 First edition | |
| Author | Wayne Arthurson |
|---|---|
| Genre | mystery |
| Publisher | University of Calgary Press |
| Publication date | 2019 |
| Publication place | Canada |
| ISBN | 9781773850771 |
The Red Chesterfield is the eighth novel from Canadian writer Wayne Arthurson.
On May 22, 2020, the Crime Writers of Canada recognized The Red Chesterfield with the Arthur Ellis Award for the best crime novella of 2019. The award comes with a $200 cash prize.
During an interview with Shelagh Rogers Arthurson told her he used the novel to play with the tropes of the mystery genre.
| "That genre trope around how always focus on the crime, regardless of what it does to their family — I wanted to mess with that. The mystery 'MacGuffin,' like the red chesterfield, usually would disappear after a while. I wanted it to appear again and again, to add a bit of magic realism to it. I wanted to play with that trope as well. I just tried different things." |
References
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Shelagh Rogers (2020-03-27). "Wayne Arthurson plays with the mystery genre and magic in his novel The Red Chesterfield". CBC Radio. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
In his latest, The Red Chesterfield, he purposefully subverts the mystery form with a story that has clues that lead nowhere and motivations that are deliberately ambiguous.
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Scott Burton (2020-05-22). "Criminal Masterminds: The Crime Writers of Canada name their best books for 2020". CTV News. London, Ontario. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
Other winners included: best crime novella, won by Wayne Arthurson for The Red Chesterfield. Arthurson's award was sponsored by Mystery Weekly, an online monthly journal of short crime fiction based in London, Ont.
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Jane van Koeverden (2020-05-22). "Michael Christie's Greenwood wins best novel at Arthur Ellis Awards for Canadian crime writing". CBC Books. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
Wayne Arthurson received the best novella honours, a $200 prize, for The Red Chesterfield. The story follows a bylaw officer who, while investigating a suspicious yard sale, discovers a severed foot in an old red chesterfield.