The Detective as “Zombie of the Interrogative Mood” in Cameron McCabe’s The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor

Abstract

While Cameron McCabe’s detective novel The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor interrogates its own generic mystery elements, Padgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood asks if its own constant questions are “independent [. . .] zombies of the interrogative mood.” This essay examines how reading as mutual interrogation brings text, detective and reader in McCabe’s novel (back) to life.