Let’s All Kill Constance, By Ray Bradbury

Let’s All Kill Constance is a welcome change from Ray Bradbury’s most recent m.o. Whereas in recent years he’s stuck to short stories, this one’s a full-length novel, and an offbeat satire of noir fiction. Bradbury’s best known, of course, for intensely allegorical, morally resonant science fiction like Fahrenheit 451. Constance follows two previous mysteries from a decade or so back—Death Is a Lonely Business and Graveyard of the Lunatics. All three are set in a Chandlerian Hollywood of the 1950s. But it’s not a hardboiled world. Our man Ray is too much the optimist—the softie, really—to start going all James Ellroy on us. (Though there’s a collaboration we’d like to see.) This novel has been in the works for more than three years, interrupted by a minor stroke and ceaseless other writing projects. Well past 80, Bradbury still puts out at least one book a year, and it’s gratifying to see him back in (long) form.