Paul Cody has recently written and published a new novel, Walk the Dark. The book is now for sale online, and is probably available at your favorite local bookstore. You can get the paperback edition, or an ebook in various electronic formats.
A few days ago, when my paperback copy arrived, I emailed Paul and said: “Congratulations! … A paperback copy of your book has survived the poaching porch pirates, and is now sitting safely on my TBR desk. Sadly, due to work commitments, it will take me a few months to get to the book.”
I couldn’t wait. The next day I dived in.
I had been thinking about Paul’s 2013 book The Last Next Time, the immensely rewarding experience of reading it, and talking about it. I read that book twice, first with a reader’s ear, and next with a writer’s eye — trying to extract the secret of Paul’s narrative gifts that make the book unputdownable.
How to keep readers reading? … In pursuit of that plot-boiling question, via BBC Maestro, I had studied Ken Follett’s online course “Writing and Publishing Fiction”. For its purpose, Follett’s ideas were on point, describing the long hours glued to the computer chair, the attention to historical details, and a grab bag of literary magic tricks. For example: a major complication must be introduced every forty-or-so pages. Plots have to thicken like bouillabaisse, and characters must get deeper into trouble as the story lunges forward to its inevitable yet surprising climax.
Literary fiction has another task: not only to keep us turning the pages but to reveal hidden truths about our inner lives. And that’s why— regarding Paul Cody’s books — I will always be a fan. Paul’s books are a pleasure to read, they make you feel and they make you think. They make me think about what it means to be human, what it means to wrestle with our dark sides, and the courage it takes to be unique.
What is Paul’s new book about?
Rather than spoil the plot, I will quote from the the publisher’s website (https://regal-house-publishing.mybigcommerce.com/walk-the-dark/), where we find an exquisitely written five-sentence summary of the book, this:
“From behind the walls of a maximum-security prison, a murderer describes his childhood, his search for memory and understanding and redemption, and his small measure of hope.
“Oliver Curtin grows up in a nocturnal world with a mother who is a sex worker and drug addict, and whose love is real yet increasingly unreliable. His narration alternates between that troubled childhood and the present of the novel, where he is serving the last months of a thirty-years-to-life sentence in a maximum-security prison in upstate New York for a crime he committed at age seventeen. His hope for redemption is closely allied with his memories, seen with growing clarity and courage. If he can remember, then life in the larger world might be possible for him.”
Why shouldn’t “Buy local” refer to books as well as broccoli ? … To support local authors and the survival of independent publishers are two reasons to purchase Paul’s new book. A better reason: do it for your own enjoyment and personal growth.
Walk or bike to your favorite bookstore, and ask for Walk the Dark.