Percival Everett

Assumption is a one wild ride of a literary thriller/mystery novel. That last page is a real stunner! No spoilers here. Let's just say that the ending is truly shocking.

Comprised essentially of three novellas within one novel, Assumption follows follows Ogden Walker, a deputy sheriff, and misfit, fly fishing loner, through three criminal cases that emerge in a small town in New Mexico. In the first, a trigger-happy old woman is found murdered shortly after Ogden confiscates her gun. The situation at the outset feels sort of like a reverse “locked room” mystery, as the blanket of snow around the woman’s residence reveals only one set of footprints—Ogden’s—while she appears to have vanished into thin air. Later, she’s found dead beneath a trapdoor in her floor.

In the next story, a woman shows up who says she’s from Ireland and trying to track down a female cousin in the area. Ogden is tasked with helping her find this “missing” relation. In the course of asking around, the two of them stumble across a fatally wounded woman, an event which eventually sets Ogden on the trail of a one-handed man who he suspects of killing prostitutes.

The last story involves investigating some meth heads and leads to some shocking revelations.

The ending plays with your assumptions. Everett carefully plants the seeds, the clues, among the seeming conventions (you might call them cliches) of his detective novel. Pay attention to Ogden Walker as you read this novel. Sure he is a loner. But do other things seem off? Ultimately, readers come to suspect that perhaps Ogden doesn’t know himself and that neither do those with whom he works and lives.

This was a masterfully written detective novel written in a manner that reminded me of a cross between Flannery O'Connor, Elmore Leonard, and James M. Cain. The prose is dry and often witty and there are clues scattered throughout. Everett summons his New Mexico Noir environment in spare, dry prose that harks back to hard-boiled predecessors like James M. Cain. Not many writers can lay claim to be considered on par with such writing legends.

I'm eager to re-read this book again, so I can follow the clues and spot all the things that didn't add up.… (more)