21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the wittiest debut novels in years., May 18, 2003
This review is from: The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse (Paperback)
For the record, I hate Keith Hartman. I've never met the guy, don't know much about him, but what I do know is this: His debut novel, The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse, is better than any first novel has a right to be. Like anyone else with aspirations of writing the Great American Novel, I get royally ticked any time someone else does so, especially on their first try.
And this is easily the best debut genre novel in years. Set in a future Atlanta (where magic, be it Christian, Native American or Wiccan, is commonplace), Gumshoe offers us more protagonists than I've seen in a while, and gives them amazingly unique voices, from the Witch (who works as a reporter during the day) to the Chosen (Benji, a teen who believes that God has chosen him as the butt of every cosmic joke), to the Lunatic (a Cherokee shaman who wonders why the totems she sees are as likely to look like Bugs Bunny or aliens from Star Trek as bears and monkeys). Having eleven (yes, eleven!) characters narrate in the first person is an amazing feat for any writer to pull off. The fact that Hartman manages to give them unique voice (I quite honestly didn't have to even look at the chapter headings after a while) is astounding.
The plot? Well, we've got the Cherokee, attempting to get the United States to uphold the Supreme Court rulings of the early 19th century granting them North Georgia. We've got a gumshoe with some serious issues. We've got a Southern Baptist senator/televangelist who argues about a devil-worshiping anti-Christian conspiracy perpetrated by everyone from Jews to Wiccans to Unitarians (and if he can't find evidence of the conspiracy, he'll fake it). We've got a dead body in a graveyard that might have been carved up by Wiccans, or maybe by Christians. We've got the witch/investigative journalist looking into the mystery, as well as the Baptist News Network and the regular Atlanta police force. And we've got a missing psychic private eye who works with a number of these characters. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. What's amazing isn't the disparate plot elements; it's that Hartman manages to make them all work.
Thick as it is in characters and plot, where Gumshoe really shines is as a social commentary. Although Hartman is coming from the left in general, he's not above poking fun at the excesses of anyone, ranging from homophobes who are willing to overlook their stance against abortion upon hearing that the fetus has tested positive for the "gay gene," to art snobs who are so caught up in their own pretentious world, they're incapable of recognizing real art when they see it. But for all the satire and commentary, Hartman gives us genuine characters -- everyone, from the Baptists to the Quakers, the homosexuals to the heterosexuals, the Wiccans to the Cherokee, is portrayed as an individual, not just another icon in a group. And the world itself is fully believable, every little image extrapolated from contemporary society, with some absolutely brilliant visions of a future America. The little touches -- a vending machine that offers brie and watercress sandwiches, a bondage-themed gym using a rack for pull-downs -- override whatever touches of cliche (references to the Stallone and Heston presidencies) that creep in.
This is not a book for the faint of heart (the graveyard mutilation, as well as some of the later crime sequences, is easily gross enough to fit into a Laurell K Hamilton novel), nor for those who might be easily offended, but if you want a great read and/or a book that actually makes you think (even while making you laugh out loud), this is a damned good novel.
Two final caveats: First, the editing, frankly, was pretty atrocious in the opening chapter or two -- once you get past the third chapter, the grammar seems to have righted itself. Also, do not start this on a worknight, as it will keep you up all night reading.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can't wait for the sequel!, May 4, 2000
This review is from: The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse (Paperback)
This was one of my favorite books of last year. It has an amazing number of viewpoints yet somehow all the pieces fit together beautifully. Keith Hartman creates a fascinating near-future world and peoples it with wonderfully diverse characters from the gay male detective, to Wiccans, to a rebellious Baptist teen who unknowingly could cause riots, death and destruction on a large scale. The story is suspenseful, humorous, and in the end makes you think hard about where our society is now and where it may be heading. I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel!
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spell Casting or Politics?, April 28, 2002
This review is from: The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse (Paperback)
Every once in a while one finds a book that is genuinely surprising. 'The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse' is a tale that manages to break every rule and still be not just a great first novel, but a great piece of detective fiction, period. The setting is Atlanta in 2025, a city divided along religious and sexual preference lines. Magic works and shamans coexist with high technology. Fundamentalists have their own political party and television shows are available in several grades of sex and violence. Fortunately for the reader, people still murder each other.
The first victim was already dead - for several months. The desecrated remains are found in a graveyard, crucified upside-down, with signs of a magical ritual all about. Detective Megan Strand finds herself in the midst of an ugly crime with the Baptist News Network screaming about a Satanic plot to take over the world. But the next crimes are murders, one after the other. And each has the overtones of witchcraft and Satanism. The large fundamentalist segment of Atlanta seethes with rumor and panic.
If Wiccans are suspects, they are also victims, and several members of a coven turn up dead or missing. One of these is Jen Gray, who is the partner of P.I. Drew Parker. Parker begins to investigate and finds a trail that leads to the hit religious singer Justin Weir. It also leads the P.I. into the hands of Ice-in-Summer, a Cherokee Shaman who has some very strange plans for the detective. Fleeing through this chaos are two teenagers, Benji Danvers and Summer Jacobs, one a Baptist and the other a Wiccan. Benji has somehow drawn the attention of an unidentified group of agents (Men In Black Suits) and Summer helps to keep him one step ahead of an unknown fate.
Lest I forget, the primary cast also includes a mad artist, a senator with dubious ethics, the aforementioned singer, and a news witch. For Hartman these are not just players on a stage, but active participants. Each takes turn after turn at first person narrative and it can truly be said that this is a novel with no main character. For all that I dislike this kind of shifting viewpoint, Keith Hartmann manages to make a great success of it, rarely allowing the possibility of narrative confusion. Here the technique creates a baroque plot that is in perpetual motion and still manages to create a great deal of connection with the characters. This tale is a great success, whatever its genre is, and I am anxious to read the sequel.
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