This was a tough call between 3 and 4 stars. Gonna lean on the side of 4 because I think this book has a lot going for it even if it is an exhausting read at times. I read George Pelecanos’ Nick Stefanos series last year. Had I read it in my 20s, I probably would have loved the notion of a bartender-cum-PI who lives a loner life. I still enjoy going out and having a good time even now I’m my 30s, though I […]
Los Angeles Nightmare
My James Ellroy kick continues, this time with a book that’s more of a horror novel than mystery. Book two of Ellroy’s LA Quartet, this is where he began to find his voice. One could see glimpses in The Black Dahlia of the writer he would become. The Big Nowhere proves he can handle a story with a larger scope than a typical paperback mystery. Ostensibly about the police squeezing the communists who hold the line for unions combating their studio employers, The Big Nowhere manages to mesh in the mob […]
We’ll Always Have Budapest
Dang it! I really did not need another mystery series to get into. A few years ago, I read Roseanna, which is book one in Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö’s famed Martin Beck detective series. I liked it fine as a procedural but I’m not much of a fan of procedurals in general. Many complimented the series for the social justice aspect; it was an outsized influence for Henning Mankell in his popular Wallander series. But it just didn’t grab me. The case was interesting enough but it […]
Hardboiled On the Go
It’s going to be difficult to draw out 250 words on this book. Not because it was bad. I rather enjoyed it. But because it’s really not much more than a fun, slim hardboiled tale. But I’m game to try. Denis Johnson is considered by many to be one of the best writers of the last few decades. I myself have never read him so I can’t comment on that. I’ve been meaning to get to Tree of Smoke for several years now. This one might encourage […]