There is a discussion on Sarah Weinman’s site about the PI novel. Where is the genre going? It’s hard for fans and experts to judge what constitutes a PI novel. Publishers seem convinced that gimmicks are required to attract readers; I’m convinced that readers of PI hate the gimmicks. Talking dogs? Crime solving cats? It was bad enough when men who aren’t afraid to cry became a fixture in back-stories. Enough already. Let’s dump the issue into Michael Koryta’s lap.
Sorrow’s Anthem is a traditional PI novel. Set in Cleveland it tells the story of Lincoln Perry, an ex-cop from the neighborhood where a murder and arson case leads the cops to an old friend. Lincoln wants to help Ed Gradduck clear his name. Ed is killed, run down by cops surveilling him. Lincoln has an older partner and a semi-professional relationship with a reporter named Amy. Without revealing plot points of his complex tale, the story goes where expected, into the maw of crime and law enforcement on Cleveland’s gritty streets.
Think of Sorrow’s Anthem this way: take a muscle car from the Sixties, remove the flames from the hood, take the dice from the rear view mirror. Now you’ve got a fast car that growls through traffic, draws glances from cops, frightens accountants at stop lights. A stripped down ride that will blow the doors off dad’s SUV. Go ahead, give the other guy the finger.
This is a PI novel. Michael Koryta isn’t selling it any other way. His prose is as clear as his purpose, he lays the story down without apology. His bad guys emerge the way they should; innocent people are victimized, and the heroes put things straight. Lincoln grinds through the lies and the cover-ups to discover what killed his friend, what killed his neighborhood. The story is personal; it is told in the first person, with the trade-off of limited point of view for the emotional jolt the technique delivers. Koryta keeps a tight rein on the pacing, which is slower than a thriller, more layered. The ending is over written and seems to drag once the focus shifts away from the action, but, overall, this is the kind of book that makes the tattered old PI look fresh and honest.
Now, that one I want to read!