Back from the Dead - Hardcover

Petit, Chris

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679451277 ISBN 13: 9780679451273

Publisher: Knopf, 2001

Synopsis

Chris Petit's novel The Psalm Killer, published in 1997 to wide acclaim, is among the best and most electrifying fictional explorations we have had of the "troubles" in Northern Ireland. Now he brings that same narrative mastery to a dark, searing novel that takes us deep into the compulsions of self-destruction and fame.

Youselli is a cynical, disillusioned city cop painfully aware of the downward spiral he's on. McMahon is a fading but still profligate rock star who has begun receiving letters signed in the name of a girl who died fifteen years ago, when he was at the height of his fame. McMahon is desperate to know who's writing them. Youselli is reluctant—the privileged decadence and celebrity games of McMahon's life both irritate and attract him—but he agrees to investigate.

Almost immediately Youselli is pulled into the eerie mystery of the letters—their combination of anger and yearning, their fierce sexuality, their seeming authenticity in the face of their obvious fabrication and, especially, their strange fatalism: "A man once told me I was malfated. Imagine being told that . . . He said I would never avoid my destiny to be malfated. Make a left instead of a right and it's there waiting. Our lives hang by the slenderest of threads, every minute of every day. You should remember that for when I come. It all ends in death, as you will know."

And though the letters are addressed to McMahon, Youselli begins to feel more and more implicated by them himself. He senses that they are somehow tainting the lives of those who read them—especially Edith Weber, the psychiatrist he has enlisted to help him understand the mind behind the letters (and who might help him understand his mind as well)—but he grows increasingly blind to the effect they are having on his own life. Finally, he too appears to be malfated: following the deadly inner logic of obsession, he becomes both detective and fate's agent, the "solution" to the puzzle of the letters leading him toward his undoing.

Powerful, chilling and unexpected, Back from the Dead is a clear confirmation of Chris Petit's remarkable gifts.

About this title

Review

The death of a rock star's nanny in France 20 years ago is an all-but- forgotten story, unknown to the disillusioned city cop hired to provide security for the aging but still popular musician. But when McMahon (the star) starts getting threatening letters from the dead woman, he asks Youselli (the cop) to investigate.

Chris Petit is short on first names but long on explicating the disillusionment, fears, and private demons of his characters; in short order, Youselli buys into McMahon's obsession with the letter writer, who leads them both down an intricate, booby-trapped trail in this moody, nicely paced little thriller by the author of The Psalm Killer. Is Leah, the nanny, still alive? If she isn't, someone who knew what really happened in France is using that knowledge to destroy what's left of McMahon's career and set the remaining members of a band that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Rolling Stones against each other. Youselli is a much more interesting character than McMahon, or even the woman who might--or might not--be Leah. He's willing to be led down any alley that might lead to her, even if it's a one-way street. Burned out in his job, emotionally crippled by his divorce, he's got nothing to lose. Or does he? By the time he tracks the letters back to their source, you'll care as much as he does and won't be disconcerted by the loose ends Petit fails to tie up. The pacing is slow, but that leaves room to explore the emotional nuances of Petit's antihero in this vaguely noirish novel that will satisfy readers who are more interested in motive than murder and care more about character development than plot. --Jane Adams

About the Author

Chris Petit is a filmmaker and writer. He lives in North London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0679451277
• ISBN 13: 9780679451273
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272