RSS
Home
Book review - Derek Raymond's Factory novels
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Covers of Derek Rayond's Factory novels
The first four Factory novels by Derek Raymond–He Died with His Eyes Open, The Devil’s Home on Leave, How the Dead Live, and I Was Dora Suarez–have long been hailed as classics of noir mystery, with the new Serpent’s Tail editions featuring introductions by the likes of Will Self and James Sallis. Reviewers often reference the seeming contradictions of the series, for example the Daily Telegraph’s observation that the novels contain “a bizarre mix of Chandleresque elegance…and naked brutality.” But life gives us order and elegance in equal measure with betrayal and brutality. Some of us are lucky enough to just experience the order, but Raymond knew that most of us experience some form of disorder or upheaval during our lives, and the most extreme version of this situation exists in the form of murder and murder investigations. In the Factory series, the nameless narrator works as a detective in the Department of Unexplained Deaths. He often clashes with his superior, Bowman, and has turned down promotion at every turn. His wife is in a lunatic asylum and is responsible for the central tragedy of the detective’s life–as is an earlier relationship with a woman who will always retain a gravitational pull on his heart but who can never be brought back to him. He has a sister he wishes he were closer to, but otherwise, at the time of the cases related in the novels, the detective is utterly alone.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
