Police at the Funeral

The Twenty-Year Death #3

by Ariel S. Winter

1951 - A desperate man pursuing his last chance at redemption finds himself with blood on his hands and the police on his trail.

There's never been a novel like The Twenty-Year Death: a breathtaking first novel written in the form of three separate crime novels that can be read in any order, each set in a different decade and penned in the style of different giants of the mystery genre - George Simenon, Raymond Chandler, and Jim Thompson.

Genres: Fiction, Crime, Noir, Mystery

232 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 8, 2014

About the author

Ariel S. Winter was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Shamus Award, and the Macavity Award for his novel The Twenty-Year Death. He is also the author of the children’s picture book One of a Kind, illustrated by David Hitch, and the blog We Too Were Children, Mr. Barrie. He lives in Baltimore.

Reviews

[F.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

So ‘The Twenty Year Death’ closes out with a Jim Thompson story, and much like Chandler, Thompson is an author I’m particularly familiar with. I liked this one a lot more though. Whereas the Chandler pastiche failed to hit the targets it set for itself, this really captures the tone, the language and the sheer hard-up desperation of the average Jim Thompson tale. Here Shem Rosenkrantz steps forward to take on the starring role, as a man who has reached bottom and finally sees a glimmer of light above him – but you just know that dirt will be shovelled in on top of him before he ever gets near salvation.

‘Police at the Funeral’ genuinely feels like some lost Thompson tale: the small town, a man out of options, a crime and then circumstances spinning horrifically out of control. What’s more there’s the downbeat language and – most importantly of all – the anxious sweat wafting off each and every page. True, I don’t think I can remember a Thompson story where the protagonist made so many stupid decisions, and I would have preferred the ending to be more ironic, but this is an excellent story which really captures its source. In fact I think I’ve read a few actual Jim Thompson stories which were less good than this.

[Gloria Feit · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last of the books comprising The Twenty-Year Death Trilogy, takes place not in France, as did the first, nor in Southern California, as did the second, but in Calvert City, Maryland. The two characters from both earlier books return here: Clotilde-ma-Fleur Rosenkrantz, a beautiful young woman who reached film stardom as Chloe Rose, and her much older, alcoholic husband, Shem, who had achieved fame as an author, later as a movie script writer.

Time has not been kind to Mr. or Mrs. Rosenkrantz: Clotilde is now and has been for the last ten years ensconced in a private psychiatric hospital, and Shem is now washed up, and broke. Shem returns to Maryland for the first time in 30 years following the death of Quinn Rosenkrantz, his first wife, from whom he has been divorced for 20 of those years, for the reading of her Will. Deeply in debt, Shem has traveled 3,000 miles more than anything because he is desperate for what he hopes will be the money left to him by his wife, who was from a very wealthy family, his desperation caused by his need to keep Clotilde from having to be placed in a state institution. It had been three years since Shem had seen his and Quinn’s son, Joe, not since his high school graduation, but they of course do meet again at the office of the attorney in whose office the Will is to be read to all concerned.

The presence of the police at the funeral referenced in the title is part of an investigation into another death which follows quickly upon the scene described above. The book is beautifully wrought, the plotting very original, and the whole a suspenseful read (more so than the two books which preceded it, in fact) that I devoured in the space of several hours. To say more would necessitate spoilers, so I leave it to the reader to discover and explore for him or herself. (Just to whet one’s appetite, I will only add that this was the first time I have read a book where the author makes the analogy that “killing someone was a whole lot like writing, a creative endeavor.”)

[Alonzo Church · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s 1951 and Shem Rosenkrantz’s life has turned into the kind of paperback novel he might write, now that his career has gone bad. It’s not a Jim Thompson novel, exactly. His Hell isn’t that original. It isn’t the stinking oil fields or the dead flat prairie.

Our hero is just another hopeful maybe heir in Calvert City Maryland, with a tramp girlfriend he pimps out to the local gangster. His hopes aren’t all that high. It’s his ex-wife that’s dead, and they hadn’t talked in years. But, still, he was summoned to the reading of the will. He might be getting something. Given all those debts he’s gathered up in all his years of drinking, he’d better be getting something. Because he can’t write anymore. Not even a pulp novel. Not even porn.

It’s a situation familiar to those of us who read Gold Medal paperbacks from the 50s. And it resolves in a way familiar to those of us who read those things. Our hero’s life is rotten and will likely get worse. His fate is sealed by the most overused paperback original plot device. Yet, his story is compelling and satisfying, and there is always a chance he’ll get away with it.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 3rd book in the remarkable Twenty-Year Death trilogy.

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the "Jim Thompson" volume of Ariel S. Winter's Twenty Year Death series, and also the best of the bunch. Winter really nails a Thompson-esque story, with bad people doing nasty things and getting themselves deeper and deeper into trouble, and not a good guy in sight.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't like it that much, even though its a short book, it feels too long.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

This the third book in the trilogy which originally was published together. This one (as the first) is terrible, but not as bad as the first one. Basically it is boring and I think Jim Thompson probably wrote better books than this one. Supposedly written in his style.
I have read all of the Hard Case Crime books except for two and enjoyed most of them. This is not at all like their other books and not up to their standards.
Had to force myself to get through about half of it before I gave up.

[Dave Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Police at the Funeral centers around Shem Rosenkrantz, who has been dying bit by bit for twenty years. Chloe is in the nuthouse and Rosenkrantz has taken up with a sharp dame who is only with him because he is due to come into some money. This book is not really a take off on Jim Thompson except to the extent that its focus is this tortured, drowning character. This book takes the reader on a journey into despair and, as the reader, listening to this narrator, you wonder if he is really as innocent as he makes himself out to be or is he just justifying himself and his actions to the readers.