Yet neither Banville nor his publisher has made the least effort to conceal the great writer’s identity from association with this nicely turned, if at times lumbering, medico-religious thriller. After all, Banville won the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s top literary award, for his novel The Sea (2005), only the most recent accolade in a distinguished career as a serious novelist. And though they may be coming from opposite directions, they arrive in much the same place.īeneath Banville’s decision to pen his first genre novel under a pseudonym may rest a simple explanation, but if so it resists ready discernment. Val McDermid and John Banville, both British, one each from the genre and the literary sides, gracefully negotiate this dangerous intersection in recent novels. On the other hand, mastering the paint-by-numbers conventions of a subcategory of mystery fiction guarantees no skill at the freestyle narrative of the character-driven story. That’s because competent genre writing is much harder than it looks from inside the hothouse of literature. Few get through without a dent or scratch, and the total crash is not unheard of. With slumming novelists creeping up from one direction and rising mystery writers barreling down from the other, the intersection where literary respectability vies for right of way with genre craftsmanship is a busy place.
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