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RARA-AVIS: reviews
Here are three books that I have read and enjoyed lately.
Satterthwaite, Walter. ACCUSTOMED TO THE DARK. c1996. Denver, CO; Las
Vegas, NV; Santa Fe, NM. Joshua Croft #5.
Rita Mondragon is shot and left in a coma by the same man who shot her and
left her in a wheelchair for six year prior to this tale. The emotional
complication is that both shootings can be laid at Joshua's doorstep, for
it was his macho over-reaction to Ernie Martinez that has caused Martinez
to have a lifelong crusade to punish Joshua for his deeds. Given the
opportunity to seek revenge when he and Luiz Lucero escape from prison,
Ernie and Luiz go on a killing spree that pulls Joshua from New Mexico to
Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana and Florida. While on the road pursuing
the bad guys, Joshua is in physical contact with the hospital by phone, and
in spiritual contact with his partner through a series of internal
dialogues that display the underlying guilt beneath Joshua's tough
exterior. He is not a nice man, and does not even treat his allies with an
respect or care, but he relentless and effective as an investigator. He is
created with a sparse brush by the author, but he can be fully viewed, for
the picture that is painted is carefully crafted and wonderfully used
within the plot. Satterthwait may be one of the most gifted contemporary
writers in this genre, and this book deserves to be highly recommended.
Ventura, Michael. THE DEATH OF FRANK SINATRA. c1996. Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mike Rose #1.
Few private eye writers can take the genre and use it for literary
purposes. The expectations of the genre constrict most writers, or they
simply do not have the qualifications to write a startling book. Ventura
does. Mike Rose is a Las Vegas P. I. who we meet on the day he feels he
must kill his mentor, Zig Feldman, a mob hitman who was close to Mike's
father and mother. Their battle is caused when Alvi, Mike's older brother,
just released from a two year stay in a mental hospital, casually says the
wrong thing and Zig gets nervous. Being nervous is a sin in the Mob, and
it attracts unwanted attention and may cause the nervous one to disappear.
Mike cannot but help wonder if this is what happened to his father when the
boys were young, and wonders about the relationship between Zig and his
mobbed up mother when she was a widow. The book is all about appearances,
whether it is Alvi's silver toenails on his bare feet, or Mike's longtime
lover Joy, who stripped in Mike's mother's club despite only having one
breast. The symbolic influence of Frank Sinatra on both Las Vegas and
Mike's family is superbly integrated. His creative use of time within the
story lets us know little snippets of information and fills in the details
as the story develops. He meticulously develops characters by layering on
motivations. His crowning achievement is the way he displays Las Vegas,
using the setting in such a way that one receives a tour and a
tour-de-force. A sidebar story involving a client who wants Mike to murder
her husband adds a layer of noir that only enhances Mike's personal
conflicts. Ventura has the whole package working here. There is little
about this book that I could not praise, and this may very well be the best
book of 1996. Classic.
Connelly, Michael. TRUNK MUSIC. c1996. California, Los Angeles. Harry
Bosch #5.
What can you count on in a Harry Bosch tale? Something normal in the world
of the criminous will explode into something convoluted. Only LAPD
homicide detective Harry Bosch will care, but it will cost him dearly.
Harry cannot provide total justice, but he can acheive a sense of personal
worth and peace in what he accomplishes. The reader gets a frightening
urban nightmare, with a fearfully display Los Angeles that does nothing to
diminish our worries about the future of American civilization. Plotted
carefully, and told in surges, the story will push forward simple solutions
to the problems only to rip them away for the fabrications that they are.
Characters are flawed, falible people, without any purity because that is
the world that Bosch lives in. Even Bosch is flawed, so as he carries out
his mission he is more flawed knight that white knight, yet he is a
positive force in a very negative landscape. Pretty powerful stuff that
has worked in all of the novels in the series so far. In TRUNK MUSIC, the
basic plot revolves around a hit which most likely was caused by an L. A.
movie producer's attempts to launder Las Vegas mob money. Fans of the
series will be stunned to see Eleanor Wish's return. No one who has read
and enjoyed Bosch before could be disappointed. Anyone who has not read
the series should start with book one and discover one of the best American
crime writers.
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