Thread by @Wylie_Williams_

Author Scott Phillips is one funny m*thrf^c*r. Check out these scenes from THE ICE HARVEST. Afterwards, I’ll talk about the story structure. I like to break down great crime novels to see what I can learn from them. LFGOOO. #story #plot

First, a little warning - this book is profane. You’ll be spending a snowy Christmas Eve with criminals, strippers, perverts and miscreants. A journey so unholy it's hilarious. #books #funny

This is a 2 scene block with Culligan, a retired postal worker, “his attention span shortened by years of daytime drinking.” Charlie, our criminal lawyer hero, meets him at the Sweet Cage strip club and then drives Culligan to a 2nd strip club.

Next here are a few hilarious scenes with Pete, Charlie’s brother in law who is too drunk to drive himself home. Here, Pete gets lucky at Snifter Club.

After that they crash Charlie’s in-laws Xmas dinner. The father in law with dementia is just, chef’s kiss. Scott Phillip's agility at mixing pathos with his black humor is on display.

A few more pages from the Xmas Dinner scene.

I'm actually having trouble finding concise moments that display his brilliance here. That's because Phillips is always drolly dropping call backs and referencing tropes that he's subtly built into the story. It's a cumulative effect.

He's got one liners and hilarious dialogue on almost every page, it's really a delight. I also don't want to ruin the story for you if you haven't read it. So I'll try and talk plot now without major spoilers.

This novel is told in roughly 2 equal parts, over 17 Chapters. However the first half has twice as many chapters, most of them 7-9 pages in length. The 2nd half's 6 chapters average 15 pages each.

Numbers, boring, I get it. But what it helps shows is how the 1st half is set up, momentum building, while the 2nd half is all complication. Each chapter in the first half is a new location, another bar. The second has 2 or 3 major new locations, which occasion big reveals.

While reading, the first half feels suspiciously light on plot details. It's all hilarious scenes with a hero who is killing time on a goodbye tour of his hometown after committing a mysterious crime.

But with each chapter there's more drinking, more snow, it gets later, and later, and our hero's decisions begin to complicate his departure.

When part 2 begins its a full on blizzard, he's attracted unwanted attention, his partner is missing, and he has nowhere to go, all the bars are closed.

From here, it's a sprint. The first part is lazily, drunkenly killing time, the second is a race to fix a broken situation and escape, surrounded by threats.

I'll spare any more details, because the novel definitely has some surprises. None more than the ending, which is truly amazing. Just perfect.

One interesting technique Phillips has is for the 3rd person omni narrator to not use a character's name until another character says it in dialogue. Which underscores how dialogue heavy much of this novel is.

A lot of writers will tell you dialogue is their weak point. That may say something about their innate ability. Scott Phillips kills it with dialogue.

I love crime plots and I love humor, and I cry that it's so rare to find the two in one novel.

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