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Thanks to everyone for supporting our latest audio release, Death Vows by Richard Stevenson. It was quite a party on Saturday, October 17th at Matt Tannebaum’s, The Bookstore in Lenox. Author Richard Stevenson read from his latest Donald Strachey mystery, The 38 Million Dollar Smile published by MLR Press and signed books and the Death Vows audio.
I’ve been a mystery fan from about the age of 8 or 9 when I started reading Nancy Drew, and that’s a lot of mysteries some 50 years later. I’ve gone through the classics–sometimes 3 or 4 times–Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, most of the English Tea Cozies etc. and offbeat ones like the Judge Dee mysteries from writer Robert Van Gulik set in ancient China and Steven Saylor’s Gordianus mysteries set in ancient Rome so I feel fairly confident of my knowledge about the genre.
And here’s my true confession, I only recently discovered Richard Stevenson’s Donald Strachey detective series. I’m so late to the party that I found him at book nine, Death Vows. Richard is a friend of mine and I vaguely knew that he wrote mysteries featuring a gay detective. Several years ago I did make an attempt to track one down at a local bookstore but they claimed they couldn’t get the book and I didn’t think about it again until last year when we went to a reading for Death Vows.
I fell immediately and madly in love with Donald Strachey, P.I. and Richard’s classic style of the hardboiled detective with a twist. Richard’s writing is oh, so smart and absolutely drop dead hilarious and the plot lines are complex enough for us mystery veterans. Stevenson’s stories are also topical but his writing skills are such that you don’t realize the door to your mind has been cracked open and some new thoughts have arrived until you suddenly bump into them later. His characters are quite simply, the best. Beginning with the adorable Timothy Callahan, Strachey’s romantic partner, they appear as if they were conjured up in a modern lab experiment as a cross between Damon Runyon and 1930’s screwball comedies mixed with a little Humphrey Bogart film noir. I was hooked.
I insisted to partner Jason Brown that we record Death Vows. He was a little surprised as we don’t usually record either popular fiction or anything written after the 1920s. However, he agreed that Richard’s writing is so good that it deserves to be a classic. And just to prove me right, NPR voted Death Vows as one of the top 5 Mystery Novels of 2008.
As for the gay detective factor, well he’s gay, just like Margaret Maron’s detective, Deborah Knott, is a southern judge from North Carolina and Robin Paige’s Kate Sheridan is an American writer married to an English lord in Edwardian England and Tony Hillerman’s Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn are modern day Navajos. It’s the lens through which we see our detective’s point of view. And Strachey’s lens is a wonderfully odd mix of sarcasm, wit, sharp intelligence, righteous anger and ultimate compassion for the stupidity and sadness encountered. There’s the usual descriptive and colorful language that can be found in any hardboiled detective story but I found it rather tame especially compared to some of the romantic action that goes on in the mystery chick lit genre.
As for the plot of Death Vows, well, let’s just say it has to do with gay marriage in Massachusetts, specifically the Berkshires, and Stevenson’s take on our local institutions is perfect. There’s a Kennedy involved–hey this is Massachusetts–chicanery with real estate transactions and a wisecracking senior citizen, manager of the local movie house who manages to get into trouble with the law. This is one of my favorite scenes, by the way. The plot twists and turns just like our mountain roads and I guarantee you’ll gasp at the surprising view at the top.
Since 3 of Richard’s books have been made into films he was willing to entertain the idea of an audio book edition and with his radio experience we felt he was the best person to read. I think you will find this audio book as enjoyable to listen to as we did–and we listen to each one of our books at least 5-10 times before they make it out into the world. There are also jazzy interludes between chapters including the sax that sounds as if it were lifted from Stan Getz but happens to be played by the talented young Mr. Tyler Gasek, currently appearing as a guest artist with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Grab Death Vows wherever you can. Buy it from us, ask for it at your local independent bookstore, purchase from Amazon if you must or download it from Audible. Get a cup of tea or better yet, a martini and cozy up with Donald Strachey, P.I. for a classic new-fashioned audio adventure.
Tags: Death Vows, mysteries, Richard Stevenson, The 38 Million Dollar Smile
