Book Review: Balzac of the Badlands by Steve Finbow
I’ve said before that the PI novel can be like the haiku of the mystery/crime genre, the structure is always the same but it’s what you can do within it that matters. If that’s the case then Steve Finbow’s Balzac of the Badlands seems to toss the whole damn structure out the window. Actually that may be a disingenuous way to start the review because of the simple fact that any recognizable genre markers are buried and still others are eschewed. That’s a rough way of saying that this is not a novel that is easily classifiable. While from one perspective this is clearly a PI novel when the totality of it is taken into account it becomes clear that it is its own novel. This is the rare crime fiction novel that takes into account all that came before in the genre then both absorbs it and disregards it all at the same time.
Balzac of the Badlands is a postmodern detective story featuring a veritable grab bag of pomo tricks and literary techniques that starts off leaving the reader feeling a bit… unanchored. The strength of the writing, the thrust of the story and just out and out curiosity keep the pages turning. Slowly these various elements start to coalesce to provide more sound footing for the reader. What starts out feeling like an intellectual exercise, a showcase of tricks and techniques, settles down after awhile.
And it’s this large portion of the story, when the rubber hits the road that is just an astounding and uniquely structured crime story. Particularly the jump cut sequence in the woods where the characters are converging on the woods looking for someone. Little bite sized fragments of action only lasting a few sentences, jumping around between the characters, which fills in the scene but keeps the tension at brutally high levels.
To be fair there are going to be elements that won’t sit well with some readers but those willing to open themselves up will be rewarded with an inventive, engaging, dark and dare I say original crime novel.
Sometimes the best novels defy easy description and the book itself is the description. That’s the case with Balzac of the Badlands. To catalog it’s plot, to describe the various techniques used, to do anything remotely similar to this would be to unfairly ground it.
Bottom line: It got its hooks into me early and I had to keep reading.
Related posts:
- Steve Finbow On Writing Balzac of the Badlands
- Shout Outs: Steve Finbow throws down
- Book Review: Bloodstorm by Sam Millar
- THE CRACK IN THE LENS by Steve Hockensmith – review
- THE LOCK ARTIST by Steve Hamilton – review
