I had read The Maltese Falcon years ago but remembered very little of it aside from it having a complicated plot. Since I read it the same year I started delving hard into crime fiction, it kind of got lost in the shuffle of other classics I read, especially compared to Hammett’s sensational Red Harvest, a pulp masterpiece that would get my vote for best crime novel of all-time. But as I have never seen the movie, and keep forgetting the thread of what many allege to be one […]
Cold Case
As an avid book reader who appreciates a good series to dive into, it’s fun when you discover a writer whose voice you really enjoy. Though there are many issues with Walking the Perfect Square, I liked this one a lot. Reed Farrel Coleman has a great sense of time. His version of 70s New York City feels real and lived in. His main character, Moe Prager, is an interesting one. An Jewish ex-cop moonlighting here as a private eye for a high profile mystery case, […]
Women of her class are molded to be ornaments
At this point, I think enough Cannonballers have written rave reviews about Sherry Thomas’ “Lady Sherlock Series”. Just read these books if the subject matter appeals to you at all. They are a treasure and I think that each one is better than the last. “The Hollow of Fear” is the third book in the series. I have to admit, again, that my Sherlock Holmes background is via Madonna’s ex husband and Benedict Cumberbatch. I, therefore, come at these books without a reference point for […]
Mystery and Racism
In an alternate universe, names like Gar Anthony Haywood and Walter Mosley are known in the same company as those of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. For they too write talented PI characters set in California locations that deal with social issues. Fear of the Dark is Haywood’s freshman effort and it netted him multiple prestigious writing awards for best first novel, including the Anthony and Shamus awards respectively. He should be better known than he is and yet I hadn’t heard of him until I read […]
An Entertaining Mess
To conclude his first LA Quartet, James Ellroy goes back to his roots a little: the entirety of this book is told in the first person as opposed to the shifting points-of-view we usually get from his other stuff. The result is as my headline says: an entertaining mess. When reading the first few chapters, I was relieved to only have to follow one character’s motives instead of three or four. But as with the rest of his books, the plotting here is dense and […]
Vampire, PI
I read almost all of Charlie Huston’s catalogue between 2011-2012. I loved the Hank Thompson trilogy and The Shotgun Rule was good as well. I don’t often enjoy fun, trashy Tarantino-esque thrill writers but Huston has more talent than most. I couldn’t put his books down. The ending of the Hank Thompson trilogy stays with me to this day. However, I avoided the Joe Pitt series series for a long time because I don’t like those kinds of monster crossover works. I tried one Jim Butcher book and […]
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