The Red Chesterfield is the eighth novel from Canadian writer Wayne Arthurson.[1]
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| Author | Wayne Arthurson |
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| Genre | mystery |
| Publisher | University of Calgary Press |
Publication date | 2019 |
| Publication place | Canada |
| ISBN | 9781773850771 |
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.[2] The award comes with a $200 cash prize.[3]
During an interview with Shelagh Rogers Arthurson told her he used the novel to play with the tropes of the mystery genre.[1]
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"That genre trope around how [protagonists] 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."[1]
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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.