My Darling Detective

March 6, 2017
Norman's (Next Life Might Be Kind) latest novel opens with Canadian Jacob Rigolet witnessing his mother, Nora, vandalize a famous World War II photograph at a Halifax art auction in 1977. Nora, having escaped from the Nova Scotia Rest Hospital, is subsequently arrested and interviewed by Jacob's fiancée, Halifax police detective Martha Crauchet. Martha's investigation reveals that Jacob's father is in the photo taken by Robert Capa on Apr. 20, 1945, in Leipzig, Germanyâand was killed the next day. The investigation's real surprise, however, is the link it uncovers between Nora and Robert Emil, a Jew-hating Halifax cop and the prime suspect in two unsolved 1945 murders. Martha and her two detective partners reopen the cold cases, never suspecting how the connections will affect Jacob. Emil is still alive, as arrogant and shifty as ever, and after a tense police interrogation, arrest, and subsequent escape from custody, he vows to kill everyone involved in the case. The result is a scary stand-off in the Halifax public library. Jacob and Martha are delightful characters, young lovers unraveling a complex and very personal mystery. This is a crowd-pleasing old school mystery novel. Agent: Melanie Jackson, Melanie Jackson Agency.

You'd think that in an audiobook billed as an homage to noir fiction, narrator Bronson Pinchot would opt for a dark, suspicious interpretation. He does none of that--but he doesn't have to. His reading is nuanced and full of twists and turns, but with a brightness and richness not usually associated with the genre. Pinchot is clearly having fun using his deep, deliberate voice for the narrative and a collection of vivid character voices for the dialogue. He also knows how to pronounce French names, sometimes with a verbal wink, and how to pace the story so that it remains both engaging and mysterious. The result is a wonderful audio experience. R.I.G. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

June 26, 2017
In Norman’s smart new novel, set in 1970s Nova Scotia, protagonist Jacob Rigolet is attending a photographic art auction when his mother, Nora, a patient at a nearby residential treatment center, rushes into the room and tosses ink on Robert Capa’s famous 1945 photo Death on a Leipzig Balcony. After a swift arrest, Nora is interrogated by Halifax Regional Police investigator Martha Crauchet—who is also her future daughter-in-law. The story behind the attack on Capa’s photo is revealed, bringing up other mysteries involving family relationships, romantic entanglements, books, libraries, an amusingly noir radio drama, and murders. All of this is presented in a fast-paced, whimsical, semidetached literary style that few can bring off as successfully or as entertainingly as Norman. Fortunately, Pinchot is an actor capable of the subtlety this type of stylized fiction demands. His excellent portrayals of the hopelessly-in-love Jacob and Martha, to the wistful Nora, and the hard-boiled characters on the couple’s favorite radio show, Detective Levy Detects, don’t miss a beat. A Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardcover.