I liked this book a lot, and I think Burke is a brilliant storyteller. I also feel that his novels are a bit billowy; in a good way, but still. They'rI liked this book a lot, and I think Burke is a brilliant storyteller. I also feel that his novels are a bit billowy; in a good way, but still. They're expansive, sweeping, always stopping to smell the flowers or watch a pair of calico kittens playing in the bushes before someone punches someone or someone gets shot at by a psycho sniper. His books are full of good lawmen (and women) behaving badly and crooked cops behaving even worse. These are as much character studies and social documents as crime novels, if not more so. I just find his style ever so slightly over-dilatory at times, although that does not blunt the emotional resonance of this story, which is frankly quite devastating on that level. ...more
There are books that are written to convey plot as clearly as possible and keep the reader turning pages eagerly. This is one of them, but it's also aThere are books that are written to convey plot as clearly as possible and keep the reader turning pages eagerly. This is one of them, but it's also a book that is freighted with bleak, clear-eyed insight. The prose is a joy to read - fleet-footed, yet meticulous, never heavy-handed, but far from empty-headed. If everything else by Mosley is half as good, I look forward to reading more of his work.
Amazing atmosphere. I feel like I can see, smell and hear the Louisiana locales Robicheaux moves through as he seeks justice along a very tangled traiAmazing atmosphere. I feel like I can see, smell and hear the Louisiana locales Robicheaux moves through as he seeks justice along a very tangled trail. Some excellent ruminations on morality and humanity, always something I look for in a hardboiled crime novel. Very violent - often startlingly so and the violence is never just a set piece but something whose ethical consequences are acknowledged. A bit too all over the place plotwise and the romance angle is so superficial - Annie walks in for time to time to be sweet and consolatory and sexy - but this is the first of a series and I expect Burke's craft improves over time. ...more
This is a good mystery novel, but not a consistently authentic Holmes pastiche; there are a few little nuances to the portrayal of Holmes that don't rThis is a good mystery novel, but not a consistently authentic Holmes pastiche; there are a few little nuances to the portrayal of Holmes that don't ring true. These include Holmes merely smiling and pausing when a client interrupts his exposition with an emotional remark, Holmes being anxious to arrive at a garden party on time, adjourning for a game of croquet there after - crouquet? - have we wandered into an Edwardian comedy?
The story itself is pretty thrilling, it's a sort of sequel to The Hound Of The Baskerville and has Holmes engaging in some skillful deduction as well as a rousing battle scene towards the end. Watson is kept in the dark throughout, although I was able to work out some of the answers to the mysteries being investigated before Holmes finally reveals them all to Watson at the end. The villains are a sinister lot and there are several moments of high melodrama, a note Doyle was not afraid strike from time to time. Not the most original Holmes pastiche I've read but a solid, well-constructed mystery with a few shortcomings that could be explained away as a difference between Boyer's vision of Holmes and mine. ...more
Decades before Cormac McCarthy, Dorothy Hughes seems to have created and mastered a style that is six parts craggy, hard-boiled prose, three parts denDecades before Cormac McCarthy, Dorothy Hughes seems to have created and mastered a style that is six parts craggy, hard-boiled prose, three parts dense, lyrical inner narrative and one part numinous magic. And she deploys this style more effectively, in the service of a more taut, gripping story than I am certain McCarthy can (my experience with him being confined to admiring some of his stylistic quirks while failing to complete any of his novels).
This novel is a noir and crime classic, and deservedly so. It's a lean, haunting tale of a gangster at the end of his tether, trailing his erstwhile master for one big payoff before he makes a break for a new life. Only, we slowly learn that it isn't that simple; you can't build a new life on the ill-gotten gains of the old and retribution comes a-knocking in the form of a determined homicide cop, hot on the heels of Sailor, slum kid turned slick hoodlum and the Sen(ator), his former boss.
They're in a town near the Mexican border, a place where the annual fiesta is taking place. Hughes uses this exotic background and the confluence of Indians, Hispanics and gringos to add an exotic touch to the narrative, underscoring major beats in the plot with scenes of great mythic and visceral resonance drawn from the festivities in this town or from Sailor's encounters with the locals: a man who runs a ramshackle merry-go-round and emerges as a sort of tentative father figure and good angel, a little Indian girl in town for the fiesta who evokes Sailor's own lost innocence and a meeting with the Fates in the form of three Spanish slum women who administer herbal medicine to Sailor. And then there's the policeman, Mac, who emerges both as a good twin and rejected mentor to Sailor, long ago thrown over in favour of the seductive, sly and treacherous Senator.
There are reveries on religion, morality and the choices we make and their consequences, there are pivotal points when Sailor can still take a turn that leads him back to a good life; but perhaps it is a false hope, and there are some decisions that we can never turn back from.
There seems to be some amount of racial stereotyping here, with the Indians portrayed as a stony, dark-eyed race of monoliths who have watched the ages pass and will survive their momentary conquerers; the Spaniards are failed conquerers gone native and so forth. I'm not sure it amounts to racism - Sailor uses racist language, but what else do you expect from a Chicago gangster? I think Hughes is using the possibilities of her exotic setting to highlight different ways of thought and bring in a broader cultural set of perspectives to Sailor's life and choices. To acknowledge and make use of the fact that your characters are of different races isn't necessarily the same as being racist, even if some of the treatment does venture into stereotypical territory.
In short I liked this book a lot; Hughes is going to be up there with Hammett, Chandler and Thompson in my pantheon of noir writers if her remaining novels are of this calibre. ...more
This novel contains many things. Some of them are:
- A love story between Walter, a surprisingly determined and resourceful young man and Laura, a remThis novel contains many things. Some of them are:
- A love story between Walter, a surprisingly determined and resourceful young man and Laura, a remarkably bland and passive young woman who makes only two decisions in this book, one of which precipitates an avalanche of misfortunes upon her and all who love her
- A portrait of Marian, an intelligent, loyal, courageous and strong woman who is relegated to second fiddle to Laura, the dippy blonde and because her dark complexion and somewhat manly features make her seem ugly in the eyes of the surprising Walter and the author
- One of the most formidable and complex villains in Victorian literature, a fat, handsome, swaggering, bragging, genteel, devious, brilliant Napoleon of crime who goes by the name of Count Fosco
- A twisted tale of illicit love, illegitimate births and dire deceptions carried out by or on behalf of people whose births, whether high or low, are revealed to have shattering secrets attendant upon them
- A tale of secret political societies and the terrible vengeance they exert on those who betray them
- The heart-rending story of Anne, a simple-minded young girl who never knew much kindness and lost all in the end
In short, a crowded, complicated novel full of thrills and chills. I do have a few complaints though. First of all, the structure of the plot is rather drawn-out and elliptical. It's told in the form of memoirs, diaries and testimonials compiled from various principals and bit-players and this leads to several annoying redundancies and losses of momentum along the way. There's a reason why limited or omniscient points of view have become the preferred formats for epic stories like this. Worst of all, when the remarkable Fosco finally gets to speak his piece, it turns out to be a damp squib because the broad strokes of his narrative have already been unearthed by the surprisingly heroic Walter.
Also, there's a void at the heart of the novel - Laura, the bland blonde whom Walter falls for and moves heaven and earth for. She has a bare few lines of dialogue and is generally treated as a simpleton and a child be everyone around her, and indeed, she seems to possess few character traits other than a certain passive benignity and one single spark of decisiveness which as it turns out dooms her to a loveless, disastrous marriage. Her cousin, the dusky, daring Marian emerges as a far more alluring character but apparently the only person who is able to perceive this is the foul-hearted yet perceptive Fosco. I could have done with far less swooning over the milksop Laura and more of Marian's quiet, forceful intellect.
Still, there you have it: a Gothic-derived novel shading into the modern tale of mystery, suspense and detection. And a rattling good story, if not without its flaws....more
Another brilliant novel by Millar. It's a long, convoluted story that takes us down various shadowy trails and winds up with a last-minute twist that'Another brilliant novel by Millar. It's a long, convoluted story that takes us down various shadowy trails and winds up with a last-minute twist that's like a sobering slap in the face. ...more
I enjoyed The Deep Blue Goodbye, but this just annoyed me. One novel on, McGee's Magic Penis (every woman seems to want it, and the ones who get it emI enjoyed The Deep Blue Goodbye, but this just annoyed me. One novel on, McGee's Magic Penis (every woman seems to want it, and the ones who get it emerge transformed for the better from the experience) becomes a very tiresome plot element. In this novel, he's basically a sloppy amateur who blunders into a solution that he's too dense or sexed-up to try to figure out without being trapped (by a blonde whore, of course) in a mental health facility. A mental health facility that is run by unscrupulous doctors of Eastern European origin who dole out LSD, lobotomies, pleasure and pain in the course of highly illegal behavioural experiments. For real. Well, not for real, it's only a work of fiction, but, yes that's actually what happens in this novel! MacDonald has a nice line in reverie, but some of MgGee's ruminations on women made me a little sick, especially when reflects that for some women, being a whore is the ideal job for their cold, calculating personalities. McGee/MacDonald lost all credibility for me at that point. Also he seems to think that Trade Unions are the fifth horse of the apocalypse. Meh. This wasn't really worth the time I spent on it. ...more
This book is wrongly named. It claims to contain the best American noir of the century - but which century is that? The collection covers the years 19This book is wrongly named. It claims to contain the best American noir of the century - but which century is that? The collection covers the years 1923 to 2007, which is 84 years from two different centuries. Also, a lot of the best American noir is found in novel form. So this book should really have been called 'The Best American Noir Short Stories from an 84-year period' except that doesn't have the same ring, does it?
Ah well. This will be another of those story-by-story reviews that I keep updating until I finish the book in question. So here goes.
Todd Robbins - 'Spurs': Apparently this is the story that inspired the movie 'Freaks', which I haven't seen and would like too. Anyway, this is a dark little tale that is told in an initially whimsical style that, together with the French travelling-entertainers setting reminded me of Paul Gallico's Love Of Seven Dolls - but boy, did this story ever choose to travel down a much, much darker route. There's a great scene where all the freaks are at a party, and each of them is preening, thinking he or she is the superfreak, the one that draws the crowds in at their shows, and then someone gets mad at someone else and all their seething resentment of each other erupts in one big brawl. No community among freaks, then, and why should there be, they're all dependent upon what little income they can generate from the straights, so they're naturally pitted against each other. That's hellish. Even more hellish is the fate that awaits the character that you initially fancy will come out of this pretty well. Very dark and effective stuff.
James M. Cain - 'Pastorale': Very different from the urban noir he would become famous for, but this little rural sonata transforms quite rapidly into a funeral march that's as grim and bitter as anything he wrote later on. The tone of voice is a bit of a surprise - I've read Ring Lardner and I never really warmed up to that sort of hick-dialect storytelling - but for once it goes really well with the story of a backwoods loser who just doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. It's a nice curiosity, but Cain would go on to do better stuff.
Steve Fisher - 'You'll Always Remember Me': This is a tale about a very young psychopath. It's effective, but that animal cruelty scene really got under my skin. Your mileage will vary of course, but I work with abandoned and injured kittens a lot and even as a piece of fiction that one particular scene just made me feel sick. Other than that, this story is nothing especially new and not exceptionally well-written. Jim Thompson could have really run with this material, if he didn't happen to run it into the ground. --------------------...more
I'm on page 172 of this book right now and I'm pretty sure I've spotted the real killer. Am I right? Watch this space to find out! Oh, the suspense...I'm on page 172 of this book right now and I'm pretty sure I've spotted the real killer. Am I right? Watch this space to find out! Oh, the suspense...
PS: That cover troubles me. I just don't see how the girl's left leg can do that unless she's just ripped it off and laid it down on the parapet in front of her. Just before shooting it to death with the gun she's holding.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Right; so I was correct. Clever of me. For once, there's a good reason the private eye didn't jump to the obvious conclusion that I spotted. Also, there's a lot more going on than just a mystery story - although that's the part that kept me turning the pages - so being able to see or at least suspect the solution didn't dull the impact of the pay-off. The resolution to the story is horrifying and somehow at the very last moment, bittersweet even if for an apparently trivial reason.
I had low expectations for this, my third Hard Case novel. I'm not a great fan of the Dead Girl school of mystery novels, less so when then corpse in question used to be a stripper. It usually indicates a cliched, lazy and exploitative storyline with severe gender stereotyping issues. That covergirl with her Incredible Elastic Left Leg didn't help either (although I must admit that the cover girl on Fade To Blonde creeped me out too - surely only an alien replicant would have upper arms that long?). But the story within, written by Richard Aleas, alias Charle Ardai, co-founder of Hard Case won me over. It's well written, striking a great balance between gritty action in dubious locales, engrossing detective work and sensitive, effective characterisation. The story remains so grounded in its protagonist's viewpoint and identity that I never felt as if I was getting lost in the swim of things and it was refreshing to read about a young, kiddish-looking PI for a change. ...more
Until the killing immortalised in the cover art, you could be forgiven for thinking of this as a dashing caper with a charming, crWow, this was dark.
Until the killing immortalised in the cover art, you could be forgiven for thinking of this as a dashing caper with a charming, crooked narrator spouting quotable one-liners and turning romantic. Then things become darker after the murder; the killer isn't quite racked with guilt, he says, but spects of the act keep returning to haunt him. Then, as happens in a noir, there's one double-cross more than expected and things get seriously dark. I thought Jim Thompson gave an already dark narrative an ending that pretty much tipped things over into utter existential horror in 'The Getaway' but for my money, Block ups the ante here with his equally dark but more plausible ending. Fuck, a good noir makes Lovecraftian horror seem cheery in comparison, doesn't it? I finished this novel in two entranced sittings, and look forward to delving deeper into a series of paperbacks that comes highly recommended by friends on goodreads and elsewhere. ...more
If there ever was a book that was no better than it needed to be, this was it. A tie-in novel to a middling mystery series that I watch as a sort of bIf there ever was a book that was no better than it needed to be, this was it. A tie-in novel to a middling mystery series that I watch as a sort of bubblegum break, this is a resoundingly mediocre police procedural novel. It gains whatever energy it has largely from associations with the series. If you haven't watched the show, you need to be a very undiscerning reader to get a kick out of this; if you have, you're either going to geek out and overrate or wish they'd got Castle a better ghostwriter. ...more
Jayaprakash
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