Synopses & Reviews
France, 1931: A criminal serving a 40-year sentence in the forbidding Malniveau Prison is found stabbed to death in the streets of the nearby town where his beautiful 19-year-old daughter lives. When the daughter vanishes, her American-born husband demands an investigation — and sets off a cascade of events that puts them both in mortal danger.
California, 1941: In the wake of the events in France, Shem Rosenkrantz brought his young wife back to America — where she was discovered by Hollywood and has become one of the movies' brightest stars. But Shem's star has fallen as Chloe's has risen, and his affair with one of her co-stars brings tragedy into their lives once more when his mistress is found brutally murdered.
Baltimore, 1951: The repercussions of the Hollywood slayings have left Chloe in need of constant care — care that Shem can't afford, with his writing career derailed and his own mental and physical condition deteriorating. His only hope is a desperate trip back home to Baltimore, where the reading of his first wife's will could yield enough money for him and Chloe to survive on — or could lead to a catastrophic confrontation with the estranged son he barely knows, and a moment of madness and bloodshed that can never be undone.
A breathtaking first novel spanning three decades and taking the form of three separate crime novels written in three distinct styles, each inspired by a different giant of the mystery genre — Georges Simenon, Raymond Chandler, and Jim Thompson.
Review
"Bold, innovative, and thrilling — The Twenty-Year Death crackles with suspense and will keep you up late." Stephen King
Review
"Not content with writing one first novel like ordinary mortals, Ariel Winter has written three — and in the style of some of the most famous crime writers of all time for good measure. It's a virtuoso act of literary recreation that's both astonishingly faithful and wildly, audaciously original. One hell of a debut." James Frey
Review
"The Twenty-Year Death is a bravura debut, ingenious and assured, and a fitting tribute to the trio of illustrious ghosts who are looking — with indulgence, surely — over Ariel Winter's shoulder." John Banville
Review
"The Twenty-Year Death is an absolute astonishment. Ariel S. Winter manages to channel three iconic crime writers and pull off a riveting story of a two-decade ruination in which it is the things not said that somehow have the loudest echoes." Peter Straub
Synopsis
There's never been a book like
The Twenty-Year Death A breathtaking first novel written in the form of three separate crime novels, each set in a different decade and penned in the style of a different giant of the mystery genre.
1931 — The body found in the gutter in France led the police inspector to the dead man’s beautiful daughter — and to her hot-tempered American husband.
1941 — A hardboiled private eye hired to keep a movie studio’s leading lady happy uncovers the truth behind the brutal slaying of a Hollywood starlet.
1951 — A desperate man pursuing his last chance at redemption finds himself with blood on his hands and the police on his trail...
Three complete novels that, taken together, tell a single epic story, about an author whose life is shattered when violence and tragedy consume the people closest to him. It is an ingenious and emotionally powerful debut performance from literary detective and former bookseller Ariel S. Winter, one that establishes this talented newcomer as a storyteller of the highest caliber.
Synopsis
THERE’S NEVER BEEN A BOOK LIKE
THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH
A breathtaking first novel written in the form of three separate crime novels, each set in a different decade and penned in the style of a different giant of the mystery genre.
1931—
The body found in the gutter in France led the police inspector to the dead man’s beautiful daughter—and to her hot-tempered American husband.
1941—
A hardboiled private eye hired to keep a movie studio’s leading lady happy uncovers the truth behind the brutal slaying of a Hollywood starlet.
1951—
A desperate man pursuing his last chance at redemption finds himself with blood on his hands and the police on his trail...
Three complete novels that, taken together, tell a single epic story, about an author whose life is shattered when violence and tragedy consume the people closest to him. It is an ingenious and emotionally powerful debut performance from literary detective and former bookseller Ariel S. Winter, one that establishes this talented newcomer as a storyteller of the highest caliber.
About the Author
A long-time bookseller at The Corner Bookstore in New York City and Borders in Baltimore, Ariel S. Winter is also the author of the forthcoming children's picture book One of a Kind (Aladdin) and of the blog We Too Were Children, Mr. Barrie, devoted to the rediscovery of long-forgotten children's books written by literary icons such as John Updike, Langston Hughes, and Gertrude Stein. His writing has appeared in The Urbanite and on McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and in 2008 he won the Free Press "Who Can Save Us Now?" short story contest. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.