(This is a blog post I did that covers the two Leonard books featuring Jack Ryan.)
One of my favorite aspects about Elmore Leonard’s writing was that b(This is a blog post I did that covers the two Leonard books featuring Jack Ryan.)
One of my favorite aspects about Elmore Leonard’s writing was that by shifting perspectives constantly he had the ability to make you sympathize with a character so that the hero of the story might not be who you thought it was at the beginning of a book. Fans of television’s Justified who pick up Pronto for the first time will probably be confused as to why the first half of the book makes Raylan Givens look like a doofus being easily outwitted by Harry Arno. It’s only late in the story that Raylan emerges as the real main character while Harry fades into a whining supporting role.
Leonard would even take a character that appeared sympathetic in one book and make them far less so in another. Probably the most famous example of this was how the main characters in The Switch became the bickering lowlifes of Rum Punch. (Better known by its movie title of Jackie Brown.)
In the Leonard universe, being cool was the thing that counted most. Whether the lead was a cop or a crook, all sins were forgiven so long as they were cool about it. When they became uncool, they became unlikable and almost by default the villains of that story. Jack Ryan from The Big Bounce and Unknown Man #89 is unique because it seems like Leonard couldn’t decide if he was cool or not.
Ryan certainly doesn’t seem like a good guy at the beginning of The Big Bounce where he’s in hot water after beating up a guy with a baseball bat. Ryan loses his job picking cucumbers and is lucky not to land in jail. He follows that up by brazenly stealing a bunch of wallets after walking into a house while the owners are partying on a nearby lakeside beach. However, a local resort owner sees something worthwhile in Ryan and hires him as a handyman. Jack isn’t entirely sure how he feels about this job or having someone trust him. New temptation arrives in the form of a woman named Nancy, the mistress of a wealthy businessman who is tired of hanging out at his lake house and has been entertaining herself by shooting out random windows and running other people off the road in her car.
Nancy entices and teases Jack into engaging in some vandalism and house breaking with her, but she has a bigger goal in mind. Her lover is going to have a large amount of cash in his house, and she wants Jack to help her steal it.
The Big Bounce was Leonard’s first contemporary crime novel, but he already had his hallmarks of sharp dialogue and a variety of offbeat characters engaging with each other while working their own angles. What makes it interesting is how it hinges on which way Jack will turn. Nancy seems like a kindred soul and that the two should instantly become a Bonnie & Clyde style duo. However, seeing Nancy’s random cruelty and disregard for other people seems to awaken Ryan’s seemingly dormant empathy.
It’s a very different Jack Ryan that we meet in Unknown Man # 89. Set years later in Detroit, Jack has gone straight and is a process server with a reputation of being able to find almost anyone. Mr. Perez comes to town from Louisiana and hires Jack to find a man as part of a complicated stock scheme. A criminal named Virgil Royal is also looking for the same guy to recover some money he thinks he’s owed.
When Jack meets the missing man’s drunken wife Denise, he finds himself falling for her and starts to screw up Perez’s business. To keep things on track, Perez brings in a redneck thug while pushing Jack to help him finalize the deal. Jack begins his own schemes to help Denise keep the money for herself even if she doesn’t want it.
Another element has been added to Jack at this point with his being an admitted alcoholic who has been on the wagon. While he certainly liked his beer in The Big Bounce, there was never a sense that Jack was a drunk so that element seems to come out of nowhere and a bit clumsily used to establish an instant connection between him and Denise as he tries to help her get sober.
There’s an odd arc to Jack through these two books with him starting as a cocky small-time petty crook whose ego has him on a permanent path of self-destruction who eventually comes to appreciate the value of someone giving him a break after meeting a truly bad woman. Then the subdued Jack Ryan who works an offbeat but honest job finds himself embroiled with criminals and doing some pretty shady stuff in order to help out an innocent woman. Or at least that’s what he says. It often feels like Jack is rebelling against Perez for his arrogant assumption that Jack has been bought and paid for. So there’s the return of a Jack Ryan acting in destructive ways out of pride, just in service of a nobler cause.
Re-reading the two books back to back illustrates how Leonard's characters were very often not what they appeared to be, or even who they thought they were themselves.
As a top agent for Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Lucas Davenport has mastered the art of introducing himself to local law enforcement sAs a top agent for Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Lucas Davenport has mastered the art of introducing himself to local law enforcement so that they won’t resent him as an outsider coming in to tell them how to do their job:
The cop who’d followed Lucas in said, “Hey, when I’m talking to you…”
Lucas pointed his finger at him and snarled, “Shut the fuck up. Who’s running this clown factory?”
As a plain-clothes cop, Lucas is also well aware of the danger of running across other police officers during a pursuit and the proper way to identify himself:
Both the cops were screaming at him and Lucas shouted, “BCA, you dumb motherfuckers,” and finally one of the cops waved a hand at his partner and said, “Put the gun in the street.”
“Fuck you,” Lucas yelled back. “My hands are over my head, I’m not touching the gun again because you dumb motherfuckers’ll shoot me sure as shit.”
Lucas can also demonstrate his gift of diplomacy and calm persuasion when dealing with a reluctant witness who is in danger but still refuses to reveal anything about the criminal enterprise he’s involved in:
The sat in silence for a moment, and then Lucas said, “Well, fuck ya. We told ya.”
As these quotes show, Lucas is a little grumpy in this one. Despite everything going well on the personal front, he’s chafing a bit at the blatant political nature of his new state job as the governor’s guy who ‘fixes shit’, and he’s also starting to worry that being surrounded by violent death for over twenty years has started to take a toll.
But when a Russian is killed at a dock on Lake Superior, the international pressure demands some kind of solution so Lucas finds himself teamed up with a pretty woman sent from Moscow to observe the investigation. Nadya claims to be a Russian cop, but Lucas is pretty sure she’s actually an intelligence agent and her agenda may be different from his. The FBI is also sniffing around, but they’re far more worried about terrorists than revisiting the Cold War. Lucas cares little about the ‘spy shit’, but he does get irked when more bodies start dropping all over Minnesota.
The spy angle and Davenport’s dissatisfaction with the job are a departure from the usual Prey books, but a grumpy Lucas is also a funny Lucas. Sandford has been making noises about ending the series for some time, but this as the first clear idea in the books that Lucas might be thinking about quitting law enforcement for good. Since there’s been about 10 more books since then, he apparently got over it although Sandford still talks about wrapping up Lucas’ story at some point.
This one also features another interesting twist on the villain with a Soviet era spy who is still a true believer in Communism and has raised his grandson to follow in his murderous footsteps. It’s another good step away from the typical serial killer we usually get in thrillers.
A supermodel is found strangled at a wild house party and her death is guaranteed to create a media frenzy. There are also two other factors complicatA supermodel is found strangled at a wild house party and her death is guaranteed to create a media frenzy. There are also two other factors complicating Lucas Davenport’s investigation. The first is that a another body is found in a closet at the house, and the second is that one of his cops, an undercover narcotics officer, was also at the party. Lucas will have to put a little overtime in on this one.
With a house full of drugged up fashion industry people there when the model was killed, Davenport has plenty of suspects to check out, and he has to keep the media beast fed with daily distractions and tidbits to avoid it turning its fearsome attention on the police department and consuming it whole. There are other diversions like needing to get a convicted murderer out of prison when his alleged victim shows up alive and well.
And then there are the women. Lucas has always been a bit of a man-ho, but he’s pushing his luck after he runs into an old flame with a shaky marriage as well as flirting with a beautiful ex-model. Then there’s his ex-fiancé who shows up and may be interested in reconciliation.
This is one of the more off-beat books in the Prey series. There’s a surprising amount of humor despite all the death with a running joke about Lucas refusing to turn on his cell phone and numerous funny exchanges between characters. There’s even a slightly shocking admission that occurs after an officer has been hurt when Lucas comments that he’d actually been having fun up until that point because a puzzling high profile murder with intense media and political pressure is his idea of a good time.
This is also one of the few Davenport thrillers where we don’t get much of the killer’s point of view. There are only a couple of interludes where Sandford gave us brief glimpses of what the killer was thinking, and even at the end after it’s been resolved we never get the usual shift to the villain’s outlook so they can explain themselves a bit.
It’s a fun read and enjoyable as a whodunit, but it doesn’t have the same momentum and drive that most of the Prey books did. It almost seems relaxed compared to the others. So while it’s another entertaining Davenport story, it’s far from the best of the series.
Wealthy Heidi Bradshaw made her money the old fashioned way, by marrying and divorcing rich men. She wants Spenser to escort her to her daughter’s wedWealthy Heidi Bradshaw made her money the old fashioned way, by marrying and divorcing rich men. She wants Spenser to escort her to her daughter’s wedding on a ritzy private island she owns even thought she already has a security force. Spenser takes the job and brings his girlfriend Susan along. Shortly after they arrive on the island, Spenser sees an old frenenemy of his. Rugar (a/k/a The Gray Man) is an international assassin who very nearly killed Spenser once although the two eventually made a sort of peace.
Does Spenser alert the security forces that a very dangerous man is on the island? Does he urge his client to postpone the wedding until he can figure out why Rugar is there? Does he demand any clarification as to why he was hired? Does he call the cops or any of the many thugs he knows to come back him up against one of the most dangerous men he ever faced? Does he put his pain-in-the-ass girlfriend on a boat back to the mainland to make sure she’s out of danger?
He does none of these things.
So when Rugar uses a helicopter to land a small army on the island during the wedding despite a rising storm, then kills several people and kidnaps the bride, Spenser isn’t exactly prepared for the situation, but he does manage to eventually escape Rugar’s men.
With the helicopter unable to take off while the storm is going on, does Spenser pull a Die Hard and kill off all of the bad guys? Does he try to get to a radio or find some other means of calling for help? Does he try to lead the rest of the wedding guests or the woman paying him to safety?
He does none of these things.
What he does is to go rescue Susan (but only Susan) from the bad guys and hides in a barn all night with her until the Rugar and his guys leave with the bride once the storm breaks.
This isn't exactly Spenser’s finest hour.
It’s kind of a shame because the set-up of having Spenser trapped alone on an island with a bunch of mercenaries and one of his deadliest foes could have been a pretty entertaining action story that broke up the stale formula of the later books. Instead of Spenser channeling his inner John McClane, the early chapters are just used as an excuse for Spenser to do his usual thing after that. He runs around trying to figure out who would hire Rugar to kidnap the bride while getting into the psychological issues and ugly personal histories of those involved. Even the potential rematch of Rugar Vs. Spenser is short changed in this story.
Parker tried to explain away why Spenser is so nonchalant about the appearance of Rugar on the island at first and works very hard to rationalize his behavior once things get bloody. Realistically, running and hiding is the smart thing to do so I can understand that part of it.
However, these types of PI novels aren't supposed to be about realistic behavior in the main characters. If they were, it’d be just stories about some boring people running a bunch of background checks on their computers. I read this sub-genre for larger than life heroes going above and beyond the call of duty. Hiding until the bad guys leave may be what most of us would do, but I expect more from a fictional bad ass like Spenser.
Frankly, he just seems like kind of an idiot in this one.
Up next: I finally close out this endless cycle of bitching with the one Spenser I haven’t read, Chasing the Bear. ...more
Unlike most of the Prey books, this one starts out with a man in love. Unfortunately, Koop is a cat burglar with severe psycho-sexual problems that caUnlike most of the Prey books, this one starts out with a man in love. Unfortunately, Koop is a cat burglar with severe psycho-sexual problems that cause him to occasionally kidnap a woman and gut her like a fish. So when he sees beautiful Sara Jensen sleeping during one his break-ins, Koop instantly becomes obsessed and begins secretly stalking her while taking out his building frustration on random women.
A Minnesota state investigator named Meagan Connell has picked up on Koop’s pattern. Since Meagan has terminal cancer and nothing to lose, she’s become the anti-Walter White and is doing everything she can to catch the killer before her time runs out. This means that she has put intense political pressure on the new Minneapolis police chief, Rose Marie Roux.
Ah, but Roux has a secret weapon. She recently brought Lucas Davenport back to the police force. Officially, he’s a deputy chief running an intelligence group targeting career criminals. Unofficially Lucas is her trouble-shooter during the major crimes that whip the media and public into a frenzy.
As Lucas works with the driven Connell on the killings, he’s also dealing with some big adjustments. The game has changed in the two years he’s been away. Every petty criminal now carries a gun. The homicide unit is being crushed by a soaring murder rate. The media is growing ever more aggressive and irresponsible and increasing the pressure on the politicians and cops. Maybe the biggest change is that Lucas is now living with his girlfriend. He loves her, but he’s still a man-ho and an attractive TV reporter has caught his eye.
The villains set the tone in the Prey books, and Koop is a worthy and creepy addition to their ranks. He’s a body-builder with a taste for cocaine, and while he’s got a criminal slyness, he’s not one those genius serial killers that populate thrillers. Koop is really little more than an animal who relentlessly prowls the city in his truck. He has no introspection and no guilt. He wants what he wants, and he’ll cave in anyone’s skull to get it. There’s just enough control to barely allow him to behave somewhat normally and cover his tracks, but he can snap at any moment.
(view spoiler)[It’s telling that Davenport has a hard time getting his head around Koop and doesn’t pull any of his usual tricks to smoke him out until after they’ve identified him through a break in the case. Even the trap that they set for Koop depends on letting his own nature work against him rather than Davenport prodding him into a mistake. Koop's simplistic, wary and anti-social nature makes him a hard target for the kind of subtle manipulation that Lucas usually uses. Instead Lucas almost has to become a hunter who waits quietly in one spot as he tries not to spook his target. (hide spoiler)]
This one also marks a new phase in the life of Lucas. With a new job and a live-in girlfriend, this is where we start seeing a more mature and responsible side of Davenport in future books rather than just the rich-cop-playing-by-his-own-rules we’d had up until now.
Since his New York adventure from the last book was wrapped up, Lucas Davenport is again bored and at loose ends. With nothing better to do, Lucas is Since his New York adventure from the last book was wrapped up, Lucas Davenport is again bored and at loose ends. With nothing better to do, Lucas is riding out a long winter in his cabin in the woods of Wisconsin. Once again it’s the murder of innocent people that will give Davenport something to occupy his time. The guy really needs a hobby…
A vicious killer who thinks of himself as the Iceman is desperate to stop a compromising photograph becoming public so he butchers a family and burns their house down to try and destroy it. With the town’s priest implicated in the crime and the small community terrified, the overwhelmed sheriff asks Davenport for help. As Lucas tries to track him down the Iceman grows ever more desperate and violent.
The Prey series has such a generally consistent level of quality that it’s hard to pick a high point for the series, but I’d name this one as my favorite. Having Lucas work with a bunch of small town cops was a new wrinkle to the formula, especially since the last book had Davenport in New York so it really felt like a change of pace.
The Iceman was one of the nastier and more memorable killers in the long list of villains the series has had, and Sandford did a great job of showing us his point of view while disguising his identity so that when he’s finally revealed it’s a very satisfying answer. This one is also a turning point for the series with the introduction of Weather Karkinnen, the doctor who’d become a very important figure in Lucas’s life.
Another aspect that sets this one apart is the backdrop of an absolutely brutal winter. Blizzards and temperatures well below freezing have made simply going outside incredibly dangerous. Sandford has a talent for making you feel the wind chill, and the way he describes a frozen wasteland creates a bleak mood that perfectly matches the crimes that drive the story. This one is Sandford at his best.
A bored Lucas Davenport is a dangerous Lucas Davenport, and now that he’s no longer a cop, Lucas is very bored. While his gaming and police simulationA bored Lucas Davenport is a dangerous Lucas Davenport, and now that he’s no longer a cop, Lucas is very bored. While his gaming and police simulation software company is making him oodles of money, Lucas misses the action of his old job and is trying to spice things up by picking bar fights and seeing if he can break the sound barrier in his Porsche.
Relief from the tedium comes when a serial killing psycho that Lucas had caught escapes from jail during his trial and heads to New York where he embarks on a splashy murder spree. Davenport’s old flame, NYPD detective Lily Rothenburg, recruits Lucas to consult with them on the manhunt, but that’s only part of the reason that she wants him to come to Manhattan. Lily has been investigating the possibility that a group of NYPD officers have been killing career criminals, and another cop was murdered when he started closing in on identifying some of them. Under the guise of hunting the serial killer, Lily wants to put Lucas with some of the cops suspected of being part of the group to see what he can shake loose. Davenport may have been craving some excitement but hunting a madman and a group of rogue cops may be a little more than he was hoping for.
So this one has two parallel stories, and Sandford used a fairly big coincidence to get them to intersect. Davenport trying to sniff out a group of vigilantes hiding in the NYPD is the more interesting of the two. There’s a lot of stuff about using these new fangled computers to identify patterns that should seem dated as hell, but Sandford has always had a knack for incorporating technology of the day without dwelling on it so that it doesn’t drag down the core story.
There’s also a point made that killing off some of New York’s worst repeat criminals to make a difference seems terrifyingly practical on some level. When one of the bad guy explains himself late in the book, he notes that by killing off a relative handful of scumbags, they can eliminate thousands of crimes that impact innocent people. Seeing Lucas, who has his own habit of sometimes taking the law into his own hands, dealing with the fall-out of this was particularly interesting.
Unfortunately it’s the serial killer stuff that takes up a larger part of the book. This villain is not one of my favorite bad guys in the Prey series, and spending so much time in his head isn’t a lot of fun. Sandford tried to make him completely insane and yet rational enough to evade a full-scale manhunt for him, and the two tones just don’t mix well. Plus, the better Davenport villains usually have some kind of self-interested motive rather than just being crazy town banana pants so I find a guy killing for the sake of killing lacking when compared to some of the other baddies in the series.
I’d recommend reading Eyes of Prey before this since it functions as a direct sequel to that one.
Most mental health professionals would probably tell you that a clinical depression needs to be treated with a combination of drugs and therapy, but LMost mental health professionals would probably tell you that a clinical depression needs to be treated with a combination of drugs and therapy, but Lucas Davenport found his own method of pulling himself out of a funk by beating the snot out of a pimp and then trying to track down a pair of wacko serial killers. I guess it’s cheaper than Prozac.
An insane pathologist, Michael Bekker, has teamed up with a deformed stage actor named Carlo Druze to pull a Hitchcock-style Strangers On A Train arrangement in which Druze will kill Bekker’s wife in exchange for Bekker murdering a theater manager that is about to fire Druze. Their plan goes off the rails when the lover of Bekker’s wife walks in on Druze after he just finished killing her. The lover escapes and calls the police but refuses to identify himself or come in as a witness.
Meanwhile, Davenport has been fighting off suicidal thoughts and trying to pull himself out of a deep, dark mental hole. Bekker is such a weird and creepy person that almost everyone who knows him assumes he killed his wife or hired it done, but his alibi is airtight. The complicated case gets Davenport interested in something for the first time in months, and he throws himself into the investigation while trying to find the witness who could identify Druze.
The beginning of this one makes it seem as if Sandford was using the burned-out-cop cliché, but what makes it interesting is the twist that he puts on it. It isn’t police work that has sent Lucas spiraling down, it’s a brutal and gruesome case that perks him back up. Like Sherlock Holmes, Lucas lives for interesting problems and his mind turns on him when he doesn't have some puzzle to think about. As usual in the Prey series, there’s some genuinely freaky bad guys, and Davenport engages in all kinds of shady maneuvers as he tries to push them into a mistake.
The only problem with this one is that the Bekker character is a bit too much. He’s fascinating as a monster obsessed with death that literally breaks into a jig sometimes, but it’s kinda hard to believe that a guy who is that goddamn crazy can make the coldly logical moves that Bekker comes up with to throw the cops off their trail. Sandford is great at creating villains who are chilling sociopaths but he generally also gives them motives like greed, revenge or jealousy to go along with their insanity. Bekker starts out like that but degenerates into this cartoonish version of a serial killer who is hooked on prescription drugs and has done everything from killing children in a cancer ward to torturing a paralyzed woman for his ‘research’ into death.
Still it’s another great thriller from Sandford with some genuinely surprising twists that changed the course of the entire series.
Two aging radical Sioux named Sam and Aaron Crow have planned a murderous terror campaign in which they’ve sent their followers to several locations aTwo aging radical Sioux named Sam and Aaron Crow have planned a murderous terror campaign in which they’ve sent their followers to several locations across the country to kill various government officials and other people they consider enemies of Native Americans. When throats start getting cut from Minnesota to New York, Lucas Davenport and the other Minneapolis cops find themselves in the middle of a national crisis.
While John Sandford greatly expanded the scale from the first book to the second, he doesn’t skimp on adding new dimensions to his main character. Lucas is often frustrated in this one because he doesn’t have good contacts in the Native American community of Minneapolis. Feeling useless pushes him in reckless directions and prompts him to try a fairly ugly and shady scheme to work people for information.
In addition to the work, Lucas is dealing with being a new father with his semi-regular girlfriend but he’s also a chronic womanizer so a visiting NYPD detective named Lily Rothenberg catches his eye and the feeling is mutual. Fortunately, Sandford spices up the trope of having the hero hook up with someone in an action story by putting some weight and consequences to the relationship between Lily and Lucas. Davenport cares about his girlfriend but that doesn’t stop him from seeing other women. Lily is in a supposedly happy marriage, but can’t help feeling attracted to Lucas. Their relationship highlights their flaws and makes this whole romantic sub-plot a lot easier to take than the usual cliche of the main characters in a thriller falling for each other instantly and tumbling into bed.
Sandford displays another aspect he’d continue to give us throughout the series: memorable villains. The Crows actually seem like good and honorable guys in their own way, and the plan they’ve come up with is fiendishly clever with a definite goal in mind. There’s another level of evil added with the man they consider their son, Shadow Love. Shadow is such a psycho that the Crows are hesitant to use him in a rampage that’s designed to kill multiple people. When people think that a guy is too crazy to be used in a killing spree, that’s when you know he’s nuts.
Sandford also showed off his knack for creating tense scenarios that imagine large scale manhunts amidst media freakouts. This was written in 1990, but Sandford foreshadowed some elements that would become all too familiar. When one character refers to the killings as the first large scale and organized acts of terror on American soil, it’s chilling. Even creepier is when one of the murders takes place in the Oklahoma City federal building which would become infamous just a few years later.
It’s another action-packed and smart thriller which showed that Davenport would be doing more than just chasing serial killers in every book.
Next: Lucas beats up a pimp and tracks a couple of serial killers in Eyes of Prey. ...more
Once upon a time, Spenser tracked down a young runaway prostitute named April Kyle in Ceremony and had to save her again in Taming A Sea-Horse. Now ApOnce upon a time, Spenser tracked down a young runaway prostitute named April Kyle in Ceremony and had to save her again in Taming A Sea-Horse. Now April is back and in need of his help. Hopefully the third time’s the charm.
April is now a polished veteran of the world of high class prostitution, and she’s graduated to madam status by setting up a classy brothel in Boston. Someone is trying to muscle into her business so she turns to Spenser for help.
Spenser has always felt responsible and guilty for April ending up as a professional sex worker even though he did the best he could for her. Despite seeming like a relatively well-adjusted business woman, Spenser can’t help but feel that the life he couldn’t entirely save April from has taken a toll on her. It’s that dynamic that adds some extra depth to this one. April represents a failure at some level to Spenser, and he’s never really come to terms with that.
This is a pretty solid late entry in the series although once again the book gets weaker when it moves from Spenser trying to protect April’s business from thugs to Spenser trying to delve into April’s psychological well-being. There’s a fair amount of Susan, but she’s only moderately annoying.
What really sets this one apart is the ending. (view spoiler)[Spenser learning how damaged and murderous April has become, and then her subsequent suicide in front of him is one of the darkest and most powerful moments in the series. I especially liked Hawk’s conversation with Spenser leading up to it in which it’s evident that they both know that April is bad news. Hawk’s effort to gently push Spenser into facing up to the truth shows just how well the two men know each other. (hide spoiler)]
Next up: Susan’s life is threatened but unfortunately Spenser’s enemy doesn’t get the job done in Now & Then....more
Hang on a second. I gotta start listening to Harold Faltermeyer's soundtrack while I write this review.
Fletch Won is the eighth book in the series, bHang on a second. I gotta start listening to Harold Faltermeyer's soundtrack while I write this review.
Fletch Won is the eighth book in the series, but it’s a prequel to the original Fletch. Young Irwin M. Fletcher is a Vietnam veteran trying to become a sports reporter, but he’s been stuck writing obituaries and headlines for his newspaper. His irreverent attitude angers his editor and gets him assigned to a fluff story about a wealthy criminal lawyer donating $5 million to an art museum, but the attorney is killed in the newspaper’s parking garage before Fletch even meets him.
Despite Fletch insisting that he should get to cover it, the murder is given to the paper’s bullying crime reporter, and Fletch is given the task of infiltrating a whore house masquerading as a gym instead. However, Fletch keeps digging into the attorney’s life which annoys his fiancé who thinks he’ll get fired right before their wedding.
I noted in my review of Fletch that there’s a curious thing about the print and movie versions of the character. While Chevy Chase’s portrayal captured the smug smart-ass nature of Fletch, the film one was also more of a goofball with funny disguises and pratfalls. There’s sometimes an edgier meanness to Fletch in the books.
Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and there’s certainly no shortage of smart ass protagonists in crime fiction, but Fletch’s tone frequently makes him seem like kind of a asshole and puts him far down the list of my favorite fictional sleuths....more
When rereading one of these Travis McGee novel, I have to weigh the parts I like against the terrible sexism inherent to the books. Usually this balanWhen rereading one of these Travis McGee novel, I have to weigh the parts I like against the terrible sexism inherent to the books. Usually this balances out fairly evenly, but this time the old Sea Cock* dropped the equivalent of a cartoon anvil on the wrong side of the scales.
This one had a lot of promise starting out. McGee is having a personal crisis after a misjudgment nearly gets him killed, and his best friend Meyer points out that it may be time for him to get out of the business of conning the con men of the world if his instincts are failing. Retirement could take the form of sailing off into the sunset with a wealthy widow if McGee can bring himself to accept the role of a kept man
As he is pondering his future, McGee is also looking for Mary Broll after a visit from her husband. Like every other woman in his life, McGee had once taken Mary for a long rape pleasure cruise on his house boat, but he hasn’t seen her since she got married. Mary’s estranged husband hasn’t seen her in months since she took off after catching him with another woman, and McGee gets worried that something may have happened to her.
As another one of McGee’s adventures in which he ends up acting as both con man and detective, this would rate pretty highly. The self-doubt of his abilities gives him a valid reason for the kind of navel gazing he engages in regularly. MacDonald’s best writing in this series usually comes up during McGee’s brooding and bitching about the vagaries of modern life in the era, and he delivers several great rants here.
But the women. The poor, poor women…
I don’t even know where to start. Some examples:
- There’s a private yacht crewed by hookers who simply love taking wealthy men out to sea as they prance around the boat naked. This is presented as one of the greatest small business ideas in history.
- A sassy bank teller stands up to her ass-grabbing boss in front of McGee and Meyer. After she leaves the room, McGee tells the banker that he should show respect to the pretty female employees and only grab the asses of the ugly ones if he wants a happy bank.
- McGee’s suspicions that something has happened to Mary are mainly based around his belief that she would have automatically run back to him since he did such a bang-up (Pun intended.) job of sexual healing on her the first time.
- Every attractive woman in the book flirts with or tries to sleep with McGee.
- Near the end, McGee seems to finally have some self-awareness of what a man whore he is and that his history of sexing up women with problems as a way of ‘helping them’ was probably a bad thing. The solution? Make sure the next woman he takes out for one of his sex cruises doesn’t have any issues. Fortunately one happens along about ten minutes later.
- Worst and creepiest of all, when McGee tracks down a woman involved with Mary’s disappearance, he pretends to be a scamming sociopath who wants to cut himself in on the scheme. He does this by choking the woman nearly unconscious and there’s a strong hint that he does more to her because she essentially begs him to force the whole story out of her. Of course, she keeps trying to seduce him after this but Seacock has far too many morals to sleep with this woman so he makes up a terrifying story about killing another former female partner to scare her pants on. Did I say he was pretending to be a sociopath? It was kind of hard to tell….
I’ve tried to make allowances for the books up until now because they were written in the ‘60s so a certain amount of Don Draper-style attitudes should probably be expected. But this one was published in 1971. Robert B. Parker’s first Spenser book would come out two years later, and Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder wasn’t far behind, so the idea that this kind of thing was part of the standard equipment for crime novels of the day is starting to get pretty thin.
Two stars and slightly shocked frowny face....more
Apparently one of my favorite mystery writers has a bit of a kinky side.
This one seriously shocked me when I first read it back in 2002. Part of this Apparently one of my favorite mystery writers has a bit of a kinky side.
This one seriously shocked me when I first read it back in 2002. Part of this was because Lawrence Block represents New York to me in a lot of ways, and it seemed like this book was his response to 9/11. While the shadow of that day hangs over everything, it was odd to find that a big part of the story also involved nipple rings, bondage and various sex toys.
The story starts several months after the Twin Towers collapsed. The body of a murdered woman is discovered in her apartment, and a writer named John Blair Creighton is arrested since he admits that he went home with her after they met in a bar. Art gallery owner Susan Pomerance gets fascinated by the case since the woman had been her realtor, and her morbid curiosity about the murder and Creighton comes as she discovers an increasing desire for new sexual experiences. Former police commissioner Francis Buckram is bored and killing time with public speaking engagements and considering running for mayor in the next election.
A series of shocking murders occur by a man the press dubs The Carpenter because of his use of a hammer as a weapon. Block reveals to the reader that killer was just another retired middle-aged New Yorker who lost his entire family because of 9/11, and now that grief has transformed into an insane belief that the city requires a series of sacrifices to sustain itself.
When a link is made from The Carpenter’s killings to the death of the realtor, Creighton becomes a celebrity and his stalled writing career takes off. Susan meets Buckram and seduces him with a dominatrix routine that shocks and thrills him. Susan also continues to be obsessed with Creighton while Buckram is fascinated by the manhunt for The Carpenter. Meanwhile, Creighton begins to enjoy his new found fame while having doubts about if he actually did kill the realtor while in an alcoholic blackout.
Block does a nice job of developing all of these characters and many more supporting players like a gay alcoholic cleaner who discovered the first body and finds himself an unwitting player in The Carpenter’s delusions. By putting together a series of chance encounters that have profound impacts on those involved, Block really does sell the idea that New York is really a small town when viewed from inside these webs of relationships. I particularly enjoyed the story of how Creighton’s shame at being accused of murder turns into the best thing for his life and career.
But damn there’s a lot of sex in this…..
Susan’s erotic adventures include a wide variety of encounters and Block spares no detail. It’s the same type of stuff he’s done in other books like Getting Off, but where he combined sex and murder seamlessly in that one, he never quite gets the same thing going here. Susan’s story seems removed and distant from what else is going on in the book despite her being one of the key links between everyone. Going from a story about a man driven mad by 9/11 and showing how this effects various New Yorkers just doesn’t fit with the sexual encounters of a woman exploring her kinky side.
I think part of my disappointment stems from the notion that this was going to be Block delving into what 9/11 did to New York, but other than The Carpenter, none of the characters make anything other than causal remarks or observations about how the city has changed since. For me, Block had deeper and more meaningful things to say about the subject when he wrote about how his professional killer character Keller reacted in Hit Parade. ...more
One of the most challenging books I've read, and one that I got a lot of satisfaction out finishing. Stephenson's got a wildly inventive mind and readOne of the most challenging books I've read, and one that I got a lot of satisfaction out finishing. Stephenson's got a wildly inventive mind and reading him is like jumping onto a high speed bullet train at full speed.
It took about 70 pages to get used to the new 'language' that he invented for this story, and I had to refer to the glossary repeatedly, but suddenly it just clicked, and I was completly caught up in the world Stephenson created.
Not for casual reading, but fans of sci fi, physics or alternate world plots should give it a try....more
I had an itch to revisit this one since the latest film version of Logan’s adventures, The Wolverine, is inspired by and loosely based on it. (Check oI had an itch to revisit this one since the latest film version of Logan’s adventures, The Wolverine, is inspired by and loosely based on it. (Check out my review of the movie on Shelf Inflicted.)
While Logan is off in the wilderness dealing with a rogue grizzly and some dumb-ass hunters, his girlfriend Mariko returns to Japan with no explanation. Logan follows her to Tokyo where he is shocked to learn that Mariko’s missing father Shingen has returned and set up an arranged marriage for her which she was honor bound to go through with. When Logan goes to see her, Shingen tricks him dishonoring himself in front of Mariko and nearly kills him in the process.
Ashamed and heartsick, Logan finds himself in a rebound relationship with a female assassin named Yukio who is being pursued by a gang of deadly ninjas called The Hand. Logan tries to get a crime lord off Yukio’s back without realizing that he’s still caught up in a scheme of Shingen’s.
The legend goes that Chris Claremont and Frank Miller had a long car ride together when traveling to some event, and the two cooked up a story that would broaden the character of a mutant Canadian ex-secret agent turned X-Men with a bloodlust and a bad attitude into something more. This mini-series helped Wolverine go from being a minor supporting player as a bloodthirsty X-Man to one of the most popular (and overexposed) members of the Marvel universe.
The story holds up pretty well for being over 30 years old at this point and while some of the cheesy tough guy exposition that Logan spouts seems like it came from a bad detective novel at times, there’s a lot of moments here that would become iconic for the character including his oft quoted line, “I’m the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn’t very nice.”...more
(This is a blog post I did that covers the two Leonard books featuring Jack Ryan.)
One of my favorite aspects about Elmore Leonard’s writing was that b(This is a blog post I did that covers the two Leonard books featuring Jack Ryan.)
One of my favorite aspects about Elmore Leonard’s writing was that by shifting perspectives constantly he had the ability to make you sympathize with a character so that the hero of the story might not be who you thought it was at the beginning of a book. Fans of television’s Justified who pick up Pronto for the first time will probably be confused as to why the first half of the book makes Raylan Givens look like a doofus being easily outwitted by Harry Arno. It’s only late in the story that Raylan emerges as the real main character while Harry fades into a whining supporting role.
Leonard would even take a character that appeared sympathetic in one book and make them far less so in another. Probably the most famous example of this was how the main characters in The Switch became the bickering lowlifes of Rum Punch. (Better known by its movie title of Jackie Brown.)
In the Leonard universe, being cool was the thing that counted most. Whether the lead was a cop or a crook, all sins were forgiven so long as they were cool about it. When they became uncool, they became unlikable and almost by default the villains of that story. Jack Ryan from The Big Bounce and Unknown Man #89 is unique because it seems like Leonard couldn’t decide if he was cool or not.
Ryan certainly doesn’t seem like a good guy at the beginning of The Big Bounce where he’s in hot water after beating up a guy with a baseball bat. Ryan loses his job picking cucumbers and is lucky not to land in jail. He follows that up by brazenly stealing a bunch of wallets after walking into a house while the owners are partying on a nearby lakeside beach. However, a local resort owner sees something worthwhile in Ryan and hires him as a handyman. Jack isn’t entirely sure how he feels about this job or having someone trust him. New temptation arrives in the form of a woman named Nancy, the mistress of a wealthy businessman who is tired of hanging out at his lake house and has been entertaining herself by shooting out random windows and running other people off the road in her car.
Nancy entices and teases Jack into engaging in some vandalism and house breaking with her, but she has a bigger goal in mind. Her lover is going to have a large amount of cash in his house, and she wants Jack to help her steal it.
The Big Bounce was Leonard’s first contemporary crime novel, but he already had his hallmarks of sharp dialogue and a variety of offbeat characters engaging with each other while working their own angles. What makes it interesting is how it hinges on which way Jack will turn. Nancy seems like a kindred soul and that the two should instantly become a Bonnie & Clyde style duo. However, seeing Nancy’s random cruelty and disregard for other people seems to awaken Ryan’s seemingly dormant empathy.
It’s a very different Jack Ryan that we meet in Unknown Man # 89. Set years later in Detroit, Jack has gone straight and is a process server with a reputation of being able to find almost anyone. Mr. Perez comes to town from Louisiana and hires Jack to find a man as part of a complicated stock scheme. A criminal named Virgil Royal is also looking for the same guy to recover some money he thinks he’s owed.
When Jack meets the missing man’s drunken wife Denise, he finds himself falling for her and starts to screw up Perez’s business. To keep things on track, Perez brings in a redneck thug while pushing Jack to help him finalize the deal. Jack begins his own schemes to help Denise keep the money for herself even if she doesn’t want it.
Another element has been added to Jack at this point with his being an admitted alcoholic who has been on the wagon. While he certainly liked his beer in The Big Bounce, there was never a sense that Jack was a drunk so that element seems to come out of nowhere and a bit clumsily used to establish an instant connection between him and Denise as he tries to help her get sober.
There’s an odd arc to Jack through these two books with him starting as a cocky small-time petty crook whose ego has him on a permanent path of self-destruction who eventually comes to appreciate the value of someone giving him a break after meeting a truly bad woman. Then the subdued Jack Ryan who works an offbeat but honest job finds himself embroiled with criminals and doing some pretty shady stuff in order to help out an innocent woman. Or at least that’s what he says. It often feels like Jack is rebelling against Perez for his arrogant assumption that Jack has been bought and paid for. So there’s the return of a Jack Ryan acting in destructive ways out of pride, just in service of a nobler cause.
Re-reading the two books back to back illustrates how Leonard's characters were very often not what they appeared to be, or even who they thought they were themselves.
Who would be more dangerous, two sociopathic killers teaming up or a middle-aged couple who could use some marriage counseling?
Armand Degas (a/k/a BlaWho would be more dangerous, two sociopathic killers teaming up or a middle-aged couple who could use some marriage counseling?
Armand Degas (a/k/a Blackbird) sometimes does contract killing for a group of mobsters in Michigan and Canada, and while visiting his old hometown after murdering a man in Detroit, he meets Richie Nix. Nix is a small time armed robber and all-around punk who doesn’t think twice about shooting anyone who crosses his path. Richie has come up with a scheme to extort money from a real estate tycoon and invites Degas to help.
Carmen Colson has been selling houses since her son grew up and joined the Navy, and she’d like her husband Wayne to join her in the business. Wayne is a hard drinking ironworker who does dangerous jobs on high rises, and his biggest concern is getting ready for the upcoming deer hunting season. He reluctantly agrees to meet with Carmen’s boss to talk about changing careers.
When Armand and Richie show up at the real estate office, a case of mistaken identity causes them to think Wayne is in charge. Since Wayne isn’t the type of guy to be threatened by a couple of thugs, there’s a bit of a scuffle, and he manages to run them off. However, Armand and Richie don’t turn the other cheek and start coming after Wayne and Carmen for revenge.
The two relationships are the heart of this book. The partnership between Armand and Richie starts well with Richie initially being impressed with a mob hit man, and Armand admiring Richie’s fearlessness. But as they spend more time together, they start seriously getting on each other’s nerves. Like a lot of Leonard villains, there’s a certain slyness disguising an overall streak of stupidity. They get so fixated on the idea of killing Wayne and Carmen that they don’t even stop to once consider why they’re doing it, and part of their revenge campaign is simply about each of them trying to show the other guy that they can be ruthless and cool under pressure.
Carmen and Wayne’s relationship is set up in one incredibly well done chapter in which Leonard establishes their history and the current state of their marriage. So we know that Wayne is happy with things as they are while Carmen’s desire to shake things up leads her to push Wayne to consider an offer from the Feds to join the Witness Protection Program because the idea of a new life appeals to her.
As with most Leonard novels, the plot zigs and zags with unexpected twists, and he artfully shifts the point of view around to make you sympathize with different characters so that the way you feel about someone at the beginning of the story isn’t necessarily going to be the same by the end. (view spoiler)[ I particularly like how this one starts out with Wayne as the sympathetic one. He seems like a hard working regular guy with a wife that is nagging him to change jobs to a career he’d hate, and his response to Armand and Richie sets him up as the kind of brave and capable character who’d generally end up as the hero of a book like this. However, as the story goes on, it becomes apparent that Wayne is kind of a self-absorbed ass who takes Carmen for granted, and that Carmen has been putting the needs of him and her hypochondriac mother ahead of her own. (hide spoiler)] ...more
Dennis Lenahan has an odd way of making a living. Several times a day he climbs an eighty-foot ladder and then dives into a tank filled with nine feetDennis Lenahan has an odd way of making a living. Several times a day he climbs an eighty-foot ladder and then dives into a tank filled with nine feet of water for the entertainment of tourists. His latest gig is at a hotel/casino in Tishomingo, Mississippi, but while Dennis is on top of the ladder setting up for his next show, he witnesses a couple of good ole boys murdering the guy who had been hired to help him.
Dennis is advised that the killers are members of the local Dixie Mafia so he’d best keep what he’s seen to himself unless he wants to be next to go, but rumors are everywhere that the high diver saw the murder. Dennis is caught between a smart cop and the killers, but he’s made a new friend to help him out. Robert Taylor is a smooth talking black man from Detroit who likes to brandish a picture that he claims shows his great-grandfather being lynched by the great-grandfather of a prominent local business man, and he instantly inserts himself into Dennis’ situation. But he’s not doing it out of the kindness of his heart since it’s obvious that Robert is playing some kind of angle that involves the upcoming re-enactment of a Civil War battle.
Elmore Leonard claimed to not know how a book would end when started writing it, and this is probably the main reason that his plots often went off in unexpected directions and the focus might shift from one character to another in the middle of the story. That’s usually something I very much liked about his books, but it doesn’t seem to work quite as well in this one.
I’d be willing to bet that his original idea had something to do with the picture of the lynching and the Civil War reenactment, but he couldn’t figure out a way to fit it all together so he eventually dumps the picture idea and goes in a completely different direction with little explanation as to why Robert had it in the first place.
And while people meeting under strange circumstances and then forming some kind of unlikely bond or partnership was a common trait in Leonard’s books, the instant bromance between Dennis and Robert doesn’t work as well as others that he wrote. It’s more than a little odd that smart Robert would decide to bring Dennis into his plans just because he admires the guts it takes to high dive, and considering that he knows Robert is working some kind of scam, Dennis going along with him without knowing his agenda also seems off.
Plus, while he provides one subplot involving the rednecks and a badly behaved dog, he never gives us much of the point of view of the main bad guy so it seems like we’re only getting half the story. He also saves the introduction of a key character to the last act while letting others do little or vanish from the story. Again, a Leonard book usually doesn’t end anywhere close to how you thought it would and the hero in one chapter may be the villain by the end of the book, but he spent a lot of time developing the character of Charlie Hoke, a former professional baseball player who manages to mention his career in every conversation he has, only not to do much of anything with him.
You still have to give points to any story that manages to work in high diving, the Dixie Mafia and Civil War reenactments, but there’s a lack of focus that keeps this one down in the rankings of Elmore Leonard books. ...more
Elmore Leonard had a bad Hollywood experience in the mid-‘80s of working on a film adaptation of LaBrava with Dustin Hoffman. Leonard did multiple unpElmore Leonard had a bad Hollywood experience in the mid-‘80s of working on a film adaptation of LaBrava with Dustin Hoffman. Leonard did multiple unpaid rewrites at the actor’s request, but then Hoffman bailed on the project after six months of meetings leaving Leonard with nothing to show for his time. Leonard’s revenge was Get Shorty and what sweet revenge it is.
Chili Palmer is a small time loan shark in Miami who once got into a beef with another gangster, Ray Barboni, who has held a grudge against him. Unfortunately, Chili ends up working for Ray who immediately demands that Chili shake down overdue payment from a dry cleaner. A twisted trail eventually leads Chili to LA where he gets mixed up with Harry Zimm, a small-time producer of horror movies who has a new script that flighty superstar actor Michael Weir has expressed an interest in. Harry thinks he can use Michael’s name to get a big studio deal to make something better than schlock for a change , but he’s got a problem with a drug dealer name Bo Catlett who usually finances his movies to launder drug money.
Chili is a big movie buff who thinks he might give up loan sharking for producing, and he sets out to help Harry get a deal with the help of Karen Flores, a former actress known for screaming in Harry’s horror movies who just so happens to be Michael’s ex. Unfortunately, Bo Catlett has also been dreaming of breaking into the film industry and starts trying to drive Chili away from Harry with the idea of taking over the project.
The surface level of this is funny enough with its core idea of a gangster trying to get into the movie business, but where it achieves greatness is the twist it takes once Chili meets Michael. When his pitch for Harry’s movie isn’t getting through, Chili starts talking about his recent adventures, and Michael is intrigued. Without realizing it, Chili essentially begins pitching his story as it’s happening to Michael, and the short actor pounces on the idea of playing a loan shark. The problem is that Chili doesn’t know how it’s going to end yet.
Leonard always had a great knack of playing off the way that people perceive themselves and each other. This pays off even more since so many Hollywood characters are involved that the story is being discussed and thought about as a movie even while it happens. So when Chili confronts a thug of Catlett’s and throws him down a flight of stairs while Karen watches, she’s mentally breaking it down like a film scene instead of being shocked by what she saw. When someone asks Chili who the protagonist is, Chili is shocked that it’s not apparent that the loan shark is the good guy because to him it’s obvious that he’s the hero of this story.
While some writers might have let this idea of a story unfolding and being pitched as a movie at the same time get too clever for its own good and been tempted to push the idea into complete nonsense, Leonard’s brevity and sharp plotting keep it grounded as a crime story with humor rather than letting it turn into some kind of meta-fiction writing exercise. As usual, you also get all the hallmarks of Leonard in his prime with great dialogue and memorable characters.
Of course, the ultimate fitting end to Leonard’s satirizing of Hollywood is that this was eventually turned into a hit film. Dustin Hoffman was not involved....more
When Richard Stark (a/k/a Donald Westlake) wrote a new Parker novel for the first time in over twenty years, he also resumed using the gimmick of starWhen Richard Stark (a/k/a Donald Westlake) wrote a new Parker novel for the first time in over twenty years, he also resumed using the gimmick of starting each novel with the word ‘When’ again. So I guess I gotta follow suit in my reviews of them.
Parker doesn’t seem to have aged a bit when he hooks up with a couple of other heisters to steal the cash collected by a big time evangelist at one of his stadium appearances. Despite their inside man being shaky the job goes off without a hitch and they’ve got an ingenious hiding place to lay low until the heat dies down. Of course it’s never that easy for Parker, and he ends up trying to keep various people from swiping the loot while eluding the police.
This edition has a really interesting introduction from Lawrence Block who reveals that Westlake never intended to stop writing Parker novels after Butcher’s Moon, but for some reason all of his attempts to start a new one withered and died until this one finally clicked.
I don’t think any of the ones written after the long lay off are quite up to the standards of the best of the earlier Parker novels. Rereading this now after going through all the others and after checking out some of Darwyn Cook’s excellent graphic novel adaptations with their retro vibe, I think that Parker worked better in that 1960-70s time frame. There was always something that seemed a bit off about Parker in more modern times. He should be working for and against sly hustlers of that era, not having to contend with punks whose idea of a big time crime is stealing tapes from video stores.
However, these are relatively minor gripes. Westlake was far too good to let this series be anything but entertaining, and a Parker novel is still a Parker novel even if he seems a bit out of his natural environment here....more
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