Pretty straightforward police procedural ... no surprises .. murderer is a hardly credible idiot .. inadvertently killing a sex worker and then more women and taking cover by encountering other types as bodies pile up; Characters of police woman and her defenders are also embroiled in romance with fellow cop .. a bit contrived but it works well,like clockwork

Leah Milne's monograph on the representation in American metafiction is an interesting, though at times dense, study of the ways writing is portrayed in contemporary American fiction.

Leah A. Milne offers much in terms of thinking through storytelling and representation. An insightful look at storytelling and characterization, with a host of texts considered, and a highly recommended resource for conversation and study.

"...the authors described here have moved beyond the postmodern question of whether the metaphorical or empirical author has died or has returned; the emphasis on the ghostliness of the author actually makes the question immaterial. Contending directly with that ghostly presence means explicitly sharing the role nd powers of authorship with readers themselves." - From Novel Subjects

4 stars

A dense novel rich with numerous other works cited to explore authorship in relation to self-care, which is defined here as an "act of politcal warfare". The synopsis skips over that she is largely examining metafiction, not general fiction, as it may lead you to believe. The author's discussion is a rich landscape to wade through- both in how many books she references, along with word choice and prose. I had to stop many times not only to think about certain statements defining meaning, but also to read some of the work I was unfamiliar with. There is a certain assumption that takes place in a few instances that you are familiar with the work cited. The sort of sesquipedalian composition is worth going through- Milne has an abundance of important notes to make on the institutionalization of multiculturalism. While I don't believe it is fully accessible to the average person having no previous knowledge in some of the subject matter, I can easily envision this work being included on the syllabus of many graduate studies.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.