One True Sentence

Not surprising, given the title, the book is about writers--famous ones for the most part--but a very fictionalized account upon which to build a mystery. The setting is 1920's Paris, when aspiring writers and artists of all sorts flooded to the post-war City of Light to live cheaply and find inspiration. Hector Lassiter, best friend of Ernest Hemmingway and writer of pulp short stories that are readily published and consumed in American magazines. Ernest is there with wife Hadley and new baby, Gertrude Stein, Alice Toklas, Sylvia Beach and more all play character roles as the plot evolves around a series of murders. The victims are all editors of small, struggling literary magazines of which there are several. Hector is being pursued by Molly, a young poet from Elgin, Illinoise, even though she has a boyfriend, struggling painter, Philippe. Besides, she seems a little too wholesome and innocent for Hector's tastes. Enter Brinke Devlin, a sexy black-haired beauty with a reputation for being the "professional muse" around town; Sylvia reveals to Hector that she is secretly a mystery writer who works under a man's pseudonym. Add in a 3rd English cozy writer and Gertrude decides they must undertake to find the killer or killers, since she has no faith in the police. As part of the storyline, we learn about a group of people who have embraced nothing as their icon--not dada-ists, but nada-ists, and it quickly becomes apparent that they are involved in the murders. But all is not as it seems. Although Hector and Devlin fall in lust and then love, he begins to wonder about her role; is she really helping him investigate or leading him a merry chase in the wrong direction. This is not one you will figure out ahead of time as it provides lots of twists and turns.There is a lot of explicit sex, cold December weather, and literary allusions. Good but not stellar, although they may get better as this is the first in a series of 10 books featuring Hector Lassiter, and Craig McDonnald's Head Games, was nominated for the Edgar and the Anthony awards. Kirkus review here.