3 out of 4 stars
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A fictional small town in Washington is haunted by the brutal murders of two women. The local sheriff, an FBI outsider, and a barrage of eccentric townsfolk are thrown together to solve a case that at times dips into surreal absurdism. Sound familiar? Twin Peaks knockoffs are a dime a dozen lately, but Murders in Progress, a posthumously released crime novel by Eldon Cene, manages the nearly impossible--it takes the framework of a TV show that’s become a cultural touchstone (complete with a Lynchian fixation on the mysterious power of male impulse and violence)--and uses it merely as a springboard to create something original and enjoyable.
The setting of Murders in Progress is Kimmel County, Washington, a peaceful place for cattle farming, small town gossip, and as of late, brutal murder. Cene’s backwoods-dialect-heavy narration alternates easily among the minds of the townspeople; we get peeks inside the heads of everyone from hometown hero-type Sheriff Leland to the thoroughly disturbing (and, to readers, quickly identified) serial killer himself. Cene has a knack for imagining characters, and the pages overflow with his colorful creations.
If the book’s plot takes its cue from Twin Peaks, its characters share more of their DNA with the local yokels of Fargo. Among the many standouts are the town drunk who paints murals on the jail cell walls and the resident dentist-slash-psychic who inexplicably begins channeling one of the victims. As the mystery unravels, it’s not hope for resolution that keeps you reading, but investment in an increasingly kooky, darkly hilarious cast of townsfolk.
The lived-in feeling of Kimmel County and its residents is the book’s greatest strength. When Cene isn’t busy setting up absurd situations or delivering sublime descriptive lines like “her mind made itself all comfy in the buttery yellow leather seat,” he’s going deep with his characters. The text is thick with themes of fractured identities, full of people who feel something missing or have found something unexpected. The prickliness of gender dynamics is another recurring theme, with almost every character remarking on the importance of cajones: who has them, who doesn’t, and what they mean. In Cene’s world, women are often relentless and clever, while men are usually meek and confused. Before we can make much of all this, Cene’s musing on gender, violence, and identity are stopped short, along with the rest of the plot, in what feels like a hasty ending meant to necessitate a presumed sequel.
While Murders in Progress contains a well-developed world and an adventure worth taking, the book’s consistent technical errors create a feeling of incompletion that will only allow me to give it 3 out of 4 stars. Issues in spelling, tense, and punctuation all slow down the reader, while at least two characters briefly, confusingly change names. Perhaps most distracting is the overuse of apostrophe, which not only marks characters thoughts but also seems to appear randomly throughout the text. If you can tune out these glitches, Murders in Progress is an enthralling small town crime saga that isn’t afraid to go deep, dark, and absurd. The only question left is, are you willing to go there with it?
******
Murders in Progress
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