Gravewriter: A Novel [Hardcover]

Mark Arsenault (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 2006

"Even better than his Shamus-finalist debut, Spiked."
---Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Speak Ill of the Living

Highly praised by both reviewers and mystery writers, Mark Arsenault introduces a stunning new suspense series with his courtroom drama, Gravewriter.
 
Billy Povich used to be a journalist. He lost his wife because of his gambling habit, and then she died in a car crash. Now he finds himself writing obituaries and living with his elderly father and seven-year-old son, Bo.
 
Billy plans to kill the man who was at the wheel the night of his wife's death. But then a summons to jury duty for a murder trial delays Billy's agenda. As the trial heats up, Billy finds that his little boy spots danger faster than he does, and a frantic and deadly chase begins with Billy as the prey.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in Providence, R.I., Arsenault's quietly potent first in a new series introduces down-on-his-luck obituary writer Billy Povich. Deeply in debt to loan sharks and still reeling from the death of his ex-wife a year earlier, Billy finds distraction from his woes while serving as a juror in the trial of Peter Shadd, a punk who shot dead career criminal Garrett Nickel in an escape attempt the pair made from prison. What looks like a clear case of murder develops holes as Billy looks closer. Then the only other juror who questions the case takes a nosedive out of a parking garage, and an unknown man in a fedora begins dogging Billy. Through his friendship with pretty social worker Mia Kahn, Billy starts piecing together the complex, sordid truth. Just when the gray streets of Providence threaten to become hopelessly noir, Arsenault (Spiked) adds just the right touch of humor or tenderness. Particularly affecting are scenes with Billy's seven-year-old son, Bo, and even a massive leg-breaking thug named Walter has his lighter moments. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Arsenault has moved up to a bigger publisher and a new protagonist with this third mystery, but fans of his Eddie Bourque series will feel at home with Billy Povich. Like Bourque, Povich writes for an afternoon daily in New England, lives on the seedy side of the tracks, and gets sucked into exposing outlandish conspiracies. It's tough to fault the author for refusing to mess with success, as he takes readers on another enjoyably bumpy ride. Povich's gambling addiction cost him his wife, and her death in a car crash has him plotting revenge against the policeman she was dating. As he stalks the cop, and bookie enforcers stalk him, the overnight-obit man gets called for jury duty and soon gives his old investigative-reporter muscles a workout. The wacky plot pits gubernatorial candidates against each other during an escaped con's murder trial, but Arsenault delivers his usual slew of entertaining oddballs, including an unconventional priest who takes Povich's murderous confessions and a son who dresses up like Batman to explore the mortuary beneath their apartment. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (November 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312335962
• ISBN-13: 978-0312335960
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,576,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Arsenault is a Shamus-nominated mystery writer, a journalist, a runner, hiker, reader, political junkie and eBay fanatic, cursed with an incurable itch to collect memorabilia from the 1939 New York World's Fair. His new novel, LOOT THE MOON, was released October 13 by St. Martin's Press. It's the second book in the Billy Povich series that began with GRAVEWRITER, a noir thriller praised for a fusion of suspense, humor and human tenderness.
Arsenault's debut novel, SPIKED, (2003, Poisoned Pen Press) was a finalist for the Shamus Award for Best First Mystery. The story was drawn from his experience as a journalist writing about heroin addicts who lived desperate lives of crime, love and addiction beneath a railroad bridge in Lowell, Massachusetts. His follow-up novel, SPEAK ILL OF THE LIVING, (2005, Poisoned Pen Press) was inspired by two years of jailhouse interviews inside "Supermax," Rhode Island's most secure prison.
With 20 years of experience as a print reporter, Arsenault is one of those weird cranks who still prefers his news on paper.
When he's not at his keyboard, you might find him backpacking up the side of a mountain.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent noir with clever plot twists and complex characters, June 5, 2007

By 

Ed Lynskey, "author of ASK THE DICE and THE Z... (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gravewriter: A Novel (Hardcover)

Mark Arsenault has written a cleverly plotted noir featuring Billy Povich, 40, a Providence (RI) newspaper obituary writer, who has a serious gambling addiction. His wife has dumped him and he's almost hit rock bottom when she dies in a car crash with her new boyfriend, a cop. Billy plots his revenge on the cop when a jury summons arrives in the mail. Between taking care of his seven-year-old precocious son, Bo, and dodging leg breakers wanting their money, Billy sits on the jury of a prisoner accused of murder. This noir's strengths are a heady pace, sharp plot twists, and full-fledged characters remindful of John D. MacDonald.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arsenault is a very good, under-discovered author, May 6, 2007

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gravewriter: A Novel (Hardcover)

First Sentence: "That ain't piss down my pants, thought the old convict."

Billy Povich has lost his wife to an automobile accident and his job to gambling. Now he and his seven-year-old son are living in a small apartment with his elderly father. Billy plans for one big win to get out of debt and to kill the man driving the car in wife was in when she was killed. Martin J. Smothers is a defense attorney his newest case is to defend Peter Shadd, an escaped con who is on trial for murdering a fellow escapee. The trial is going badly; there are only two jurors who think Shadd is innocent. One is Billy and the other is suddenly dead.

Arsenault is a very good writer. He takes his experience as a newspaper journalist and editor and provides us with very human characters who captured my interest from the start. These are people you can see and know and with them comes humor and pathos arising from situations rather than "the joke." I particularly enjoyed his ability to have really two primary protagonists and weave them together but without having them directly interact until the very end. The plots and subplots were interesting and each worked. I've enjoyed his previous works and he is now on my auto-buy list. Highly recommended.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed by Diane Kasperski, January 25, 2007

By 

Front Street Reviews www.frontstreetreviews.com - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gravewriter: A Novel (Hardcover)

Mark Arsenault has a winner in Grave Writer. Billy Povich was an award winning investigative reporter until his world fell apart. His ex-wife was killed in an auto accident. Even though they had been divorced for 5 years Billy still thought of her as his wife. He is now in way over his head with gambling debts and now rather than being a leading reporter he writes obits for the paper where he was once an ace reporter.

Billy gets called for jury duty and is placed on a murder case. It is supposed to be very cut and dried. Judging on circumstantial evidence it should be an easy conviction. Billy and one other juror, Alec, think that there is more to this crime than the circumstantial evidence.
Then mid-trial Alec supposedly commits suicide. Billy's investigative instinct was kicking in before that but Alec's unexpected death clinched it. Billy does what he does naturally to find out what the truth is about the two deaths.

The tension and suspense start at the beginning and continue throughout Grave Writer.
Between Billy's past demons and his current situation which is precarious as a juror, the story is very intense. The characters have real flaws, worries and problems making them very real.

I haven't read any books by Mark Arsenault in the past but I definitely plan to read all that he has written. It would be great to see the character of Billy Povich move on to other things using his natural intuitive instinct.