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Mystery & Thrillers |
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Black and White and Dead All Over
written by John Darnton
Studio : Knopf
by Knopf
Release Date : 2008-07-29
Publisher : Knopf
Released : 2008-07-29
Availability : This Item is currently Not Available
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780307267528
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 20 reviews)
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Product Description |
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A keenly intelligent, delightfully mordant novel that blends fact and fiction with the same deft hand that was at work in John Darnton’s best-selling Neanderthal.
Bad news is brewing in the inner sanctum of the New York Globe, the city’s long-standing newspaper of note, whose back is to the wall. Readership, advertising, and circulation are plummeting—along with the paper’s vaunted standards—and the cost cutters have their knives out. But trouble of a wholly different kind begins one rainy September morning when a powerful editor is found murdered in the newsroom, with the spike that he’d wielded to kill stories hammered into his chest. The problem for Priscilla Bollingsworth, the young, ambitious female NYPD detective assigned to the case—besides the fact that the mayor is breathing down her neck—is that there are too many suspects to choose from.
She teams up with Jude Hurley, a clever, rebellious reporter, and together they navigate the ink-infested waters whose denizens include the paper’s resentful old guard, scheming careerists, a bumbling publisher, a steely executive editor, and a rival newspaper tycoon named Lester Moloch. But the waters thicken considerably when more bodies turn up, dead all over.
Armed with the firsthand knowledge he has acquired through forty years in journalism, John Darnton conjures up the cynicism and romanticism of the profession and gives us a cunning, pitch-perfect portrait of the declining—if not yet murderous—newspaper industry. Black and White and Dead All Over is a satirical mystery that entertains from first to last. |
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"The good times are gone." |
Everyone is lamenting the decline of the newspaper business, and in the case of John Darnton's "Black and White and Dead All Over," death is in the air. The first corpse is that of Thomas S. Ratnoff, the much-hated assistant managing editor of New York's Globe. He is found lying in the center of the newsroom with an editor's spike in his chest and a mocking note written in purple ink (the color of his trademark poisonous missives). Since Ratnoff was almost universally despised, the list of suspects is huge. Over the years, the Globe has deteriorated into a battlefield of political infighting, in which reporters, editors, and executives jockey for power and watch their backs for sharp objects. The employees' plummeting morale is not helped by the fact that the newspaper's stock is "almost in free fall." There is a vicious circle of budget cuts, declining ad revenues, and dropping circulation numbers that bode ill for the Globe's survival.
The main character is thirty-five year old Jude Hurley, who has been a reporter for nine years. He lives with his dog and has a shaky relationship with his girlfriend, Elaine, who calls him "work-obsessed, irresponsible, [and] selfish," none of which he can deny. It falls to Jude to cover the story of Ratnoff's murder and, when other killings follow, he joins forces with an attractive detective named Priscilla Bollingsworth to track down a homicidal maniac before he strikes again.
"Black and White and Dead All Over" has moments of delicious satire. Darnton pokes fun at: egotistical editors who delight in humiliating their inferiors; slackers who give the appearance of working while doing absolutely nothing; females who use their wiles to boost their careers; plagiarists (one lifts a passage from "War and Peace"); a Rupert Murdoch clone named Lester Moloch; and the general dumbing down of the news and pandering to the young that newspaper executives have resorted to in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding.
There are some hilarious characters, many with outrageous names: Executive editor Skeeter Diamond is desperately trying to hang onto to his job and he longs for the glory days when he was a respected foreign correspondent in Africa. He is so stressed out that he has developed a facial tic. The Globe's publisher, Elisha R. Hagenbuckle, is a blowhard who proudly displays his big-game hunting trophies. Alston Wickham Howard is the advance obituary writer, or "Angel of Death." "If you were well known and he phoned you for biographical details, you had trouble sleeping that night."
This is a great idea for a mystery and Darnton almost pulls it off. His insider's knowledge of the newspaper business is priceless and the targets that he picks deserve lampooning. What keeps "Black and White and Dead All Over" from being an unqualified success is that at over three hundred and fifty pages, the novel is far too long. The author eventually crosses the line from cute to cutesy, and the narrative becomes tedious before the criminal is finally unmasked. Although it is certainly amusing and timely, this book would have been even better had it been more skillfully edited and had it spoofed its targets with a bit more subtlety.
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Clueless |
"Black & White and Dead All Over" is an interesting look at the newspaper business in this computer, web-blog age. John Darnton writes with much intrigue and humor as we follow reporter, Jude Hurley, covering his big story. Theodore S. Ratnoff, "the Globe's much-feared assistant managing editor" has been murdered. In other words, the entire Globe staff are suspects. That said, (on page 4) you would assume that a mystery writer would come up with a more involving motive and murderer. Darnton does take us on a fun ride that includes rival corporate tycoons and a secret heir to the paper, but it ends up all being a giant red herring.
The fun of reading a good mystery is to be able to take the clues provided by the author and try to come up with the solution. In a good mystery all the major events are tied in together to lead to a logical and satisfying conclusion. As a book about the newspaper industry, "Black and White" is quite illuminating. However, the real mystery is why the writer went with such a gratuitous ending that leaves you wishing you hadn't "read all over". |
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Murder He Wrote |
As if the newspaper industry doesn't have enough problems--precipitously falling circulation, fading advertising, among other ills--this novel throws in serial killings. The setting is a thinly disguised New York Times, which is no surprise since the author spent four decades with the "Old Grey Lady."
Written with a reverence from a reporter's point of view, the book provides some amusing insights into the minds and culture of those who toil daily to feed the presses. While the anecdotes are sometimes droll, the plot is anything but comical. Someone known as The Avenger keeps murdering editors of the newspaper.
The story progresses with a star investigative reporter working parallel with the lead detective, one chasing the story, the other the murderer. Somehow, each bumbles along until the tale ends in a rather contrived manner. For print junkies, the novel is a worthwhile read and for them it is recommended.
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Fun reading but best if you know the characters |
This was an enjoyable satire of life at The New York Times. However, even as a daily reader for decades, I must admit that I was unable to identify all of the real people behind the caricatures. Arthur Sulzberger, R.W. Apple and a few others were immediately identifiable but without a key [that would have been useful, Mr. Darnton!] or insider's knowledge, it wasn't possible to know who was being skewered, which made it all far less amusing. It was like having someone tell a funny joke at a cocktail party; everyone else laughs but you don't get it because you don't speak the language.
As for the murder mystery itself, it wasn't too hard to guess whodunit but the lively back and forth among the reporter, the cop and the other characters did hold my attention to the end. |
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Enjoyable read inspite of voluminous characters |
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Once I got into it, I had a hard time putting it down. Some people may have to take notes though, since only War and Peace has more characters to keep track of. Possibly because you have lots of possibilities, "who done it" will keep you guessing until the end. Also, the "why" of the murders only becomes clear until the end of the book - many red herrings there too. I recommend the book, and think I have found a new author for me to read. |
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