“Dying is easy, comedy is hard” is a classic line about acting, but it could apply to crime writing as well. A sense of humor is hardly essential equipment for the job, and it’s tough to get it right, but some of the finest, from Dashiell Hammett to Elmore Leonard, have used their wit to great effect. So what a lucky surprise to discover three releases this month that show what an asset humor can be.
Before the breakthrough success of Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears came S. A. Cosby’s first novel, published in 2019, and now reissued by Flatiron Books. In his foreword to My Darkest Prayer, the author asks us to approach it like a wobbly foal, but it’s more robust than that. The book has plenty of energy, a rogues’ gallery of characters that pop off the page, and, to offset the frequent and imaginative violence, a killer sense of humor. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much at a crime novel with a double-digit body count.
