Arts
Today I’ve got an exciting True Crime fiction that hits all the highs, is clever and suspenseful and has a lot to say about our world whilst harkening us back to the 90’s. Ruth McIver's I Shot the DevilRuth McIver is a Dublin born, Melbourne based writer. She won the 2018 Richell Prize for an emerging writer and the product of that win is her new novel I Shot the Devil.I suppose you’d say I like true crime about as much as the next person. I listened to the first season of Serial, I’ve had a look at In Cold Blood. But on the whole I’m not a True Crime obsessive.One exception to that though seems to be true crime fiction.You probably just did a double take. Surely there’s true crime and then there’s fictional crime (which usually just gets called crime - go figure) But as any genre or style takes hold it is bound to inspire imitators, homages and people who understand the potential of one text to operate within the broader style of another (thank you postmodernism).So we have true crime fiction… following an investigation or digging up a cold case. Our protagonist will not be a sleuth but will have the nous to dig up information and often they will be working on a podcast (because aren’t we all these days).If you’re currently watching Only Murders in the Building you know exactly what I’m talking about…In I Shot the Devil, Reporter Erin Sloane returns to her home town of Southport. Her Dad’s dying and although though they haven’t always had the best relationship, he’s her only family. This is no nostalgia trip though. Erin’s editor has received a tip off about the notorious Southport Three, a group of teens implicated in a satanic murder in the 90s.Erin’s charged to write a story about the group and their legacy. It’s the sort of story that could make her career. But Erin is also a part of the story; she hasn’t told her editor that back in high school she was dating one of the killers.I shot the Devil immediately flips the oft repeated trope of most crime, true or otherwise. The victims of the historical crime are not women, but two young men. Erin’s role in digging up the past forces her to confront the trauma of the time and we see that the inevitable deadly exercise of power spreads far and wide.One aspect of the I Shot the Devil that is immediately compelling is the blurring of the true and (well also) true crime genre tropes. If you’ve got a murder mystery well you know there are rules - final act denouement and all that. True Crime owes us no neat conclusions though. When we join the reporter or the podcaster we know there’s every chance that all their efforts might lead to naught. Erin makes this increasingly likely with her self destructive behaviour.So if crime fiction gives us the illusion of order and justice in the world, what is it that we turn to true crime for? And how might a fictionalising of true crime enhance that experience?I think True Crime entices us with the eternal possibility of justice, There’s a lot of bad things happening in the world; powerful people seem to be able to act with impunity and escape all consequences. True Crime shows us that in an information saturated world the truth exists for those who are willing to search.In Ruth McIver’s I Shot the Devil we see that search in its broader literary sense. The stories we tell help make us who we are. Erin’s quest has as much to do with seeking justice for her friend as seeking to honour a story that has been buried.