Items related to The White Devil
Synopsis
Edgar award winning novelist Domenic Stansberry has returned with a chilling new noir: The White Devil.
The White Devil tells the story of an aspiring American actress who—together with her brother— is implicated in a series of crimes dating back to their childhood. The novel begins in Rome, among the American ex-patriot community, and from there follows the siblings’ deadly obsession with an aging Italian movie star and her charismatic husband.
Stansberry’s protagonist, Vicki Wilson, narrates the story in a voice alternately intimate and distant, tender and cold, ultimately hiding as much as she reveals. The result is an elegant tour de force, a psychological noir exploring the murky depths of unwholesome impulse and erotic desire.
Stansberry is no stranger to such terrian. An earlier novel, The Confession, received the Edgar for its portrait of Marin County psychologist accused of murdering his mistress. Stansberry’s North Beach Mystery series—featuring San Francisco investigator Dante Mancuso—also received similar acclaim. A book from that series, The Ancient Rain, was named by Booklist as one of the best books of the past decade.
PRAISE FOR DOMENIC STANSBERRY
“Suspense... illicit passion... murder. . . Stansberry does it with originality, through the freshness of his imagery, and the lyricism of his lament.” The New York Times on The Last Days of Il Duce.
“Brilliantly imagined . . . packs an emotional wallop genre fiction rarely delivers.” Kirkus (Starred Review) on The Ancient Rain.
“Fascinating, beautifully written—an enviable achievement.” San Francisco Chronicle on Manifesto for the Dead.
“This series... .revitalizes the classic detective story, injecting it with a noir sensibility that both evokes the old masters and seems altogether new." Booklist on
The North Beach Mystery Series.
“Compelling ... equal parts contemporary crime fiction and dark existential poetry.” Publishers Weekly on Naked Moon.
“A masterful novel . . . by a master of the genre.” Book Reporter. Com on The Confession.
"In the tradition of Graham Greene, ... a moving chronicle of humanity, disquietingly black and totally absorbing." Los Angeles Times on The Spoiler
"A neo-classic among pulp fiction fans." January Magazine on The Confession.
"A gripping novel... incendiary.... this gritty, noirish exercise in murder and drugs feels uncomfortably like the real thing" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on Chasing the Dragon
"Takes a seemingly soulless contemporary phenomenon--dot-com speculation--and gives it the same chilling, metaphorical resonance that the postwar noir masters gave to a darkened city street or a tilted Venetian blind. " BOOKLIST (Starred Review)on The Big Boom
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Review
STARRED REVIEW FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Edgar-winner Stansberry (The Confession) takes the reader on a wild ride in this exceptional noir. From the very first sentence, the unnamed first-person narrator seduces you into a labyrinth of emotions and coups de theatre: "There's been another murder, this one in Los Angeles, in the sand under the Palisades. Both of my husbands are dead. I am young to have been married twice, let alone widowed." Settings range from Beverly Hills and Malibu to the Rome of Cinecitta and a nameless Spanish-speaking city, where the narrator has taken refuge. As she reveals the details of her life in Scheherazade fashion, the narrator raises a series of questions: is she lying to herself as well as to us? What exactly is her relationship with her half-brother? Who is really responsible for the deaths that seem to dog her every move? The shifting interpretations of events make for compelling reading. Stansberry is also the author of the Dante Mancuso PI series (Naked Moon, etc.). (Oct.)ADVANCE PRAISE FROM BOOKLIST A new novel by Domenic Stansberry is always a treat, especially after a nearly six-year wait. It shouldn't be surprising that a writer as steeped in unadulterated noir as Stansberry would turn to Jacobean dramatist John Webster for inspiration. In reimagining Webster's playThe White Devil as contemporary noir, Stansberry not only offers a fitting homage to the playwright's remarkable darkness but also infuses the story of a femme fatale and her treacherous brother with a modern erotic charge and that sense of inevitable catastrophe that permeates the work of James M. Cain. Jumping from Rome to Malibu to somewhere in South America, the sun-drenched (but hardly sunny) tale follows the misadventures of Vicki Wilson, an American of dubious lineage who reinvents herself as Vittoria, a would-be Italian poet and actress. Trailing in her wake is a string of dead husbands and others who drifted too close to the flame generated by Vicki and her ever-so-creepy brother, Johnny, with whom she shares a distinctly unwholesome relationship. Stansberry nails the sultry, decadent, and erotically charged tone with one perfectly placed hammer stroke after another, evoking in the process not only Cain but also Tennessee Williams.- Bill Ott
STARRED REVIEW FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Edgar-winner Stansberry (The Confession) takes the reader on a wild ride in this exceptional noir. From the very first sentence, the unnamed first-person narrator seduces you into a labyrinth of emotions and coups de theatre: "There's been another murder, this one in Los Angeles, in the sand under the Palisades. Both of my husbands are dead. I am young to have been married twice, let alone widowed." Settings range from Beverly Hills and Malibu to the Rome of Cinecitta and a nameless Spanish-speaking city, where the narrator has taken refuge. As she reveals the details of her life in Scheherazade fashion, the narrator raises a series of questions: is she lying to herself as well as to us? What exactly is her relationship with her half-brother? Who is really responsible for the deaths that seem to dog her every move? The shifting interpretations of events make for compelling reading. Stansberry is also the author of the Dante Mancuso PI series (Naked Moon, etc.). (Oct.)ADVANCE PRAISE FROM BOOKLIST A new novel by Domenic Stansberry is always a treat, especially after a nearly six-year wait. It shouldn't be surprising that a writer as steeped in unadulterated noir as Stansberry would turn to Jacobean dramatist John Webster for inspiration. In reimagining Webster's playThe White Devil as contemporary noir, Stansberry not only offers a fitting homage to the playwright's remarkable darkness but also infuses the story of a femme fatale and her treacherous brother with a modern erotic charge and that sense of inevitable catastrophe that permeates the work of James M. Cain. Jumping from Rome to Malibu to somewhere in South America, the sun-drenched (but hardly sunny) tale follows the misadventures of Vicki Wilson, an American of dubious lineage who reinvents herself as Vittoria, a would-be Italian poet and actress. Trailing in her wake is a string of dead husbands and others who drifted too close to the flame generated by Vicki and her ever-so-creepy brother, Johnny, with whom she shares a distinctly unwholesome relationship. Stansberry nails the sultry, decadent, and erotically charged tone with one perfectly placed hammer stroke after another, evoking in the process not only Cain but also Tennessee Williams.- Bill Ott
About the Author
Domenic Stansberry is an award-winning novelist known for his dark, innovative crime novels. His North Beach Mystery Series has won praise in The New York Times and other publications for its rich portrayal of the ethnic and political subcultures of San Francisco. An earlier novel, The Confession, received an Edgar Allan Poe Award for its controversial portrait of a Marin county psychologist.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherMolotov Editions
- Publication date2016
- ISBN 10 0996765905
- ISBN 13 9780996765909
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages238
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