My favorite mystery writer of all-time is Kenneth Millar, better known by his pen name “Ross Macdonald.” Macdonald’s Lew Archer series would get my vote for best detective series written in the United States. The mysteries are dense and multilayered but it’s not just that. Millar had a great way of getting into his character’s psyches and making them three dimensional. There are always stakes in an Archer book and the stakes feel real to the reader. Archer is less of a character in those […]
Tonight’s Show, We Have…
I’ve had a hankering to read quality Los Angeles mystery tales. It’s tough to find ones that don’t treat the city like either a playground for the rich and famous or a hell for never was-es to slum in. I don’t know much about LA but I’ve always been fascinated by it. I know plenty about New York City and I know the truth is somewhere in between its extreme portrayals and I assume the city of angels is the same. Michael Connelly’s books kind […]
My Dear Dodson
I have not read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes work so I’m only half familiar with the many references here and in other knockoffs. I get “Dodson” as “Watson” and this being a take on The Hound of the Baskervilles but beyond that, anything else was beyond me. So I went into this more interested in the story itself as opposed to how it matches up with its inspirational texts. And it’s mostly a good story. Joe Ide is a quality writer and this is a […]
Greatness
Read for CBR10Bingo: Book was better. The movie is one of my all-time favorites. This is my first time reading the novel. I’ve read five James Ellroy books in the last few months so if you want my thoughts on my personal evolution towards his works, check past reviews. Having read the tail end of his work and the beginning of what made him popular, I can say with confidence this is the best book he’s written. It’s the perfect merger of his style and […]
James Ellroy But Condensed And More Entertaining
While I enjoy her recent work, which is usually set in the present day, I wish Megan Abbott had written more books with settings in 40s and 50s LA and Vegas. She was really onto something. I suppose comparisons to James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia are inevitable with this one. Like Ellroy’s work, it’s a murder mystery based on a true murder of a woman working the fringes of Hollywood. But unlike Ellroy, who likes to muse about social affairs and masculinity, this is a straight-up whodunnit. […]
Forget It, Juniper, It’s Racism
Read for CBR 10 Bingo: Underrepresented. Steph Cha is a Korean-American mystery writer in a field dominated by white people (mostly men). I’m usually graceful when I review first time novelists, so while there was a lot that annoyed me about Steph Cha’s debut, I generally enjoyed it and am going to lean mostly on the positives. I love hard boiled/noir fiction. Apparently, so does Steph Cha and her main character (and author ancillary) Junipero Song. The book is littered with references to Chandler, Macdonald […]