Book Review: “The Queen City Detective Agency” by Snowden Wright
An Explosive Read
I review a lot of books at a given time, so when people write to me to ask me a question about something I’ve read — which happens quite a bit due to my e-mail address being at the bottom of my review work here — the answer usually is, “I don’t know.” The reason is that I read in such a volume that I don’t remember much about what I’ve looked at after a particular review has been filed. This is not the case with American novelist Snowden Wright. I distinctly remember reading his first novel, American Pop, with great clarity. I even vaguely remember how it ends, which is the most striking thing about the book. (Which is not a criticism. I recall that American Pop was a mostly enjoyable read throughout.) Five years later, Wright has dropped his latest novel, The Queen City Detective Agency, which aims to marry two distinct genres: the Southern Gothic and the hard-boiled detective yarn. Though the work is not without its faults, this is an almost-as-enjoyable piece of fiction that has an explosive ending. By its final pages, the book is hard to put down. Despite its genre tropes, the book is also a work of literary fiction. It begs the question, was the Reagan years of the American presidency just as bad as the Trump years? It also asks if anything has changed.
Set in January 1985 in Meridian, Mississippi, the story centers on a biracial and somewhat alcoholic private eye named Clementine or Clem, who runs the titular detective agency with her white partner Dixon. They are hired to investigate a possible murder that has been dressed as the suicide of an inmate awaiting trial for another murder: that of a real-estate mogul. However, the wife of the mogul also hires out the detectives to see who murdered her husband as well. Life insurance money is usually involved in these investigations. In any event, as is the case for the hard-boiled genre, there are crosses and double-crosses and multiple assassination attempts (things get crazy down there in the southern U.S., it seems). By the end, numerous people are involved in setting up various crimes, all against the backdrop of the second inauguration of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. As people like to say, the plot thickens by the end of this tumultuous novel.
I like Snowden Wright’s singular voice. The tone of American Pop and this novel is similar. When he has a few more novels under his belt, I’ll bet that we’ll talk about him as a prominent American novelist of subjects of note to the southern United States. Wright has talent and drive and knows how to weave together complex plot lines. The Queen City Detective Agency is a slow burn of a novel, gradually and slowly turning up the heat until we get to multiple climaxes: one of them is set in a cockfighting tournament. Fans of many genres may find much to be charmed by here. But do I have complaints? Well, yes, but they are the same ones I have about the mystery genre: there’s too much complexity for something of this nature to be pulled off in real life. To that end, Wright succeeds wildly with this novel as he has written the prototypical hard-boiled book. However, the story’s start is hard to read because the characters and their motivations are introduced before the detectives run into them and start questioning them. You’ll have to stick with this novel to receive its rewards. But, before I forget, Wright has a good sense of humor, too, so some of this will lead you to smirk as you read, which may mitigate some of the novel’s complexities.
The book’s mid-section does lag as Wright tries his hand at character development for major and minor characters. Thus, much is crammed into these pages; some could have been pruned back. However, this is all minor quibbling because The Queen City Detective Agency has one of the best endings for this type of novel I can recall (which isn’t always easy for me, given how many books of note I read). So, while the pacing could be smoother, the book’s conclusion more than makes up for it. So, stick with this one if you need help with it first. Chances are you’ll be charmed by this one as it goes along.
All in all, while I may be more partial to the literariness of American Pop, The Queen City Detective Agency is no slouch either. It’s an excellent mid-summer beach read that tries to move beyond the usual tropes of the detective genre. This comes highly recommended, as this is a book I won’t forget any time soon. The book is masterful and colorful, and, if my prediction comes to pass, Snowden Wright is a writer of some renown that we’ll be talking an awful lot about based on the sheer quality of his craft. This one is a keeper. Please go out and buy this one and put it on your bookshelf. Trust me on this.
Snowden Wright’s The Queen City Detective Agency will be published by William Morrow on August 13, 2024.
Of course, if you like what you see, please recommend this piece (click on the clapping hands icon below) and share it with your followers.
Get in touch: zacharyhoule@rogers.com
