of a concept being truly original would seem slim. But  Ariel S. Winter — a writer from Baltimore, has pulled it off.” – \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eDetroit News\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eA long-time bookseller at \u003ci\u003eThe Corner Bookstore\u003c\/i\u003e in New York City and \u003ci\u003eBorders\u003c\/i\u003e in Baltimore,\u003cb\u003e Ariel S. Winter \u003c\/b\u003eis also the author of the forthcoming children's picture book \u003ci\u003eOne of a Kind\u003c\/i\u003e (Aladdin) and of the blog \u003ci\u003eWe Too Were Children, Mr. Barrie\u003c\/i\u003e,  devoted to the rediscovery of long-forgotten children's books written  by literary icons such as John Updike, Langston Hughes, and Gertrude  Stein.  His writing has appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe Urbanite\u003c\/i\u003e and on \u003ci\u003eMcSweeney's Internet Tendency\u003c\/i\u003e, and in 2008 he won the Free Press \"Who Can Save Us Now?\" short story contest. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.","brand":"Hard Case Crime","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301746168037,"sku":"NP9780857689184","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780857689184.jpg?v=1767741946","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-twentyyear-death-isbn-9780857689184","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}