Saralee Says
After way too much time, popular mystery writer and Nashvillian Steven Womack is back with another and possibly his best book. For those of you who have not met Womack, you have missed out on one of our great local treasures. He is one of the best fiction writers in America today. He is funny, a great speaker and popular with reading groups worldwide. He has already authored two mystery series and has been given awards for both.
In 1990, his first novel, Murphy's Fault (St. Martin's) was selected by The New York Times as a "Notable Book" and featured Jack Lynch. Then, in 1994, Womack was awarded the Edgar Award for Dead Folks' Blues (Ballantine). This was the first of the five books that featured the ever popular Harry Denton. The Edgar Award is a big deal and given by the Mystery Writers of America "for achievement in the mystery field."
Womack's books have been very popular in the Tennessee because they feature local landmarks and Denton is a newsman and a private investigator who also repossesses cars. Womack fans, like Larry and I, have been clamoring for another book by this local treasure, and the wait was worth it.
Warning - do not start By Blood Written unless you have the time to finish it.You will not be able to put this book down. It is so first-rate that you will want to read it in one sitting.
At the beginning of By Blood Written, a terrible double murder has occurred on Church Street in Nashville. Is this the work of a serial murderer? Meanwhile, in New York, best selling crime writer Michael Schiftmann is celebrating the success of his latest book with his attractive literary agent Taylor Robinson. Schiftmann and Robinson have had a strictly professional relationship, but that is about to change.
Womack does an outstanding job of telling two different stories, the story of a successful author in New York and the steps of tracking a killer in Nashville.
It is up to FBI agent Hank Powell and local Nashville police detective Maria Chavez to find the killer. Be prepared to laugh. Womack pokes fun at Nashville drivers and delights us with characters that are composites of his favorite locals. I want to know more about who Womack based my favorite character, Priscilla Janovich, upon and if she be featured in the next Womack series.
Larry's Language
Most crime novels feature handsome athletic detectives or brainy beautiful characters that solve the mystery or at least attract and sustain our interests. Some of the most successful authors vary that formula by using quirky or unusual persons to move the story along. Few authors dare what Womack has done in By Blood Written where he assembles a multiple cast of characters in Nashville, New York and at the FBI headquarters and makes the suspect the main character in this book.
Of course, it is fun to read another Womack novel set in Nashville with familiar place names, streets (including Charlotte Pike where Womack has the police officer turning the wrong direction to get to the Mapco), bookstores, and massage parlors. It is even more fun to figure out whether Womack based some of the Nashville police officers and lawyers on real people that all of us know.
Even better, this book is more than a story about criminal acts. The characters are fully realized and memorable, while the tone and feeling of the book is both frightening and informative as Womack gets the little things right.
Womack is at his best in describing what a retired English Metro Nashville teacher does (don't ask), how a police murder squad really functions (with gallons of coffee, little sleep and warped humor), how sociopaths are made not born (with charm and intelligence, lack of moral compass, too much cruelty, too much desire to hurt others, too little caring for others, plus pure evil), how to conduct a successful author signing (humor plus a good book), and how successful authors are poorly rewarded (books quickly out of print, publishers who do not promote or care about their authors, and critical acclaim that does not translate into contracts or sales).
Make no mistake, however, this is a horrific, bloody, dark, graphic and at times gross story.
Join us for our next Book Club discussion which will feature patriotic books in honor of the Fourth of July.
