Two of these novels display how wry humor can be an add-on for great fiction. And there are novels that dare to expand the genre of Crime Fiction and Fantasy, with formidable results.
Murder Your Employer by Rupert HolmesAuthor Rupert Holmes is best known to baby boomers as the composer of Escape (the Piña Colada Song), and for the Broadway musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood; but they’d be surprised to know that Holmes is also an Edgar Awards holder from the Mystery Writers of America for his Crime Fiction. This is his latest, and it’s an engaging tongue-in-cheek exploration of a secret academy where the skill set of murder is taught. Of course, at the school, it’s called "deleting" someone. In the tradition of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, the McMaster conservatory is located in a secluded part of the world, and "students" have no inkling as to how they got there. The faculty is headed by Dean Harbinger Harrow; and he’s a wonderful Holmes creation.
The book’s conceit is that Holmes merely edited these memoirs of Harrow, and his chronicling the endeavors of three McMaster enrollees Cliff Iverson, Gemma Handley, and Doria (whose former life as a Hollywood actress means she has more names and surnames than we have to mention). The book is evenly divided between the time of the three at the conservatory, and how they fare upon "graduating" and now turning their thesis of deleting into reality. Set in the 1950’s, there’s much to like in this novel. Holmes is meticulous in his plotting, in throwing red herrings and macguffins on our reading path, and making these protagonists resonate. Motive, the need for revenge, the cost of conscience, they’re all examined in exacting detail. Wonderful read.
I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai
Granby is an exclusive boarding school in New Hampshire where the rich and entitled get to mix with those on scholarships and filling inclusivity quotas. Bodie Lane was on a scholarship back in the mid-90s, and was connected with a celebrated, and scandalous campus murder case, as the victim, Thalia, was her roommate. Omar, from the athletic department was then sentenced to prison, on the strength of a confession that he later said, had been coerced. Bodie is a successful videographer and film producer in 2018, when she’s asked to teach a mid-term special course at her alma mater. It’s a school she never really felt comfortable in; but a certain degree of vanity, to show the school how well she’s made it since then, motivates her to accept the teaching job.
As memories rush back, her current class picks on the case from the 90’s; and this, with Omar is still languishing in jail, that the novel picks up on. The story then becomes an examination of privilege, of collective memory, and just how much Bodie repressed back then, when she could have spoken up and made the net of the investigation spread wider than Omar. Makkai deftly picks her spots as she slowly unravels the mystery of the murder, the number of possible suspects beyond Omar, and also provides us with a campus story that’s steeped in exclusivity and entitlement. There’s a middle portion of the novel that seems to meander; but I can’t fault the last section, as the revelations and suspense builds up to this reader’s satisfaction.
Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
Set in modern India, this instant classic is a Dickensian examination of privilege, wealth, fear and loathing, and the abusive nature of the entitled. It all starts off at 3 a.m. in Delhi with a luxury sports car ploughing through some five sleeping, homeless people in a city square. Among the fatalities are a young pregnant girl and her husband. By the time the police arrive, it’s Ajay, a poor domestic servant who came from the province of Upper Pradesh, that’s found behind the wheel of the automobile. The owner of the car, the entitled son of a political dynasty, is nowhere in the vicinity; conveniently found much later in a plush hotel located in the outskirts of Delhi. Welcome to modern India, is what cynical Kapoor seems to be saying.
The main character here is the mercurial Sunny Wadia, son of Bunty, a local industrialist, and all-around money-grabber, who has cloaked himself with corporate respectability. Turns out that Bunty has been in cahoots with the local political bigwig in Upper Pradesh, and there’s a brother named Vicky, who’s been left in the province, as the coarse, local crime lord. What Kapoor is revealing here are the long tentacles of the rich and influential; and that there’s often something quite rotten lying at the core of how they’ve managed to amass such largesse. Sunny is that interesting, conflicted character. He’s been educated in the West, wants to make a difference and distance himself from his father’s world; but continues to discover that without his father, he doesn’t carry much weight on his own.
If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe by Jason Pargin
John, Dave and Amy are back; so if you enjoyed the past books of Pargin, which began with John Dies In the End, you’ll be happy with this one, as we’re back in very familiar territory. If you recall, the trio and their adventures can best be described as slackers and stoners taking on the responsibility (or not) of being the town’s version of Men in Black and Ghostbusters. Whether it’s an alien invasion or handling the supernatural, John and Dave (with Amy), can be counted on to provide a service that borders on the stupid, lazy, and inefficient; and yet somehow, ending up as the heroes for the day. It’s a formula that Pargin has employed with great success over several novels now.
This new novel opens with an alien parasite that has taken over the brain of a local drunk/vulnerable. Dispatched to control the situation, the trio stumble onto a more sinister, nefarious plot that involves one of those toys that one has to care for and feed. But this time the feeding involves human teeth, eyeballs, and other such viscera. There’s an ancient book that acts as a portal., And if you think this is all fantastical and made-up, let’s not forget how human sacrifices have been part of the rituals of religion in their bloody, centuries-old history. There’s time travel as an explanation, and a diabolical college boy named Sebastian, who in his future, will end up a cult leader in his future life. It’s all a topsy-turvy mess, but that’s the Pargin's specialty.