American By Day
A whip-smart thriller cracking open modern America
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4.4 • 9 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'A superb novel on all levels . . . Miller is a classy satirist of American mores.' The Times
'Not to be missed . . . A subtle crime story peopled with beautifully drawn characters.' Daily Mail
Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award 2019
She knew it was a weird place. She'd heard the stories, seen the movies, read the books. But now police Chief Inspector Sigrid Ødegård has to leave her native Norway and actually go there; to that land across the Atlantic where her missing brother is implicated in the mysterious death of a prominent African-American academic.
America.
And not someplace interesting, either: upstate New York.
Plunged into a United States where race and identity, politics and promise, reverberate in every aspect of daily life. To find her older brother, she needs the help of the local police who appear to have already made up their minds about the case. Working with - or, if necessary, against - someone actually named Sheriff Irving 'Irv' Wylie, she must negotiate the local political minefields and navigate the back woods of the Adirondacks to uncover the truth before it's too late...
What readers are saying:
***** 'American by Day is a treat - intelligent, melancholy, a fast-moving crime thriller with a witty look at small-town USA through Scandinavian eyes.'
***** 'The writing is intelligent and assured and the characterisation a delight. It is both serious and consistently wry.'
***** 'Witty, sharp and on point . . . both delights and captivates.'
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the summer of 2008, 40-ish Chief Insp. Sigrid deg rd, the heroine of this outstanding crime novel from Miller (Norwegian by Night), travels from Oslo to upstate New York to look for her missing brother, Marcus. Marcus is the prime suspect in the murder of his African-American lover, Syracuse State University professor Lydia Jones, who was thrown out of the window of a building that Marcus was seen entering shortly before. Damning evidence includes traces of skin under Lydia's fingernails that match Marcus's DNA. A specialist in race relations, Lydia was tormented by the recent death of her nephew, shot by a white policeman. Sigrid soon joins forces with Sheriff Irving Wylie, a former biblical scholar with a deceptively aw-shucks manner. Wylie is quick to rebut her laconic Norse insights on such matters as American individualism and police methodology. Leavened throughout with Miller's wry reflections on Norway's "chronic sense of discontentment," this incandescent expos of European and American mores profoundly entertains and provokes disturbing questions about personal and societal values.
