Charles Willeford - The Burnt Orange Heresy

Charles Willeford’s The Burnt Orange Heresy revolves around James Figueras, an art historian and critic who becomes obsessed with the greatest painter in the world, Jacques Debierue, an eccentric artist who lives in isolation. Through Debierue’s lawyer, Figueras discovers that the painter has moved to Florida under a false name, and he is offered the opportunity to interview him — but only on the condition that he steals one of Debierue’s paintings.

From that moment, things begin to unravel. Debierue is a strange and mysterious figure, a quiet man who reveals very little about himself during the interview. After dinner, the painter decides that he wants to watch a movie at a drive-in theater, so Figueras drives him and his girlfriend there. While Debierue watches the film, Figueras breaks into the house searching for the painting. Unable to find it, he starts a fire and decides to create a fake painting that will be presented as a work by Debierue.

However, his girlfriend discovers what he has done, and in a moment of panic and desperation, Figueras violently attacks her and kills her. Despite achieving success and recognition as an art critic, he eventually goes to the police and confesses the crime.

An unusual novel about the world of art and the price people are willing to pay for success, The Burnt Orange Heresy is a dark satire of ambition, deception, and the desire for fame. The novel reminded me of two other works about the art world: George Sims’s The Last Best Friend, which has a more convincing setting because Sims himself was an art dealer, and Thomas Bernhard’s Old Masters, a darkly humorous satire of art and the cultural establishment.

Although Willeford’s novel is not a realistic portrait of the art world in the same way as Sims’s work, its strange atmosphere and cynical view of ambition make it a fascinating and unusual crime novel.

Charles Willeford - Hoke Moseley Omnibus

Charles Willeford is often described as a kind of “Philip K. Dick of crime fiction.” Just as Philip K. Dick created strange, off-kilter worlds in science fiction, Willeford brings bizarre situations and unusual characters into the crime novel, often subverting the expectations of the genre.

The series about detective Hoke Moseley is particularly interesting in that respect.

Miami Blues is perhaps the best-known novel in the series, largely because of the unforgettable villain Frederick Junior Frenger. He is one of those criminals who seems completely unpredictable and dangerous, which gives the novel both energy and dark humor.

New Hope for the Dead was somewhat less interesting to me. Much of the plot revolves around old unsolved cases that Moseley has to reopen, and the pace therefore feels slower than in the first novel.

I liked Sideswipe the most. The premise itself is unusual: Moseley suddenly decides to move into a hotel run by his father in order to get away from everything for a while. At the same time another storyline unfolds involving a bizarre group of characters planning a supermarket robbery: a psychopathic small-time criminal, a confused retiree who no longer knows what to do with his life, a prostitute with a disfigured face, and a Black painter. This strange combination of characters gives the novel an almost grotesque tone.

The Way We Die Now is also good, particularly because of Moseley’s undercover assignment and the interesting character of a former convict who, after being released from prison, moves into a house across the street from him.

What I would criticize is Willeford’s somewhat dry writing style. Also, the edition I read from Orion Books is a paperback, which is not ideal for a book of more than 800 pages—something of that length would have been much better in hardcover.