Crossing the Lines by Sulari Gentill has recently won the 2018 Ned Kelly Award for the Best Crime Novel. Deservedly so: it’s clever, entertaining and a great example of how metafiction can be fun. It also packs a punch for writers learning their craft.
In the stone-chiselled commandments passed on to writers – almost any version thereof – it’s said you shouldn’t change point of view (POV) mid-scene. “Head-hopping” is poor writing, confusing to your readers and a mortal sin.
It’s also said you have to know the rules to break them.
Well, Sulari definitely knows the rules – her Rowland Sinclair historical murder mysteries are nothing short of an ongoing delight and she has three YA adventures based on the Greek myths in her backlist. (I may have waxed lyrical in the past…)
Which is all to the good, because when Crossing the Lines breaks the POV rule it smashes it out of the park.
What’s going on in the novel? Well, it begins with Madeleine d’Leon, who writes crime novels. She creates Ned, a literary author to be the detective character in her latest murder mystery. Or does she?
Edward McGinnity is writing a story about a mystery-writing lawyer called Madeleine, whose seemingly comfortable marriage contains dark undercurrents. He’s a literary writer, after all. Or is he?
As the two stories enmesh it becomes increasingly difficult to tell who is writing who. The narrative slips seamlessly between them, sometimes crossing from one to the other mid-sentence. And while they’re blurring the line between what is real and what is imagined, the reader is absolutely hooked by this story. Read it, and let me know if you managed to put it down, because I couldn’t.
As a writer, I think Crossing the Lines is not just a fantastic example of smashing the POV rule and of metafiction doing some heavy lifting in a very nonchalant and polished way . It’s also a lesson in how a story can be a whole lot of fun.
Sulari knows how to have fun – in fiction and outside it. That’s her, on the left – with Christine Wells on a panel at GenreCon in 2015 – admitting she writes in her pyjamas while watching old Midsomer Murder shows. She’s obviously had some fun blurring the lines between herself and her character Maddie, who’s also a lawyer turned writer who writes crime in her pyjamas.
So, whether you’re looking for a clever crime novel, a masterly metafiction lesson, or some fun fiction which will definitely get you thinking, grab yourself a copy of Crossing the Lines, published by Pantera Press, and enjoy.