The Deepest Black is a tough one for me to review.

I am a big fan of Randall Silvis and I like the narrator being the author .

The book started out strong and I followed the same clues that Mr. Silvis did but I got frustrated at points.

I did finish the book as I was still intrigued and wanted to know what happened.

The Deepest Black although not my favourite of Randall Silvis is still certainly worth the read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the privilege of reading and reviewing this book.

This is not the classic whodunnit or mystery as it's a sort of meta book and the author is also the narrator.
If you love Anthony Horowitz and the "Magpie Murders" you can appreciated this pastiche that mixes elements and I found highly entertaining.
It worked in a bizarre way and I had fun.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I'm a big fan of this author usually. This one is so out there I just found myself shaking my head. The beginning holds a lot of promise but it doesn't take long to go down a rabbit hole of confusion. I'm not sure what the aim was here but what it is is a unsatisfactory mystery loaded with, I don't even know what to call it. The meta aspect was so overwhelming. I just don't really have words for this. A lot of promise on the premise that went off on a lot of tangents that were not even subtle. At all.

I've been a fan of Silvis in the past but this was a miss for me because frankly, I wasn't entirely sure what was going on or what to make of it. I'm a supporter of writers trying new things and that's what Silvis has done here but it was a miss for me. I would have been fine with the meta mystery had the story stuck to the Baby Doe/murder elements or even to the question of Kennedy's identity but it doesn't - it down what felt like uneven paths. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

I love tRandall Silvis but this book feel flat in so many ways. Unbelievable and disjointed story telling at it's worst

I don’t know what I was expecting when I read the synopsis for this book. It sounded interesting - a mystery that’s a mix of fact & fiction, with a triple murder & an abandoned baby. However, this self-indulgent drivel was not it. I struggle with a lot of books written in the first person, and this had the addition of the author as a character, which made it even harder to get into. Adding to this are conversations on conspiracy theories, secret agencies that use time travel, aliens, and so much more. Then, there’s no real resolution to the crimes that were being investigated. For me, it felt like a lot of the book was just streams of rambling thoughts that the author needed to put down on paper. I ended up not caring about any of this & angry that I wasted my time with this book - I haven’t read any other books by this author, but if this is how he writes, his fans will probably enjoy this.

I realize there are a number of Randall Silvis fans out there. In fact, one of my dearest friends loves his books. Silvis has also been a finalist for two Hammett Prizes. But, I found The Deepest Black to be one of the weirdest books I ever finished. I really only finished it because I was reviewing it for a journal.

Like Anthony Horowitz, Randall Silvis makes himself the narrator and protagonist of his latest book. Author Randall Silvis has prepared a report and turned it over to the New Castle, Pennsylvania Police Department. It’s based on the case of a baby found in the woods, Baby Doe, and the murder of three people at the Burchette house in Bell’s Grove, a small Pennsylvania town. According to the author, The Deepest Black itself is based on real events.

Silvis had written himself dry. He had no ideas for his next book when a man who called himself Thomas Kennaday plops himself down at Silvis’ table at a cafe. Kennaday asks if Silvis knows about Baby Doe, found in the woods by two teens. When Silvis says no, the man says he’s going to put him in touch with someone who can tell him about three murders at the Burchette house. Phoebe Hudack is a witness, a survivor, and knows the killer. When Silvis contacts Phoebe, he learns she’s been ordered by Kennaday to spread out the story in sessions. And, she’s limited as to what she can reveal.

Silvis is willing to talk with witnesses, travel all over for research, and read newspaper accounts. But, eventually, he decides that Kennaday is pulling strings so that Silvis will tell the story, but he doesn’t know Kennaday’s motivation.

Neither does the reader. Silvis’ novel combines a child, a murder, UFOs, a sex slave cult, Dan Ackroyd, conspiracy theories, mysterious government agencies, and an actual prosecutor who disappeared, but was connected to the jerry Sandusky case involving Penn State.

In the end, I can only conclude that Silvis’ The Deepest Black is supposed to be about “The mystery of the true nature of reality.” By the time I reached that point, I just didn’t care about “the true nature of reality”. Good luck. Let me know if you find it.

As a long time fan of Mr. Silvis and his Ryan DeMarco series, I looked forward to reading his newest outing, The Deepest Black. This “meta” mystery features the author as the protagonist at the center of the story. A triple homicide, abandoned child, the occult, eastern mysticism and conspiracy theories are all thrown together in a dizzying stew of a story that is compelling at times, confusing at others.

The author is hugely talented and, obviously, willing to take risks. Unfortunately, this one just did not work for me though I can appreciate the effort. 3 Stars

My thanks to Net Galley, Source Books and Mr. Silvis for the opportunity to review an advance copy of The Deepest Black

A Melange..
A blurring of lines in this melange of fact and fiction. The author is seeking a story as a follow up to those that led him to writing success. As he contemplates, a story literally falls into his lap. A stranger, a tip off and a series of murders begging to be investigated and, perhaps most of all, a tale to be told. It’s not too long before things begin to get convoluted and conspiracy theories kick in. Unusual and quirky, unsettling and bizarre.

This books is about a triple homicide in PA. The actual author (Silvis) sits down at a diner when a strange man approaches to tell him the story. The story is compelling and Silvis needs something compelling for his writing career. He decides to follow up on the lead. It's an interesting premise...
Then enters conspiracy theories 101. It' is then very confusing. So I cannot recommend this book unfortunately.

The Deepest Black by Randall Silvis

Rating: Starred Review

Summary: Silvis is out enjoying a day out riding his motorcycle nicknamed Candy. He stops for lunch when a man with a bubbling personality sits down with him and tells him a incredible true crime story and he thinks Silvis is the right author to tell the truth about it. Silvis has no ideas for a next novel so the story peeks his interests and he dives into the investigation.

Comments: Silvis stars in his own novel. Terrifically told, fast paced page turner told mysteriously. I have no idea what I just read, but everyone should read this outstanding story. Maybe the best book I’ve ever read.

This author is ingenious at combining fact and fiction…horror and murder…intrigue…mystery…this book was sent to me electronically for review from Netgalley…

I felt like I fell down the rabbits hole in Alice in wonderland reading this book as you didn’t know what was coming next, a thrilling gripping read it was indeed and I highly recommend it ..

Wow . . . what a freaking ride. So, this starts out so intriguing. An author--literally THE author--is sitting down for lunch when a strangers approaches. The guy tells him about a new and mysterious crime that just occurred in his neighborhood and then tells him to talk to some woman to learn more. It sounds like a trap but it could be his big break.

I love the strange. Conspiracies of men in black, Missing 411, UFOs, and Indrid Cold. And that's where this story was headed . . until it past it and dove into something else entirely. If you're anything other than right-wing fighting pizza gate, you won't enjoy the author's views, opinions, and the last half of the book. It also gets so rambling and confusing.

It's good writing but it really lost its way. Nothing about the ending was satisfying.

I really enjoyed Silvis’s Two Days Gone, so I remembered his name. But then he went into series, and I normally don’t and that was that for a while. Until now that is. I saw this one on Netgalley and it looked so exciting. The meta approach, the true crime story involving the author himself, all that made me think of Chasing the Boogeyman by Chizmar, which was one of my last year’s favorite reads and one of the best literary WTF surprises in ages.
And sure enough, this book begins so strongly. Silvis as himself is a solitary figure living somewhere in PA boonies, riding his motorcycle and trying to get back on the writing wagon after completing his mystery series. His sons are now adults who live away and without them, there’s only his devoted younger ladyfriend for company. Which is actually plenty because Silvis due to his misophonia is quite happy to be on his own most of the time.
Enter a strange young man who approaches Silvis out of the blue and tells him he knows the secrets to a local crime, well two crimes he claims are interconnected. Silvis is reluctant but soon enough his natural curiosity takes over and he finds himself falling further and further down into a conspiracy laden web of child abuse and UFOs and more.
It sounds fun and it is…until it overindulges. There’s no other way to describe it. Wherein Chasing the Boogeyman was very clearly a controlled literary experiment, this thing becomes so rambling, so overdone, so confusingly hallucinogenic that it’s difficult to credit it, class it or even rate it, really.
I mean, I loved the writing, but over time Silvis and his spiraling both became kind of…annoying? Maybe frustrating is more like it. Yeah, frustrating.
What was this novel trying to be? It’s unclear even after reading the conversation with the author. Even it’s a mind f*ck, it’s a success, albeit a muddled one. If it’s for real, then it kind of reads like Silvis’s coming out as a weirdo party where a man decides he’s at a place in his life where he can comfortably lay out every weird belief he holds dear for all the world to see.
Both are ok, but the latter is infinitely less interesting.
There are also some straight up confusing things about the book and I don’t know if this is because I was technically reading an ARC or deliberate, but Silvis’ age changes throughout the narrative form 50s to 60s and once he leaves a note signed Randall S. and then gets a callback and proceeds to be referred to as Silvis…things like that.
As far as his beliefs go…well, they are varied, some more out there than others. Aliens are a huge one. Men in Black and all that. As proof, he lists facts alongside speculations seamlessly, which can be confusing if you don’t do your own research.
It’s also difficult to review a book with the author as the protagonist because you are inadvertently reviewing both. I’m not sure how likable Silvis comes across. Not sure his vision of himself as a sexy old(er) dude on a nice red motorcycle holds up. I’m not sure his libertarian politics peeking through are all that fun. And boy, can he talk about his sons. Yes, we get it, you completed your biological imperative and made two babies. They turned out well. Fatherhood’s the best. Kudos. Life’s purpose found. Can we let it go now?
And in the end, there’s a fairly unsatisfying ending. Nothing definitive. No gotcha twists. Just more expansive expounding on the great mysteries of the universe and how much the character/author appreciates them.
They say the truth is out there. Randall Silvis might have found his. Or at least, he’s questing. Should you join him on his quest? That’s up for debate. This is definitely the sort of book where user mileage will vary. It drew me in from the first and then slowly let down, so it wasn’t an optimal reading experience, albeit certainly an interesting one. Thanks Netgalley.