What do you think?
Rate this book
The Red Chesterfield
M is a bylaw officer, living with two brothers, in their parents' old house. While investigating a suspicious yard sale, M discovers a red chesterfield sitting in a ditch. Looking closer, M finds a running shoe-and a severed foot.
Now M is involved in a murder investigation. Meanwhile, older brother K's work for a new political party begins to seem suspicious, while younger brother J navigates the complicated world of young-adulthood, and boss Rhonda demands more and more attention, M must navigate a world of Russian gangsters and neglected wives, biker gangs and suspicious coincidences. On top of everything else, M is determined to track down the owner of that red chesterfield and make sure they get a ticket.
The Red Chesterfield is a delightful, unusual novel that upends the tropes and traditions of crime fiction while asking how far one person is willing to go to solve a crime, be it murder or the abandonment of a piece of furniture.
Now M is involved in a murder investigation. Meanwhile, older brother K's work for a new political party begins to seem suspicious, while younger brother J navigates the complicated world of young-adulthood, and boss Rhonda demands more and more attention, M must navigate a world of Russian gangsters and neglected wives, biker gangs and suspicious coincidences. On top of everything else, M is determined to track down the owner of that red chesterfield and make sure they get a ticket.
The Red Chesterfield is a delightful, unusual novel that upends the tropes and traditions of crime fiction while asking how far one person is willing to go to solve a crime, be it murder or the abandonment of a piece of furniture.
120 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 15, 2019
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
April 11, 2020
I found myself too distracted by the worrisome virus news, and a snowstorm overnight and today which left my car blocked in the driveway that prevented me from concentrating on the book I had hoped to read today. I found The Red Chesterfield recommended on the CBC website.
This was a short humorous novel that had the potential to be expanded. It is described as a story that subverts your usual mystery plot, with ambiguous motivations and clues that lead nowhere.
A city bylaw officer finds a red chesterfield sitting in a ditch while on his way to issue a warning for a garage sale infraction nearby. He investigates the chesterfield which seems comfortable and in good condition, except for a human foot partly concealed in its back. The man whom he refers to as Mr. Garage Sale denies any knowledge of the chesterfield in the ditch. After issuing a warning, he is confronted by an angry neighbour, referred to as Mr.Pyjama Man. He has been complaining to the city about the length of time the yard sale junk has been displayed, and that the unsightly mess is ruining the neighbourhood, The bylaw officer issues this neighbour a warning for noxious weeds on his property.
The officer is more interested in finding the owner of the chesterfield so he can give him a ticket for illegal dumping. He feels the severed foot is the work of the police force. Next time he drives past he is surprised that the chesterfield is gone, but the police deny removing it. Later he sees an identical piece of furniture in the same ditch, but this time it is upside down. He discovers the dead body of Mr. Pyjama Man underneath. He becomes a person of interest, is fingerprinted at the police office, and suspended from work for a week.
More hilarity ensues. He receives a call from Mr. Garage Sale’s wife who is concerned that her husband has vanished. She knows he is missing because he phoned her to inform her that he had gone missing and to ask the bylaw officer to look for him. He is chased by the man’s brother with a gun.
This book was a 2.5 star read for me but was a welcome diversion from the Coronavirus news and the untimely snowfall outside.
This was a short humorous novel that had the potential to be expanded. It is described as a story that subverts your usual mystery plot, with ambiguous motivations and clues that lead nowhere.
A city bylaw officer finds a red chesterfield sitting in a ditch while on his way to issue a warning for a garage sale infraction nearby. He investigates the chesterfield which seems comfortable and in good condition, except for a human foot partly concealed in its back. The man whom he refers to as Mr. Garage Sale denies any knowledge of the chesterfield in the ditch. After issuing a warning, he is confronted by an angry neighbour, referred to as Mr.Pyjama Man. He has been complaining to the city about the length of time the yard sale junk has been displayed, and that the unsightly mess is ruining the neighbourhood, The bylaw officer issues this neighbour a warning for noxious weeds on his property.
The officer is more interested in finding the owner of the chesterfield so he can give him a ticket for illegal dumping. He feels the severed foot is the work of the police force. Next time he drives past he is surprised that the chesterfield is gone, but the police deny removing it. Later he sees an identical piece of furniture in the same ditch, but this time it is upside down. He discovers the dead body of Mr. Pyjama Man underneath. He becomes a person of interest, is fingerprinted at the police office, and suspended from work for a week.
More hilarity ensues. He receives a call from Mr. Garage Sale’s wife who is concerned that her husband has vanished. She knows he is missing because he phoned her to inform her that he had gone missing and to ask the bylaw officer to look for him. He is chased by the man’s brother with a gun.
This book was a 2.5 star read for me but was a welcome diversion from the Coronavirus news and the untimely snowfall outside.
April 18, 2022
M is a by-law officer living with his two brothers, J and K, somewhere in Canada, I'm guessing BC but I don't think it's mentioned. While en route to investigate a complaint about a yard sale he notices a red chesterfield - don't call it a couch or a sofa! - in the ditch. Upon closer investigation he discovers a severed foot in the couch and becomes embroiled in a murder investigation.
This is a quirky little novella made up of very short chapters, all titled though which always impresses me. Most of the characters don't have names, only letters like M and his brothers or descriptors like "yard sale guy" which made me chuckle because my son's always making up names like that for people. I found the story a bit dark and a bit amusing and really enjoyed it. I'd be interested in reading more of Mr. Arthurson's fiction.
I borrowed this e-book from the London Public Library via OverDrive.
This is a quirky little novella made up of very short chapters, all titled though which always impresses me. Most of the characters don't have names, only letters like M and his brothers or descriptors like "yard sale guy" which made me chuckle because my son's always making up names like that for people. I found the story a bit dark and a bit amusing and really enjoyed it. I'd be interested in reading more of Mr. Arthurson's fiction.
I borrowed this e-book from the London Public Library via OverDrive.
April 11, 2022
What to say about this charming and quirky book, whose very undestatement draws the reader in, except that it is a Canadian must-read. It's the story of a by-law officer in an unnamed Prairie city who is accidentally drawn into a mystery plot, has some murky adventures, and finally decides that the part of it all he wants to retain is the nice red chesterfield, or one of the nice red chesterfields, because there could be up to three, under which the body has been found. That's it for denouement, the mystery plot is allowed to float away unsolved. For a short novella, The Red Chesterfield somehow manages to bring you deep into the inner world of M, the protagonist: his personal life with its three differently coloured emotive zones, the family dynamics, his relationship with his boss-girlfriend, and his job (which gives rise to much of the very low-key humour in the story.) We'll never know who killed the man in the slippers, or where the extra foot came from, or how the Russians fit in. It's the concluding chesterfield, as M loads it carefully into his truck, that matters. The story is over very quickly, and a part of me was left wishing Wayne Arthurson had written a much longer book (he has written at least one detective series though, which I plan to look for now). But the inner life of M, with his careful yet kindly eye, occasional bumblings, prosaic little asides and fleetingly poetic moments, is so engaging, so gripping, so convincing, it felt like reading a much longer book.
May 9, 2020
I don't know why I loved this book, but I do
It's kind of quirky and a little weird, but it's an entertaining story you don't want to set aside for another day. I'm really hoping it's the first in a series, because there are unanswered questions, but I 'd be happy to read another book of any kind by the same author.
It's kind of quirky and a little weird, but it's an entertaining story you don't want to set aside for another day. I'm really hoping it's the first in a series, because there are unanswered questions, but I 'd be happy to read another book of any kind by the same author.
November 28, 2020
Deliciously Canadian.
March 25, 2022
Sometimes a book is confusingly surreal and subverts whatever you expected about the characters and the style and the plot and it's okay because the oddity of the journey makes it worthwhile.
March 22, 2023
Video review https://youtu.be/JdntHX819ao
July 25, 2020
This is a strange and wonderful book. Arthurson takes some real creative chances here and they pay off.
January 10, 2022
This is about an indigenous man named M who works as a bylaw officer. He discovers a Davenport style red chesterfield. Admiring it, wondering why it is in the ditch, he then discovers a severed foot inside of it. He then proceeds to have his life radically altered as he becomes a suspect, the neighbour goes missing, his brother his up to no good, and his girlfriend is unimpressed with his choices.
It is heavily leaning into absurdism and more-or-less feels like it’s commenting on how some people—based on how it’s written, I am guessing a neurodivergent person in this particular case—require rules, regulations. In short: structure. It not simply there for no reason. Both at a governmental level and a human level. Trying to become something your not serves no purpose but perhaps your ego. And change always comes with a cost, and therefor a loss, of one kind or another.
It is heavily leaning into absurdism and more-or-less feels like it’s commenting on how some people—based on how it’s written, I am guessing a neurodivergent person in this particular case—require rules, regulations. In short: structure. It not simply there for no reason. Both at a governmental level and a human level. Trying to become something your not serves no purpose but perhaps your ego. And change always comes with a cost, and therefor a loss, of one kind or another.
Read
October 2, 2021fun weird lil story that seems to be about that edmonton guy in 2015 having never ending yard sale?
October 21, 2020
Do you ever finish reading a book and can say it both fucked with your mind and that you loved it? While Bunny by Mona Awad comes to mind, I can now add The Red Chesterfield by Wayne Arthurson to the list.
A crime novella at 99 pages, about a bylaw enforcement officer who finds a red chesterfield (like a couch for non-Canadians) in a ditch with a shoe containing a foot in it. You might think the crime to solve is that of who the foot belonged to but that isn’t a job for a bylaw enforcement officer and sometimes you got to go to work and do your job. In this case that means trying to find who put the chesterfield there.
I found this book so readable and wanted to know more about every character. Even the minor characters are written with such wit and care. The story had a beautiful rhythm to it and a satisfying ending. The author could not have picked a more perfect occupation for the main character and the red herrings were abundant.
Pick this one up. It won the Arthur Ellis award for Crime Fiction earlier this year and flips the genre upside down. Arthurson is a Cree and French-Canadian author.
A crime novella at 99 pages, about a bylaw enforcement officer who finds a red chesterfield (like a couch for non-Canadians) in a ditch with a shoe containing a foot in it. You might think the crime to solve is that of who the foot belonged to but that isn’t a job for a bylaw enforcement officer and sometimes you got to go to work and do your job. In this case that means trying to find who put the chesterfield there.
I found this book so readable and wanted to know more about every character. Even the minor characters are written with such wit and care. The story had a beautiful rhythm to it and a satisfying ending. The author could not have picked a more perfect occupation for the main character and the red herrings were abundant.
Pick this one up. It won the Arthur Ellis award for Crime Fiction earlier this year and flips the genre upside down. Arthurson is a Cree and French-Canadian author.
January 18, 2021
Wonderful novella. I really like how Arthurson captured a bit of mystery, a bit of family, a bit of work all while developing a deep connection to M.
August 7, 2024
So good I was hooked the whole time. But I will admit I’m not happy with the cliffhanger ending?
March 6, 2021
Very short and very...odd. It feels slightly disjointed and off-kilter, but it does straddle an interesting line between irritation and fascination regarding what is and isn't being said by the characters...including some of their names (reduced only to mysterious capital letters). It actually feels slightly Soviet, tasting as it does of clandestine people and their plans...but its short length and concise nature also makes it uncomfortably abrupt.
September 2, 2021
Funny. Odd. The distraction I needed today.
April 26, 2022
The ending? It was a strange book not going to lie but pretty good for what it was.
March 21, 2023
I picked this book up off the shelf at the public library and read it cover to cover in about an hour. Fiction is hard for me to read, but this book gripped me from the start, in part because of its minimalism. It's a fun twist on a Canadian crime caper, where every page is its own chapter. The book could very easily be converted into a stage show; it features an Indigenous main character who is forced to interact with the police in his white community, despite having done nothing wrong.
September 30, 2023
Short, smart & captivating. A good read.
September 24, 2020
Like a child's story for adults; one in which your fuzzy memories are of Gogol, low tundra just before winter, hot tea with sugar and oh do you have some more of those cookies? Each chapter just one page (with a couple of exceptions and so my OCD self tussled and picked at the extra space), the book almost impossible to put down but its mood demanding it be read in only certain ways, and that at least a few of those should be laced with sarcasm and wonder. Double doubles and doubling abound, the vibe and mood a Russian folk tale told for only as long as twilight lasts and then put away until tomorrow. This is a stunning book, still with me after a couple of weeks, urging me to write about it. So here we are.
Do yourself a favor. Buy this book. Ask him to write more.
Do yourself a favor. Buy this book. Ask him to write more.
June 30, 2021
A fun, unexpected and unusual crime novel involving a mysterious red chesterfield in a ditch, a shoe with a severed foot, a pair of Russian gangsters and a bylaw officer determined to figure it all out. This novel is written as a series of flash fiction snapshots from the point of view of M, a bylaw officer just trying to follow procedure as he navigates this strange turn of events. Minimalist prose and dry wit make this a fun reading experience but I could have used a touch less ambiguity as the plot wrapped up. I'm not sure I got what I was supposed to by the ending but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless.
December 3, 2020
I was really enjoying this book and whizzing through it, but it seemed to peter out at the end, but it does leave one with the opportunity to endlessly speculate about the meaning of the red Chesterfield. The book is short and the writing spare - things I like. It is a quirky and original book. It is great that it leaves a lot to the reader's imagination but in a few instances I didn't quite follow what was going on.
January 19, 2021
I found this to be highly entertaining. It reminded me of a short film that gives you snatches of people's lives, but not enough so that you know them very well. I like Wayne Arthurson's other books as well and it's because he writes characters that have real-world issues. Not over the top, not exaggerated, but they make the same stupid mistakes that we are all prone to making ourselves.
March 19, 2021
This was an excellent novella and I wanted more of the characters and more of the storyline. I am still not sure if M is male or female, and that does not change the story for me. I loved the chapter titles and the characters.
'Because he called me and told me to tell you that.' - made me laugh out loud! (referencing proof of a missing husband)
'Because he called me and told me to tell you that.' - made me laugh out loud! (referencing proof of a missing husband)
October 17, 2020
I think it is useful to know going into The Red Chesterfield that the author is a writer of mysteries who was looking to subvert some of the common tropes of the genre. Clever, weird, genuinely interesting.
May 24, 2021
A fun little (loving) spoof on the detective genre. The main character, M, is a bylaw inspector who finds the titular chesterfield (not a couch, not a sofa) and also incidentally is drawn into a murder investigation. But is mostly concerned with the chesterfield.
Read
February 8, 2023The red Chesterfield is a interesting novel of a mild crime fiction. It's about solving a murder and abandoned piece of furniture in a ditch.
June 7, 2020
Quirky. Well paced. Imaginative.
July 16, 2020
Lovely little charming novel with enough quirkiness to make me want to read more of the author.
September 11, 2020
For my full review, please follow the link below:
https://www.bookwormadventuregirl.com...
https://www.bookwormadventuregirl.com...
October 3, 2020
A great quick read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews