The pseudonymous Eva Maria Staal's first novel, Try the Morgue, deftly marries an edgy thriller to a sensitive literary story. It's narrated by Maria, a complex young woman caught between her desire for a stable family and the emotional rush she gets from lucrative, often illegal gun deals. Maria goes to work for Jimmy Liu, a Chinese Canadian with a taste for expensive glamour boys and a knack for making money. He teaches her all about clandestine weapon shipments, backroom brokering, bickering among dealers and slipping across borders under fake papers. Jimmy's personal attention attracts her as much a rich deal does. "He sees things in me that I don't see," she explains, "that no one sees."
Maria's narrative moves fluidly between her past and her present. Today she is moving to a suburb of Amsterdam with her architect husband, Martin, and their daughter, Nella. Her domestic life is one of playdates and conversations over coffee with Nella's schoolmate's mother. She cuddles in bed to calm a frightened Nella, washes her ballet tights and walks their dog Toby in the park. Yesterday, though, she was dealing carbines and Chinese-made Stingers--"not exactly something to be handing out in Karachi," she admits. "But it's a living." She develops the savvy to face down ruthless competing dealers in order to close a big weapon buy.
In both family and business, Jimmy's opinion always matters. When Jimmy disappears mysteriously in a deal gone wrong and, after she's tried all the hospitals, the local police tell her to "try the morgue," Maria is haunted by the words of his sword-making grandfather: "Swords don't take sides." Jimmy bought into that history as he tried to get her to stay in the business: "We're selling freedom, you and I! Freedom, security, and peace, Maria." Staal doesn't take sides either, but instead lets Maria tell her own story, where the sides she must choose between are not political, but personal... and that choice is the most difficult. --Bruce Jacobs
Shelf Talker: Staal, a former arms dealer, fictionalizes the dilemma of a young woman caught between the thrill of international gunrunning and the security of family and home.