Chet The Dog

Posts Tagged ‘Oblivion’

Beginnings

On Sundays, we look at the beginnings of a Peter Abrahams novel, including those written under the Spencer Quinn moniker (meaning we get to write that strange word “moniker” on a weekly basis!). Here’s the start of Down the Rabbit Hole, my first children’s book and the first in the Echo Falls trilogy. It came out the same year as my adult book Oblivion, and won the Agatha award for best children’s mystery.

[“A standout novel… The no-nonsense tone of the well-written prose, the multifacted characters, the hint of romance, and the subtly structured mystery open the potential fan base to include just about everyone.”
– Starred Review, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books]

Ingrid Levin-Hill, three weeks past her thirteenth birthday, sat thinking in her orthodontist’s waiting room. You’re born cute. Babies are cute. Not hard to guess why – it’s so everyone will forgive them for being such a pain. You grow a little older, and people say, “What beautiful hair,” or “Get a load of those baby blues,” or something nice that keeps you thinking you’re still on the cuteness track. Then you hit twelve or thirteen and boom, they tell you everything needs fixing.

Beginnings (More)

On Sundays, we’ve been doing beginnings – all the Chet and Bernies (as part of Chetspeak) – and now taking on all the Peter Abrahams novels in chronological order. Here, from 2005, #15, DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE. This is the first of the Echo Falls series and my first children’s book. It came out the same year as OBLIVION (subject of last Sunday’s beginnings). DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE won the Agatha award for best children’s mystery.

[“A standout novel… The no-nonsense tone of the well-written prose, the multifacted characters, the hint of romance, and the subtly structured mystery open the potential fan base to include just about everyone.”
– Starred Review, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books]

Ingrid Levin-Hill, three weeks past her thirteenth birthday, sat thinking in her orthodontist’s waiting room. You’re born cute. Babies are cute. Not hard to guess why – it’s so everyone will forgive them for being such a pain. You grow a little older, and people say, “What beautiful hair,” or “Get a load of those baby blues,” or something nice that keeps you thinking you’re still on the cuteness track. Then you hit twelve or thirteen and boom, they tell you everything needs fixing.

Beginnings (More)

On Sundays, we’ve been doing beginnings – all the Chet and Bernies (as part of Chetspeak) – and now taking on all the Peter Abrahams novels in chronological order. Here, from 2003, #14, OBLIVION. My first actual private eye novel (all the Chet and Bernies are P.I. novels, but rather different from OBLIVION – although I bet you can find similarities, too).

“Exciting and out of the ordinary… full of funny, touching and alarming surprises… His funny and stout-hearted dogs (like Buster, who becomes Petrov’s assistant for a few hours) are unmatched by anyone’s, including Dashiel Hammett’s and Robert B. Parker’s… Peter Abrahams is a wonderful writer.”
– L.A. Times (Tom Nolan)

Nick Petrov, in the witness box, waited for the next question. The lawyer for the accused looked up from his yellow pad and fastened his skeptical gaze – familiar to millions of cable talk show viewers – on Petrov’s face. The lawyer had eyebrows like Einstein’s, resembled him in general, Petrov thought, but with a better haircut. Perfume from the previous witness still hung in the air.

“Been quite the career,” said the lawyer, “hasn’t it, Mr. Petrov? So far.”

 

 

Oblivion

Senator McCain’s diagnosis (which he is handling so gracefully) reminded me of this book. Among other things, it’s about the mind of a great detective, takes one and two. (There’s a very interesting article in the most recent New Yorker about the ecology of cancer, study of which may lead to entirely new treatment approaches.)