Re: RARA-AVIS: Stone's _A Long Reach_
MARK SULLIVAN (ANONYMEINC@webtv.net)
Tue, 2 Jun 1998 19:46:18 -0400 (EDT)
I must admit I preferred Stone's first, The Low End of Nowhere,
but both
are enjoyable trifles. Streeter's unrepentant high-school macho
is
mitigated somewhat by his self-deprecating sense of humor and
the fact
that Stone chooses to make his hero a man's man who needs a
woman,
Linda, to help him see what's really going on. Not to give
anything
away to those who have yet to finish the book, but by the time
the big
plot twist comes it is not much of a surprise, having been the
McGuffin
for far too many made-for-USA Network and/or Showtime
type,
straight-to-video movies. There are tons of books I would
recommend
before this, but for all that, I kind of enjoyed it, mostly for
the
character Streeter. He reminds me a bit of Kanter's Ben
Perkins, a
fifties high school-cool kind of guy trying to make it in a
nineties
world.
Stone's short bio in front of the book raised a question with
me,
though. It said he was a working PI. It got me wondering how
many PIs
have worked in the genre. Hammett and Joe Gores, of course,
Jerry
Kennealy (author of the Polo books more of which should have
come out in
paperback) and, now, Stone. I am pretty sure there are
others, but I
can't think of any off the top of my head. Can anyone
else?
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