Death of the Day

by Tanith Lee

Contained between sunfall and dawn of a single night, Tanith Lee’s 'Death of the Day' sets out to investigate not only a string of bizarre deaths, but the facades behind which men and women exist. An intriguing detective novel, darkly lit and ominously rich. Tanith Lee’s debut crime novel, proudly reissued by Telos Publishing in a superb new edition. ‘A complex tale of tangled relationships among a decaying landscape full of bad omens and tangible menace.’ – Guardian.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction

360 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2004

About the author

Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She also wrote four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7."
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress.

Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971.

Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing.

Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror.

Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s.

Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lee's take on the standard detective novel may have one shocking reveal too many, but it's a wonderfully layered piece with fascinating characters.

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dark, s[pooky mood was set so well early on in the book. Most of it evaporated in nitty gritty things like painstakingly trying to make every single character morally grey. We probably could have done with less detail and drama in some quarters.

A lot of twists and reversals so not a boring ride. Some of the gender roles in it seemed a bit dated even for 2004. The view of "homosexuality" was in some ways problematic although within the context of the book at least that was portrayed as moving in a humane direction. I hated how excuses were made for Jack's violence toward Dominic (which was effectively DV) and this set the stage for depicting other DV in the book as more morally grey than it really was. I did like that the "big bad" characters turned out on the whole to be pathetic and insecure and the "innocent victim" characters were nothing of the sort but the ending leaves it all in a sort of moral no-mans-land where everyone is bad and deserved bad things.

Also by this time the horror atmosphere has turned out to be tardry human struggles for power and men's quotidian violence. To an extent this book could be called darly feminist in how it portrays gender relations but I think there is a too quick movement toward seeing heterosexuality as a needed and healthy norm (even Jack finds himself within a ngotiated version of it). But maybe that was meant to be read as dystopian? Given Jula's track record with power-playing men and given Jack's violence toward Dominic I do NOT like them as a pairing.

The cops seemed extremely unprofessional and somewhat violent in the book too, but maybe it's like that in the UK. British cop stories always leave me aghast at the liberties they take. Time we (Aussies) cut ties with the empire methinks)/

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing itself is decent but the story moves extremely slowly and has some very odd characters. I found it hard to care what happened to any of them.
The digital format doesn't differentiate breaks between scenes or anything, just runs on into a completely different conversation.

[Leila Anani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Death of the Day is a departure for Tanith Lee being a crime novel with no supernatural elements whatsoever. It is an ambitious novel using Aristotle's 'unity' model for tragedy (unity of action/time and place) as well as exploring the 'barricades behind which men and women try and live their lives' -

Steven Grace survives a car accident but is later found dead at the bottom of a stranger's garden. Inspector Knox and D.I Rawthorn solve the case all between the hours of sunset to sunrise - We have a range of suspects from Steven's author partner Jula Cork, her close gay friend Jack Hastings, his drug addict lover Dominic, Steven's lover Markessa, Leigh Dover the woman who reports the accident and the mysterious Alliats whose house he almost certainly called on for help. Everyone has secrets and backstory and motive.

The characters are so rich and gloriously complex worthy of someone like Margaret Atwood. Jula Cork, the mystery of her parents, her diabolical uncle particularly well drawn out. The Alliats another master stroke -evoking the fascinating dynamics of an abusive relationship. The characters exemplify many different forms of love - parental, sexual, platonic, romantic, obsessive, hatred...

What lets this down and why this only gets two stars are plot and pay off. The worst thing about this is the murder plot. It's also horrifically frustrating because there are so many unanswered questions and threads just left hanging at the end. I so wanted some interesting plot twists and for Tanith Lee to draw the threads together and connect characters and past events and this just doesn't.

What happened to Jula's parents?
What happened to Leonardo? Did he die? What was his illness?
Just who was Jack? Why did he change his last name?
Why is Jack so connected to Jula? (I so wanted some sibling connection here tying into the disappearance of Jula's parents... but nope)
Who was Leigh's rapist and why were there no more rapes in the area?
Why did George Alliat have mysterious vacations alone?
Who was Nicholas Ingram?
What was Dominic's story?
What happened to the guy that abused Dexter?
Just how did the exotic butterfly escape?
What happened to poor Bash?

As crime novels go, this one is mediocre at best. As a psychological study it's a masterpiece and given the rather grim finale, it's a pretty decent tragedy to boot. However it is very 'messy.' You could argue that's the point - it's a reflection of real life and in reality there are unsolved mysteries and loose ends but to me this just feels sloppy and being a massive fan of Tanith Lee I know she can write blinding plot twists and superb endings - but this is far from her finest hour.

I couldn't put it down mainly because I was so fascinated by the characters but definitely feel that it's not as strong as her fantastical work.

Themes:
Gothic family with secrets
Family relationships
Life/Death
Love/Hate
Male/Female
Murder
Revenge
Sin/Redemption
Dom/Sub
True love
Unstable heroine
Wisdom/Folly
Writer

[Lesley]

Readable, but on the whole I think Tanith Lee should stick to fantasy and not go into the crime novel