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Lightning in the Blood
Anka Stiffel helps suburban housewife Amanda Owen come out as a lesbian and an artist, but a disaster renders both women incoherent, and two private investigators must prove Anka innocent of attempted murder
262 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 23, 2015
The original Joop Wheeler and Kevin Sweeney novel, Greg's first outing for the characters. Initially a research project into detective fiction, Greg decided he could do better. Luckily for us, and his dissertation, he was right.
The story is told in the same alternating voice style as the later Dog on Fire short stories. Only this time the voice changes with each chapter rather than with each story. And again it works well. There seemed to be a couple of chapters that almost felt artificially short, like Greg needed to get back to the other narrator to progress the story at the pace he wanted to. But the story progresses according to Greg's plan, so it's a minor quibble.
Again, with these stories, Greg is writing about real people, real fictional people that he seems to like. Which makes us like them to. It's not that the detective stuff suffers – there's still a crime, a prime suspect and a herculean effort to investigate that suspect's guilt or otherwise. But there's a lot more depth to the characters than we often get in fiction where the twists are often seen as more important than the story. The really interesting thing for me was that I realised I wasn't trying to second guess the author, I wasn't looking for detective fiction clichés or to work out who was guilty or innocent. It's not that I didn't care if she was guilty or not, but it wasn't the only point of getting to the end of the book. Sometimes you can just enjoy the journey.
I read the original 1993 hardback edition, which I'd ordered days before Greg announced he was updating the novel for an ebook release last year (2011). I don't know how much he's changed for that edition though, maybe I'll have to try a compare and contrast...
The story is told in the same alternating voice style as the later Dog on Fire short stories. Only this time the voice changes with each chapter rather than with each story. And again it works well. There seemed to be a couple of chapters that almost felt artificially short, like Greg needed to get back to the other narrator to progress the story at the pace he wanted to. But the story progresses according to Greg's plan, so it's a minor quibble.
Again, with these stories, Greg is writing about real people, real fictional people that he seems to like. Which makes us like them to. It's not that the detective stuff suffers – there's still a crime, a prime suspect and a herculean effort to investigate that suspect's guilt or otherwise. But there's a lot more depth to the characters than we often get in fiction where the twists are often seen as more important than the story. The really interesting thing for me was that I realised I wasn't trying to second guess the author, I wasn't looking for detective fiction clichés or to work out who was guilty or innocent. It's not that I didn't care if she was guilty or not, but it wasn't the only point of getting to the end of the book. Sometimes you can just enjoy the journey.
I read the original 1993 hardback edition, which I'd ordered days before Greg announced he was updating the novel for an ebook release last year (2011). I don't know how much he's changed for that edition though, maybe I'll have to try a compare and contrast...
June 26, 2008
Greg Fallis’ only novel, like his excellent non-fiction, draws from his years as a private investigator and prison counselor rather than from other writers’ legacies or the extensive theory he must have encountered while earning a PhD in the sociology of justice.
Joop Wheeler and Kevin Sweeney, a team which has since appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, spend the novel traipsing through the Boston-area’s lesbian community. Wheeler is an intensely polite southerner who will fall for any woman; Sweeney is a retired cop.
The book unfolds in the first person, with the detectives passing the role of storyteller between them. Their current search is for the facts that can form a coherent story for the defense of an uncooperative and unstable woman charged with killing her lover.
In what should be an example to others in a genre that often sinks into a world of grandiose make-believe, the author relies on well-drawn characters and the eccentricities inherent to their life-like research routine to draw his reader in.
Joop Wheeler and Kevin Sweeney, a team which has since appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, spend the novel traipsing through the Boston-area’s lesbian community. Wheeler is an intensely polite southerner who will fall for any woman; Sweeney is a retired cop.
The book unfolds in the first person, with the detectives passing the role of storyteller between them. Their current search is for the facts that can form a coherent story for the defense of an uncooperative and unstable woman charged with killing her lover.
In what should be an example to others in a genre that often sinks into a world of grandiose make-believe, the author relies on well-drawn characters and the eccentricities inherent to their life-like research routine to draw his reader in.
July 5, 2023
As fiction goes, mysteries/whodunits tend not to be my normal fare, but because I've known Greg via the internet for a really long time, and have long appreciated his writing, his sense of humour, and wordplay, whether it be at his blog or the one he has managed for the Utata photographic collective, I picked up a hardcover copy of this book on Amazon a few years ago (oops! I just checked... it was seven years ago!) and promptly put it on my shelf when it arrived. I often read in spurts, sometimes going months without so much as looking at a book, and when I do choose to read something, there is no logic as to what I happen to pull from the stack. Every now and then, usually after Greg has posted about something he's written for Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine or the like, I'd tell myself that I needed to read his book... the one that has literally collected dust on the shelf.
One of those now and thens occurred a few days ago, so I cracked the book open and found it difficult to put down, finishing it in little more than a day's time. I'm not a particularly fast reader (probably because I have SOS, or Shiny Object Syndrome), but when I've chosen I'd best be spending my time with a book than dawdling doing something else, I can stick to it. Which is what I did with Lightning In The Blood, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The story is told in the first person by the two private investigators who make up G & H Investigations ("a Grit and a Harp")—Wendell "Joop" Wheeler (the grit) and Kevin Sweeney (the harp)—in alternating chapters. Wheeler and Sweeney have been hired to investigate the assault of a woman, Amanda Owens, which has put her in the hospital and at death's door. Their client is the attorney representing the accused suspect, the lesbian poet ex-lover of the victim, Anka Stiffel, and while there is no physical evidence connecting the accused with the crime, the circumstantial evidence points to her, and because she suffers from mental illness, practically anyone who knows her believes she very well could be guilty.
That's the story.
As for the storytelling, because I read Greg's blog almost religiously, I'm familiar with the voice he uses for Joop—it's often the one he uses on the blog—who is a southern-born boy living near Boston, which Greg his ownself is. Except the Boston part. Not anymore, at least. Joop's persona as a detective—again based on other things Greg has written—seems to reflect Greg's, which is one that is a bit begrudgingly by-the-book, but by the book nonetheless. Joop is more self-deprecating than is Sweeney. Sweeney is an ex-cop-turned-P.I., so he's acquainted with the ways of the police department and is a bit more straight-laced and by the book than is Wheeler. Despite that Sweeney's and Wheeler's styles are different, they're compatico. Throughout most of the story, however, they perform their investigative tasks separate from each other.
I was talking with a friend today about the book, and I told him that the book's story took a back seat to the characters—from Wheeler and Sweeney to Sweeney's wife Mary Margaret—with her wise interjections in Irish Gaelic—to Stevie Gibbs, an is-she-or-isn't-she-a-lesbian friend of the prime suspect in the crime, to the assault victim's nosy neighbour, Callie Dobson, who discovers Owens's near-lifeless body and calls 911.
I guess you could say that I came for the story but stayed for the characters. And for the dialogue, whether it was between characters or in the heads of Wheeler and Sweeney. It was snappy, flowed easily, and I'm quite sure I laughed out loud on several occasions.
Upon finishing the book, I immediately bought Greg's e-book Dog On Fire , a collection of Wheeler/Sweeney investigation short stories, which I can't believe was published twelve damned years ago.
One of those now and thens occurred a few days ago, so I cracked the book open and found it difficult to put down, finishing it in little more than a day's time. I'm not a particularly fast reader (probably because I have SOS, or Shiny Object Syndrome), but when I've chosen I'd best be spending my time with a book than dawdling doing something else, I can stick to it. Which is what I did with Lightning In The Blood, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The story is told in the first person by the two private investigators who make up G & H Investigations ("a Grit and a Harp")—Wendell "Joop" Wheeler (the grit) and Kevin Sweeney (the harp)—in alternating chapters. Wheeler and Sweeney have been hired to investigate the assault of a woman, Amanda Owens, which has put her in the hospital and at death's door. Their client is the attorney representing the accused suspect, the lesbian poet ex-lover of the victim, Anka Stiffel, and while there is no physical evidence connecting the accused with the crime, the circumstantial evidence points to her, and because she suffers from mental illness, practically anyone who knows her believes she very well could be guilty.
That's the story.
As for the storytelling, because I read Greg's blog almost religiously, I'm familiar with the voice he uses for Joop—it's often the one he uses on the blog—who is a southern-born boy living near Boston, which Greg his ownself is. Except the Boston part. Not anymore, at least. Joop's persona as a detective—again based on other things Greg has written—seems to reflect Greg's, which is one that is a bit begrudgingly by-the-book, but by the book nonetheless. Joop is more self-deprecating than is Sweeney. Sweeney is an ex-cop-turned-P.I., so he's acquainted with the ways of the police department and is a bit more straight-laced and by the book than is Wheeler. Despite that Sweeney's and Wheeler's styles are different, they're compatico. Throughout most of the story, however, they perform their investigative tasks separate from each other.
I was talking with a friend today about the book, and I told him that the book's story took a back seat to the characters—from Wheeler and Sweeney to Sweeney's wife Mary Margaret—with her wise interjections in Irish Gaelic—to Stevie Gibbs, an is-she-or-isn't-she-a-lesbian friend of the prime suspect in the crime, to the assault victim's nosy neighbour, Callie Dobson, who discovers Owens's near-lifeless body and calls 911.
I guess you could say that I came for the story but stayed for the characters. And for the dialogue, whether it was between characters or in the heads of Wheeler and Sweeney. It was snappy, flowed easily, and I'm quite sure I laughed out loud on several occasions.
Upon finishing the book, I immediately bought Greg's e-book Dog On Fire , a collection of Wheeler/Sweeney investigation short stories, which I can't believe was published twelve damned years ago.
September 21, 2020
This is the first published novel of a blog writer I follow. Written in 1993 and updated at some point after that, it is what I guess could be standard PI/Detective fiction. I don't know, it is not my genre. I did enjoy it quite a bit despite not knowing much about novels like this. It was a fun read.
I guess 30 years ago a lot of the subject matter would have been a bit more risque. It was simply fun in this era. I bought a Kindle copy for 2 or 3 bucks and it was certainly worth that. I don't read PI/Detective stories, never have, so I can't speak to the style of writing. I normally look for much more in the way of description and language. Greg's book was good though, a change of pace.
.
I guess 30 years ago a lot of the subject matter would have been a bit more risque. It was simply fun in this era. I bought a Kindle copy for 2 or 3 bucks and it was certainly worth that. I don't read PI/Detective stories, never have, so I can't speak to the style of writing. I normally look for much more in the way of description and language. Greg's book was good though, a change of pace.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews