The Crime Lady: Gone Viral
Dear TCL Readers,
I wish I had more comforting words for all of you. We are in uncharted territory. Social distancing is the new normal. So is working from home. Everything is getting canceled (including, as just announced, the Edgar Awards and related festivities.) We’re making new routines that may — and frankly, should — persist for weeks, months, maybe longer.
And yet I find myself in strange state. I was supposed to spend all of March working on my book at the MacDowell Colony. And for twelve blissful days, that’s precisely what I did, at the near-exclusion of everything else. But all idylls must end, and the Colony decided to shut down early and send everyone home. I took the first opportunity to leave, because I knew, if I could come home, I could self-isolate in the ways I already knew how dating back to last October. It seems I’d moved to Upper Manhattan not only to be part of a local community, but to prepare myself for a pandemic.
So I’m self-isolating for a while. No public transit or ride-sharing. No restaurants or bars. No grocery stores unless it’s strictly necessary. No large social gatherings. Lots of reading. Lots of resting. Some amount of solo walking. In other words, this was all what I was already doing in my life, and replicating at the residency I left prematurely. I’ve got a book to work on. Might as well keep at it.
Once I was immunocompromised. I’m not now, but I’ll never forget that I was, and that so many people are, too. This is a critical week for the country, and for New York City in particular. I hope we look back in relief that we overcompensated, rather than the horrific, and preventable, alternative.
My brain is solidly planted in the new book, which means I don’t have anything publishing in the next while. Galleys of Unspeakable Acts are fully circulating — yes, even the print ones — but would would really help me, and the contributors to the anthology, is if you pre-ordered. Find your favorite retailer here and here.
So many authors are seeing their book tours canceled, years of dreams supplanted. Amy Klein, who has a book coming up in April, gets at the heart of what it’s like to promote a book in the middle of a pandemic for Electric Literature, and alternative ways of doing so.
Which is also why I want to stump for my favorite books of 2020 so far, some that aren’t yet published yet:
The Third Rainbow Girl by Emma Copley Eisenberg (I reviewed it here)
Weather by Jenny Offill — a timely novel that’s only going to get more classic over time.
Pretty As A Picture by Elizabeth Little — the voice! The insight into moviemaking! The scathing commentary about sexual politics and true crime! The teens! We did an event at Chevalier’s Books last month and I’ve never wanted an event to go on for many more hours. That’s what the book is like.
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong — a brilliant collection as a whole, but I was particularly taken with her piece on the life and murder of Theresa Hak-Kyung Cha, an artist I’ve long wanted to write about (Dictee is one of my favorite books of all time) but now I don’t have to.
Lurking by Joanne McNeil — for the Internet old-timers, for those who want to know when the Internet was good, why it went bad, how it can foster community, it’s just a wonderful, thoughtful book.
Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson — for pure confection, post-modern mystery escapism.
Take Me Apart by Sara Sligar — my favorite debut crime novel of 2020 (out in April), just spot on about transforming life into art and who gets sacrificed — particularly women — as a result.
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker — Lost Girls was a stone masterpiece and so is this book, out in April.
Wandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins (it’s out in May, and it singed my soul for how good it is)
My Life as a Villainess by Laura Lippman — chances are you’ve read some of the essays already published in venues like Longreads and Glamour, but trust me, the entire collection — also out in May — is dynamite. I’ll be thinking about the final piece for a long, long, time.
These Women by Ivy Pochoda (also out in May, and it reverse-engineers the serial killer narrative from the vantage point of all the women — victims, loved ones, those on the margins — who don’t end up in his orbit, but supersede his orbit.)
Life Events by Karolina Waclawiak (also out in May!) — I loved how it mined a woman’s drifting ambivalence through life, marriage, travel, and there are no easy answers, nor should there be.
Mother Daughter Widow Wife by Robin Wasserman (out June 23) — this novel had me questioning all of my life choices, and it wrung me dry. I felt changed reading this.
Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Duchess Goldblatt (out in July) — it stole my heart and is a damn good memoir about creating a new identity to save yourself.
Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby (out in July) — my other favorite debut crime novel of 2020.
The Devil’s Harvest by Jessica Garrison (out August 4) — I blurbed this because it’s a propulsive and incisive look at a hired killer who targeted those on the margins — often poor, undocumented immigrants living in the Central Valley — told with necessary compassion.
True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee by Abraham Riesman (out September 29) — another book I blurbed because it made me understand the complex, hard-to-pin-down man that was Marvel Comics’ id and superego, and the archival research is amazing.
There will be more added to this list, of course. Let’s keep reading, let’s keep supporting authors, in this time and at all times.
And now, time to get back to my book.
Until then, I remain,
The Crime Lady