Tony R Cox is an ex-provincial UK journalist. The Simon Jardine series is based on his memories of the early 70s - the time of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll - when reporters relied on word of mouth and there was no internet, no mobile phones, not even a fax machine.
A remarkable novel. There are rules to writing crime fiction and Dann McDorman might just have driven a big, heavy golf wood through most of them! West Heart Kill, as well as being crime fiction, is a detailed, usually affectionate, expose of what we, as readers, see as the best in the genre.
Intrigue is such a simple, single word, and it wraps up the plot and structure of this acclaimed novel. So who is telling the story? We have a narrator – the reader! – and a protagonist, private detective Adam McAnnis, plus an array of characters who, Hercule Poirot-like, could end up in a room where the perpetrator is finally revealed.
Or not.
West Heart is an exclusive, North American sports resort spread over what appears to be tens of square miles with separate luxury cabins, populated by the well-endowed owners and their guests. It’s the July 4th weekend and murder is afoot as vicious storm clouds gather on the horizon.
Adam McAnnis is a guest, but he is also attending under the instructions of a ‘client’. Who this client is, remains a mystery. Naturally, as it’s crime fiction, there are incidents of violence and death, starting with a dog that is related to a historical event that wreaks of revenge. There are questions about high finance, and there’s sexual element to spice things up.
The plot flows easily and draws the reader in, enhanced by the voices of the narrator/reader and McAnnis. The title West Heart Kill does not refer to our natural assumption: ‘kill’ has an entirely different meaning.
For crime fiction devotees and authors the narrative is occasional on a par with tradition, but accepted literary rules are there to be broken. ‘Guest appearances’ in name only by such authorial luminaries as Agatha Christie, T. S. Eliot, Raymond Chandler and even Ronald Knox and Gorge Borges add spice and blend with the path that we treading carefully.
West Heart Kill examines what the crime fiction genre is all about as well as being an enthralling, captivating, read. For me, it fits neatly into the category of ‘must read again’.
