Calumet City, by Charlie Newton

This was a disturbing read, but well done in most aspects.  I've become a fan of Larry Brooks' storyfix.com site which aims to help writers get published.  One intriguing point he makes is that to get published by a major New York publisher, an unknown writer must be proficient in the six elements of fiction:  story structure, writing voice, concept, theme, character and scene construction.  Thus, I sought out first-time authors published by major New York firms, and that's how I found Calumet City.  To see if Larry's assertion holds water, I've analyzed the novel according to the six elements below.

Structure:  This is one of the weaker elements in the six, but the book still has the standard structure.  The basics of structure are:  set-up, response, attack & resolution.  Calumet City has these elements, although they don't occur at the points that Brooks suggests.  In the set-up, we learn that the protagonist, Patti Black, is a tough, decorated Chicago cop who grew up in and now patrols the slums on the South Side of Chicago.  She becomes involved in a case that involves her past (she was abused as a child) and corrupt politicians.  Her response is to try to hide her past while figuring out what is going on.  Once she realizes she can't hide her past, she doesn't trust her colleagues to understand and so goes on the attack to stop a killer by herself.  The story is resolved well enough, but a twist at the end makes it less satisfying because the main bad guy that was built up throughout the book turns out to be a non-factor.

Writing voice:  This is probably the book's strongest element.  Charlie Newton uses first person, present tense for Patti Black, and it is very effective at getting inside the head of his gritty, determined heroine.  It works so well, I didn't even realize the whole book was in present tense until about a quarter of the way through!  (I had the opposite experience when King used present tense occasionally in Under the Dome where I found it very distracting.)  Using a writing style that is so personal also allowed the reader to identify with Patti Black and to feel her confusion and angst throughout the story.  It also added to the disturbing nature of the novel when she dealt with child abuse issues.

Concept:  The concept is fairly well done, but is also disturbing which might make it more interesting for big New York publishers:  What if a female cop had to investigate a case of child abuse (including rape) where the suspect is the foster father who abused her as a child?  What if this suspect was also connected to powerful, corrupt, local politicians?

Theme:  There was no dominant, explicit theme, as with most novels, but this one touched on justice, friendship, trust and adoption.  It was done well for this type of story.

Character:  Since this was written in first person, we really got to know Patti Black well and she was definitely a well-defined, three-dimensional character.  The other characters were much less defined, but it didn't detract from the novel.

Scene Construction:  While reading the book, it seemed that the scenes were not delimited very clearly and the whole novel seemed to be one long adventure as we followed Patti through her investigation.  However, in thinking back on the book, I do recall specific scenes with definite locations and narrative missions that were accomplished.  Because Newton did such a good job of getting the reader into Patti's head, it almost seemed like the book was taking place in her consciousness rather than the locations in Chicago.

Overall, I would say Calumet City does execute well on the six elements of fiction as described by Brooks.  However, I have to say I ended up not liking the book because of the elements of child abuse.  I just didn't like being inside the head of a character reliving her abusive past and her fear that the abuser was at it again.