Dodging and Burning: A Mystery - Hardcover

Copenhaver, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1681776596 ISBN 13: 9781681776590

Publisher: Pegasus Books, 2018

Synopsis

In a small Virginia town still reeling from World War II, a photograph of a beautiful murdered woman propels three young people into the middle of a far-reaching mystery.

*Nominated for 2019 Barry, Lambda Literary, Strand, Macavity, and Anthony Awards*

A lurid crime scene photo of a beautiful woman arrives on mystery writer Bunny Prescott's doorstep with no return address―and it's not the first time she's seen it. The reemergence of the photo, taken fifty-five years earlier, sets her on a journey to reconstruct the vicious summer that changed her life.

In the summer of 1945, Ceola Bliss is a lonely twelve-year-old tomboy, mourning the loss of her brother, Robbie, who was declared missing in the Pacific. She tries to piece together his life by rereading his favorite pulp detective story “A Date with Death” and spending time with his best friend, Jay Greenwood, in Royal Oak, VA. One unforgettable August day, Jay leads Ceola and Bunny to a stretch of woods where he found a dead woman, but when they arrive, the body is gone. They soon discover a local woman named Lily Vellum is missing and begin to piece together the threads of her murder, starting with the photograph Jay took of her abandoned body.

As Ceola gets swept up playing girl detective, Bunny becomes increasingly skeptical of Jay, and begins her own investigation into the connection between Jay and Lily. She discovers a series of clues that place doubt on Jay’s story about the photograph. She journeys to Washington, D.C., where she is forced to confront the brutal truth about her dear friend―a discovery that triggers a series of events that will bring tragedy to Jay and decades of estrangement between her and Ceola.

About this title

About the Author:

John Copenhaver is the recipient an Artist Fellowship from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities for four consecutive years. In 2015, he launched and continues to maintain a crime fiction column for the Lambda Literary website called “Blacklight.” His short fiction has appeared in Glitterwolf Magazine, Roanoke Review, and Gaslight, the Lambda Emerging Voices Anthology. He won the 2015 Larry Neal Writers’ award for short fiction, and was first runner-up in the F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Contest and the Narrative Magazine Winter Story Contest. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Review:

“A riveting debut. The intricate plot melds a coming-of-age story, a coming-out tale and a mystery with realistic characters who want to be accepted for themselves. The brisk pace is augmented by the character studies and an in-depth look at gay rights. Gay and lesbian mysteries have been published for decades. Columnist and short story writer Copenhaver brings a new voice to this genre with Dodging and Burning.”
- Oline Cogdill, Associated Press

“Copenhaver makes a powerful debut with this unconventional novel that mixes a coming-of-age tale with a puzzling mystery and a haunting portrait of the experiences of the LGBTQ community in the 1940s. Admirers of William Kent Krueger’s Edgar Award–winning stand-alone, Ordinary Grace, may appreciate this candid story.”
- Library Journal (Starred Review, Debut of the Month)

“Complex and multilayered, Copenhaver’s outstanding debut combines a murder mystery with a coming-of-age tale. Copenhaver’s darkly lyrical exploration into the consequences of war―and prejudice―in small-town America will resonate with readers long after the last page is turned.”
- Publishers Weekly (starred)

“A masterwork of tone and voice. Dodging and Burning will linger in the minds of fans for a long time; a beacon for voices too often stifled, both then and now.”
- BOLO Books

“LGBTQ crime-writing has its heroes. John Copenhaver lists many of them. He may have to add himself to that list now.”
- BookTrib

“The level of detail in [Copenhaver’s] novel Dodging and Burning displays in full measure the demanding research required to uncover the hidden history of a community marginalized and rendered virtually invisible for much of the 20th century.”
- Katherine V. Forrest, author of The Kate Delafield Mystery Series.

“Set in 1945, Dodging and Burning is a striking and important debut illuminating the twin traumas of war and repressed sexual identity. A beautifully rendered literary mystery centered around a missing girl and a WWIII photographer’s journey toward adulthood and self-acceptance, the novel keeps you guessing until the very end.”
- Aline Ohanesian, author of 'Orhan’s Inheritance'

“The mystery also becomes an examination of gay life in the 1940s. The setting is well realized, and, interestingly, in its diction and syntax, the book reads as if it might itself have been written in the 1940s.”
- Booklist

“Dodging and Burning is a beautifully rendered coming of age story, a compelling exploration of a young man’s struggle with his sexual identity amid the evils of war, and an impeccably executed crime novel that keeps you guessing and ultimately strikes a deep and resounding emotional cord.”
- Ayelet Waldman, author of 'Love & Treasure' and 'A Really Good Day'

“Copenhaver beautifully renders the lives of four young people through alternating lenses of photographs, letters, diary entries, notes, and other documents.”
- Washington Independent Review of Books

About this edition

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1681776596
• ISBN 13: 9781681776590
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288