Amazon.com Review
Book Description: Long Beach, California, homicide detective Danny Beckett is pouring the weekends first shot of vodka when the call comes in: Elizabeth Williams, a teacher at nearby Warren High School, has been brutally murdered in her classroom. When Danny arrives at the school, the blood-spattered crime scene turns even his veteran stomach. What could this young woman have done to make her the target of such a violent attack? And what is the significance of the victims left hand, taken by the killer as a grisly trophy? Beckett delves into the case with his usual tenacious cool, yet as he pieces together the facts, long-suppressed anguish from his own past rises up with stunning force. His hunt for the murderer soon morphs into a personal quest for atonement as he struggles to come to terms with the loss of his wife and family. A King of Infinite Space is a riveting crime novel that serves as a memorable introduction for Danny Beckett to the ranks of fictions favorite hardened detectives.
Amazon Exclusive: Tyler Dilts on A King of Infinite Space
When I began writing A King of Infinite Space, I was in graduate school earning an MFA in fiction writing. As is the case in many such programs, there was a good deal of autobiographical introspection in the writing going on around me, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted to do something different. One of the primary reasons Ive always loved reading is that it takes me away from myself and allows me to experience the lives of other people. What, I asked myself, could I credibly write about that was very different from my own experience?
My father was a Los Angeles deputy sheriff, and throughout most of my youth, I wanted to be a police officer. Although my career goals changed, I was left with a considerable amount of background knowledge that I felt I could put to good use. And it didnt hurt that my favorite writers included the likes of
As the writing and rewriting progressed, I felt a reassuring sense of distance from Danny, a sort of critical perspective that thought allowed me to shape and hone the character with a studied and intellectual reserve that seemed properly authorial and intellectual.
So it came as quite a surprise when the novel was finished and my friends and family began to read it. Danny sounds just like you, they said. I refused to accept this, so I interrogated them. One by one they pointed out details and ideas and jokes and phrases that theyd heard me express, usually more than once. And a few of those closest to me commented on the similarity of our voices and perspectives. Eventually, I had to admit it. They were right.
It was only recently, though, when I had the occasion to look through and old family photo album and saw a picture of myself at four years old, around the time of my fathers death. In it I wore a clip-on tie, a makeshift shoulder holster complete with cap gun, and an expression befitting the most serious of detectives. It was me I was looking at, but I couldnt help thinking it might just as well have been Danny Beckett._--Tyler Dilts_
From
We meet Detective Danny Beckett mixing himself another screwdriver, but its a bit of a feintthough he occasionally indulges, Danny is a remarkably sober protagonist. In fact, its this quality of quiet practicality that helps him solve a grisly crime: a young schoolteacher, hacked to death in her own classroom and robbed of her left hand. The vic, as the task force calls her, had no real enemies, and this allows Diltsa talented and understated new crime writerto flex his slow-burn, first-person narrative. Danny and his partner, Jen, turn up a surprising number of credible suspects (including a Russian mobster, an abusive father, and an Internet date), but even when characters turn out to be red herrings, Dilts plumbs them for all theyre worth in terms of fleshing out the psyches of Danny and Jenwho is, by the way, another arresting character, a dutiful martial-arts enthusiast who betrays just a flicker of attraction for her partner. This is tense, intelligent, and observant writing; heres hoping Dilts doesnt leave this duo hanging. --Daniel Kraus