The Twenty-Year Death

Hard Case Crime originals are notable for capturing the feel of pulp classics without slavish imitation—which makes this first novel somewhat unusual. Winter, a “literary detective” and former bookseller, tells an epic tale in the form of three novels written in the style of three different crime-fiction legends. 

Book 1, Malniveau Prison, channels Georges Simenon as Chief Inspector Pelleter tries to deduce how a murdered prisoner escaped the prison walls. Book 2, The Falling Star, is the Chandleresque story of a private eye, Dennis Foster, who’s hired to reassure a paranoid movie star and maybe take the rap for a murder. A recurring character in both books is Shem Rosenkrantz, an American writer who first seeks seclusion in France and then squanders his talents in Hollywood. 

In book 3, Police at the Funeral, Rosenkrantz takes over the narration with the voice of a washed-up Jim Thompson protagonist, and, as he unravels, we see how the stories are stitched together. This is audacious and astonishingly executed.

Winter understands the difference between mimicry and interpretation and opts for the latter, capturing the writers’ voices, not merely their vocal tics. What might seem at first like an amusing exercise for crimefiction buffs becomes by the end immersive, exhilarating, and revelatory. — Keir Graff Booklist Starred Review


“Bold, innovative, and thrilling – The Twenty-Year Death crackles with suspense and will keep you up late.” - Stephen King
 
“Not content with writing one first novel like ordinary mortals, Ariel Winter has written three – and in the style of some of the most famous crime writers of all time for good measure. It’s a virtuoso act of literary recreation that’s both astonishingly faithful and wildly, audaciously original. One hell of a debut.” - James Frey
            
“The Twenty-Year Death is a bravura debut, ingenious and assured, and a fitting tribute to the trio of illustrious ghosts who are looking – with indulgence, surely – over Ariel Winter’s shoulder.” - John Banville
 
“The Twenty-Year Death is an absolute astonishment. Ariel S. Winter manages to channel three iconic crime writers and pull off a riveting story of a two-decade ruination in which it is the things not said that somehow have the loudest echoes.” - Peter Straub
 
“As an old-school fan of Georges Simenon, I read MALNIVEAU PRISON with awe and delight.” -Alice Sebold on Book 1 of The Twenty-Year Death
 
“Expertly summoning the most sinuous strains of Chandler, THE FALLING STAR sinks you into its dark, sleek world.” - Megan Abbott on Book 2 of The Twenty-Year Death
 
“If ever there was a born writer, Mr. Winter is one…Mr. Winter’s work is sharp, smart, original, intensely interesting and ingenious.” - Stephen Dixon
 
“A tour de force, or rather three different, ingeniously interwoven, tours de force.  An exciting book that will make many commuters miss their stop.” - Richard Vinen
 
“The Twenty-Year Death is an exceptionally ambitious, inventive crime novel that echoes three classic authors while extending the idea of what a crime novel can do. The scope and versatility are breathtaking. Bravo to Ariel S. Winter and Hard Case Crime.” - David Morrell
 
“As distinguished a first-novel in the noir fiction genre as any I know of.  Indeed, it is three novels in one, and each is in its own way a tour de force.  If this is the level of excellence that Winter can achieve at the very start of his career, then his future in this genre is unlimited.” -John T. Irwin