Who Killed One the Gun?
Gigi Little’s novel Who Killed One the Gun? is both a hard-boiled detective story and a whimsical, existential meditation on destiny, self-determination, and forgiveness.
One the Gun is a private eye tasked with finding the killer of Five the No Longer Alive, a shady nightclub owner. The cast of suspects includes Five’s philandering wife, an over-protective doorman, and a local priest who enjoys gambling. Before One can crack the case, he’s killed by an unknown assailant—though, because he has the ability to throw himself backward to the beginning of the day on repeat, he’s not truly dead. Given multiple reprieves, One uses each “extra” day to further his investigation.
With an intriguing conceit and wry tough-guy language, the book calls a church “as colorless as a snowman’s long underwear”; One’s secretary, whom he carries a secret yen for, “has a smile that melts you like honey on a hot biscuit.” Ten the When, a winsome waitress who can also rewind herself in time, redoubles its suspense. She and One strike up a friendship and work the case together through weeks’ worth of time loops, embodying the different ways one can approach a consequence-free life. Ten, who was diagnosed with a terminal disease, learns to better herself and others, while One succumbs to the temptation to commit a criminal act of his own.
Although its mysteries are addressed in the end, the true point of the story lies in One and Ten’s forking destinies and how they lead to possible ruin or redemption. Closing with an ambiguous finale that holds hope for both justice and mercy, Who Killed One the Gun? rises above its hard-boiled formula to become a heartfelt rumination on how to live life to the fullest.
Reviewed by
Ho Lin
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