An Occasional Hell

by Randall Silvis

P.I. Ernest DeWalt snooped on two-timing spouses for twenty years until a hail of bullets knocked him out of the game. DeWalt winds up teaching literature courses in a nearly comatose college town. A fellow faculty member--in the throes of a fling with the wife of a small-time rock singer--ends up with a musket ball in his brain. It's too hard to say no to the dead man's wife, when she asks DeWalt to crawl out of his shell and bring his private-eye prowess into play just one more time.

Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1993

About the author

Randall Silvis is the internationally acclaimed author of over a dozen novels, one story
collection, and one book of narrative nonfiction. Also a prize-winning playwright, a
produced screenwriter, and a prolific essayist, he has been published and produced in
virtually every field and genre of creative writing. His numerous essays, articles, poems and short stories have appeared in the Discovery Channel magazines, The Writer, Prism International, Short Story International, Manoa, and numerous other online and print magazines. His work has been translated into 10 languages.

Silvis’s many literary awards include two writing fellowships from the National
Endowment for the Arts, the prestigious Drue Heinz Literature Prize, a Fulbright Senior Scholar Research Award, six fellowships for his fiction, drama, and screenwriting from the Pennsylvania Council On the Arts, and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree awarded for “distinguished literary achievement.”

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a real gem of a novel, one that transcends the trappings of the mystery and noir genres. It reads far more like literary fiction than a mystery, but it also exhibits many of the qualities found in the work of the best mystery writers: the lush descriptive prose and deft characterization of James Lee Burke, the wit and plotting of Robert B. Parker, and the hard-boiled perspective on human existence found in Dashiell Hammett. This one is definitely worth seeking out.

[Burt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Randall Silvis’ An Occasional Hell has won plaudits as a literary mystery. So I decided that I’d give it a try. While the novel certainly is highbrow, it did little for me. Silvis adds pages and pages of flowery prose as his private eye (Ernest Dewalt) ponders the meaning of life. But he neglects to include any of the things that (in my humble opinion) make mysteries worthwhile - suspense, action, plot twists, and snappy dialogue.

The novel focuses on Dewalt - a one-time private eye who has retreated to an academic post in Pennsylvania after he was shot while working a case. As a result of the shooting, Dewalt’s kidneys no longer work and Silvis spends pages detailing Dewalt’s health problems. Even worse is that Dewalt is suffering from the mother of all mid-life crises - he seems to be ready to die. If this sounds depressing, it is.

Reading An Occasional Hell is like watching one of those arty, black-and-white European films where nothing ever happens and everyone wanders around trying to be profound. If Silvis ever read Scott Meredith’s admonition (in Writing to Sell) that a protagonist needs to act, he disregarded it here. I just didn’t want to read this one and I was glad to see it end.

[Ruben George · Rating 2 out of 5]

i got this book at the library cause the cover was cool and the name sounded interesting. i guess it was my bad for not looking into it… the writing wasn’t really bad i guess, it was just so……… man?? maybe it’s cause i’m not a man but, man. i do not get it.

[Marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written.

This author paints pictures with words, the topic is unimportant. The mystery was solved but I would have loved for the story to continue.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good mystery and thoughtful writing.