Put off reading this for a long time but I'm glad I finally did. I think seeing that it was a crime novel with a supernatural element put me off a litPut off reading this for a long time but I'm glad I finally did. I think seeing that it was a crime novel with a supernatural element put me off a little, not that I was worried that it wouldn't be wrapped up neatly (who cares about that?), but because to my mind good crime novels right now are about exploring place, and hearing there was a supernatural element made me guess there wouldn't be any of that. I was right, but this isn't a crime novel. It just has some cops and murder to kick things off. Anyway none of that matter because this one is good. It's really good.
Could be just the southern setting but this reminded me a bit of Charles Portis, although maybe it's just because they both wrote books that have some extremely funny bits but that would be spoiled if they were sold as comedies. ...more
Nightmare Town: lot of action but it's just a guy with a walking stick, so it isn't really thrilling. Reveal is great (view spoiler)[the entire town iNightmare Town: lot of action but it's just a guy with a walking stick, so it isn't really thrilling. Reveal is great (view spoiler)[the entire town is a front for a bootlegging operation and about to burn for the insurance money (hide spoiler)] but just sort of blurted out at the end
House Dick: our first Continental Op story! Reads almost like a Dick Tracy comic, but I loved it. Three bodies fall out of a hotel closet, and it turns out (view spoiler)[it's all a case of mistaken identity in a sort of gang war (hide spoiler)]
Ruffian's Wife: a good crime story told form the POV of a wandering adventurer's stay-at-home wife
The Man Who Killed Dan Odams: the best story so far. Great forward action that keeps you guessing at what happened before the story started, and I didn't see the twist coming at all (view spoiler)[the woman whose house he invades is the widow of Dan Odams (hide spoiler)] which isn't just a twist but lends an extra poignancy to the proceedings. Or rather, it highlights a certain moral ambiguity which turns this into something more than a simple adventure. A western and a crime story, I'm surprised this has never been adapted into a movie.
Night Shots: A locked room murder mystery, or close to it, I guess. Starring the Continental Op. Atmospheric. The villain of the piece (gambling, adulterous, spendthrift scoundrel etc who jokes and laughs at the Op's work) is not the murderer, which is a nice touch. And the solution is inventive but plausible: the old man sick in bed was trying to kill his own nurse because he thought he confessed the years ago murder of his wife to her. He makes it look like an assassin is bungling the job trying to kill him. Even better punchline: the nurse says he didn't confess anything, just made her afraid because he was shouting obscenities while doped up....more
Very fun crime novel. The first half or even three quarters is almost like a breezy Elmore Leonard crime hangout, except here it's with two PIs, and tVery fun crime novel. The first half or even three quarters is almost like a breezy Elmore Leonard crime hangout, except here it's with two PIs, and then at the end everything comes together brilliantly and there's a great climax with a lot of action.
There's a lot of stuff on race relations, a Black PI working with a white PI who shot a Black cop on the job, but because it's the central crime of the novel there's a lot more to it than that. I don't want to pick it all apart here. Pelecanos wrote for The Wire, so it's on about that level of liberalism. Some of it works for me, some of it doesn't.
Loading...
