Campaign for the American Reader: Pg. 69: "Big City, Bad Blood"

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Pg. 69: "Big City, Bad Blood"

"Sean Chercover has been a private investigator in Chicago and New Orleans, and has written scripts for television documentaries and children's shows," his website claims. "He's also worked as a film and video editor, scuba diver, nightclub magician, car-jockey, waiter, truck driver, encyclopedia salesman and in other, less glamorous positions. These days, he splits his time between Chicago and Toronto, and generally stays out of trouble. Big City, Bad Blood is his first novel."

I asked Sean to apply the "page 69 test" to his book. Here is what he reported:

Page 69 of Big City, Bad Blood is the end of a chapter and contains a mere paragraph of text. So with apologies to Marshall McLuhan, let’s back up to 68. Will we find an accurate representation of the novel as a whole?

I guess we first need to define the novel-as-a-whole. Big City, Bad Blood is a first-person thriller narrated by Chicago P.I. Ray Dudgeon, who is working as a bodyguard for a movie producer named Bob Loniski. The plot deals with murder and cover-up and sexual blackmail and political corruption. It takes Ray from the back alleys of Chicago to the mansions of Beverly Hills to the corridors of power in Washington DC.

On page 68 . . . we find Ray in the midst of an argument with his girlfriend, ER nurse Jill Browning. Damn. I was hoping for a car chase or a gunfight or some such thing.

Okay, let’s look at the scene. Jill is not sure that she can be in a relationship with a man who wears a gun and disappears for days at a time and makes enemies of violent men. She needs to understand what drives Ray to do what he does for a living. But Ray is pretty messed-up when it comes to relationships and has major issues with trust. He holds a lot inside, and Jill (justifiably) feels frozen-out. She’s getting tired of waiting for him to open up emotionally. As she pushes Ray to let her in, the argument has become heated, and ends thusly . . .

“I’m doing my fucking best!” I snapped. The pager on my belt went off. Bob Loniski was ready to be picked up from work. “Look, I—”

“You have to go,” she said.

“I can be back in a couple of hours.”

“Please don’t. I need some time. I’ll call you later.”

“I’ll be home,” I said.

I delivered Bob to his apartment without any trouble and went straight home. There was a message waiting on my answering machine.

It was Jill. The message was as hard for me to listen to as it was for her to leave. She was crying into the telephone and I had to play it twice before I understood it all. The bottom line was, she was in love with me but she would not see me again. There was stuff about how she couldn’t bear to lose me but it was better to lose me now than to live the rest of her life waiting for the day I don’t come home. And there was other stuff about trust. There were a lot of half-started sentences that ended in sobs and the whole thing ended with her begging me never to call her again.

I opened a bottle of bourbon and got very drunk and smashed some things and passed out in my clothes.

So, was that a fair representation of a P.I. thriller about murder and cover-up and sexual blackmail and political corruption? Perhaps surprisingly, I would have to say, “Yes.” Because, for all of the action and suspense, Big City, Bad Blood is ultimately about Ray Dudgeon, an emotionally isolated man who struggles to connect with other human beings. A lonely man who, while fighting the tangible antagonists in the physical world, must also fight his own internal demons.

Many thanks to Sean for the input.

Among the impressive advance praise for Big City, Bad Blood:

"This is James Crumley for a whole new generation, with the spirit of Nelson Algren walking point. Not only is Sean Chercover the new kid on the block, he may well be the only kid on the block."
-- Ken Bruen, author of The Guards and American Skin

"The story is tight, the voice self-assured, and the characters as hardboiled as they come - especially the protagonist, Ray Dudgeon. Chercover really delivers the goods here, in as solid a debut as I've seen in a long, long time."
-- Steve Hamilton, Edgar Award-winning author of A Stolen Season

“Cross Robert Crais' Elvis Cole with Loren Estleman’s Amos Walker, and you’d have Sean Chercover’s Ray Dudgeon. Wonderful descriptions of the Windy City’s under-belly, and beautifully paced action. Expect a Shamus Award nomination for Big City, Bad Blood."
-- Jeremiah Healy, author of The Only Good Lawyer and Turnabout