Today is my friend Chris Brosnahan’s birthday. It’s also the day after the 8th stave of Deadlines, his new novel, was released. Chris is working with The Pigeonhole on this, a really cool group of people who are combining three of my favorite things; the ubiquity of the internet, serial fiction and bonus material. Each stave is essentially a chapter and each chapter is accompanied by a piece of bonus information. Sometimes it’s behind the scenes stuff, sometimes it’s talking about the inspiration for that part of the book and sometimes? Sometimes it’s in world. This is the sort of storytelling I tend to grab with both hands, structurally brilliant, intensely clever and colossally well designed. Oh and it’s stupidly cheap too which is always a bonus. There are 10 staves, each will cost you 50p and you can jump aboard right now
But jump aboard to what? Well, imaginary rhetorical questioner I am delighted you asked. Deadlines is a book about the one story no journalist ever wants to be handed; the death of one of their own. But when Gemma Masterton and David Levy start digging into the case they find out much more about their colleague, and their world, than they or anyone else wanted them to…
This is exactly the sort of story that makes me sit up and pay attention and Chris knocks it out of the park from page 1. If you loved State of Play or the final season of The Wire, if you’re a fan of crime fiction or if you own both a phone and a brain that likes reading this is an absolute steal. Plus when was the last time you got someone a decent birthday present for 50 to £5?
The link is here. Go sign up, I have and it’s GREAT.