Alvah's Books

Private Midnight
By Kris Saknussemm
The Overlook Press
333 pages
$25.95

In his second novel, Private Midnight, dubbed as a psychoerotic noir fairy tale, author Kris Saknussemm paints a perverse picture of an already spiritually raw man and the mysterious woman who strips away his deep layers of secrets and guilt

The story centers on homicide detective Birch Ritter, jaded by two bad marriages and his job. One morning, Jack McInnes, Ritter’s former partner, strolls into the precinct, drops a business card on his desk, and leaves without saying a word. Ritter pockets the card and seemingly forgets about it. While he’s investigating a possible suicide, he remembers the card, examines the ornate (and seemingly changing print) and decides to stop by the address. There, he is greeted by Genevieve-a redhead who knows quite a bit of Ritter’s past. She is alluring, intoxicating, and Ritter is dangerously drawn to her.

As the story progresses, Ritter becomes both obsessed and repelled by Genevieve, who-like her business card-physically changes at each encounter. During these on-demand meetings, she introduces Ritter to series of psycho-erotic acts and mind games that shred away at his psyche, and ultimately change his life forever.

Private Midnight is a mixture of various genres-detective noir, horror, and eroticism-and in each scene, Saknussemm has mastered the art of “show, don’t tell” in which he has beautifully painted a tableau of visual details rather than have typed away at a keyboard. However, in spite of all the well-written imagery, the overall story leaves the reader ambivalent to the outcome.

Saknussemm’s intent might have been stir the pot of morality and values-especially with Ritter’s baffling encounters with Genevieve–but by the novel’s end, Ritter’s metamorphosis comes across as an unsurprising cliché.

I’ve been in a catch-up mode with reading and reviewing (for other book review sites) that I probably shouldn’t post this week, but it’s difficult to ignore the piles of books that are waiting to be started (or finished and I do have a few with book marks).

On that note, I have to finish these:

• First Execution by Domenico Starnone.
• Private Midnight by Kris Saknussemm.

New this week (and it will be just one):

• The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon.

Due to technical difficulties (a slow connection–I can actually watch my hair turn grey-and, to top it off, the monitor is flickering and has gone black on me in the middle of writing emails), I am posting Weekly Reads very, very late.

I’d also like to note that last week’s attempt to get anything read was a dismal failure. Since I changed servers, redesigned the site, and spent too much time learning WordPress, I didn’t get much reading done. 

However, this week without fail I need to read two books. The first one Gabriel Garcia Marquz: A Life by Gerald Martin is for the Feminist Review, which is due by next week; the second one, Private Midnight by Kris Saknussemm,  is for a blog tour. 

A review for In the Woods will be posted later this week, depending on my computer’s health.

. . .Private Midnight by Kris Saknussemm.

This is the book I’ll be reviewing for blog tour I previously posted. Thanks to Tolly at Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists for considering me!