I just experienced something that a writer—or performer or artist—only gets once in a lifetime: my first professional trade review. And thank my lucky stars, they didn’t come for me.
In fact, quite the opposite. My first two professional reviews arrived at the same time and both were five stars. That alone would be good news—it’s a relief that they liked the book, and it’s certainly handy to have strong quotations as marketing collateral.
Here’s what Readers’ Favorite had to say:
Christopher Mirabile writes with a steady narrative hand, guiding readers through police procedures without slowing the momentum. Dialogue carries much of the tension, revealing the characters through hesitations, deflections, and small slips of language. Silas emerges as a thoughtful, observant lead, a man shaped by his Western roots yet adjusting to Cape Cod's unique culture. Mirabile's portrayal of Provincetown is textured and atmospheric, grounding the mystery in a vividly drawn community. Readers who enjoy character-driven crime fiction with a strong sense of place and careful attention to investigative detail will find much to appreciate in The Washashore.
Those are wonderful words to receive, of course. But the most satisfying part of the experience was something else entirely: the sense that what I was trying to say had come through. That the reviewer was picking up what I was putting down—that the themes I worked hard to convey had not only come across, but landed.
I had the same feeling reading the Reader Views review. The reviewer, Paul Knobloch, really keyed in on three of the book’s themes in particular. The first was the main character, Silas Lopez. I designed him to be an uncommonly decent but still flawed and ordinary man—someone simply trying to do the right thing in his own laconic, unflappable way.
About Silas, Knobloch says:
A tough and seasoned officer, Lopez is a laconic grinder who begins a methodical investigation. His dialogue is classic cop noir, and even after one of the novel’s more hair-raising scenes, he is as cool as a cucumber: “Did what I came here to do. So, bring on the fuss…”
The second theme Knobloch keyed in on was the Provincetown setting, which I worked hard to make as rich and atmospheric as possible. About that Knobloch said:
The town and its environs also serve as another character, adding great atmosphere and providing some very lyrical passages:
The town had smelled different from what he was used to, the ocean all around. The smell of hot pine pitch also hung in the wind. These were different pines around here. Sweeter, like vanilla and cork and the earthiness of moss. The town had sounded different too: gulls constantly squawking along the water; crows cawing from pine tops; bike bells jingling; street musicians playing; and people eating, drinking, laughing at outdoor tables everywhere.
“Lyrical?” Be still my heart.
The third theme was more abstract, but perhaps the most important to me: my attempt to create an everyday hero. Someone whose clear sense of right and wrong—and whose grounded philosophy of life—might serve as a small antidote to the hopelessness that can creep in as we doomscroll through troubled times.
Silas and his adventures were specifically conjured up in order to provide not only a brief refuge while reading the book, but also a sense of hope that decency and goodness still walks amongst us and resides in the hearts of the people we meet every day.
To my immense satisfaction, Knobloch picked up on that theme and turned it into something you rarely see in a book review: a call to read the book and share it with people you care about:
I felt that Mirabile did an excellent job at illustrating some of the novel's deeper themes and concerns. The book presents Silas not as the typical disgraced former sheriff starting over - a worn-out trope that we've seen a million times -- but rather as a man who is asking himself what it means to lead a town. He needs to earn respect through action, and I admire the fact that the author found a novel way to approach the "new sheriff in town" story.
We are also reminded that violence is not always mythic or grandiose, but often rather mundane, as political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt pointed out. It sort of reminds us that community building is about hard work, professional ethics over heroics, and a reminder that community is built, not inherited. These are some excellent lessons for a society that seems to have forgotten many of these time-honored truths.
The Washashore shatters the illusion of small-town security, and it happens to be doing so while our own society is breaking apart all by itself. Part of the reason for this is that people don't read books anymore. My suggestion: give a copy of this fine piece of crime fiction to your friends and family who have lost faith in the system and need to know that community and justice are still defensible ideals and attainable goals.
All in all, as first trade reviews go, I couldn’t have asked for more.
If you are interested in ordering The Washashore you can find it at—or order it from— these local bookstores: Wellesley Books (Wellesley, MA), The Bookshop of Needham (Needham, MA), Provincetown Bookshop (Provincetown, MA) and Elm Street Books (New Canaan, CT)
Or if you want the convenience and speed of online, but still want to support local bookstores, grab The Washashore through Bookshop.org
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