Jason Starr had No Exit send me a copy of his new book FAKE
I.D., and after finishing Dan Marlowe's THE NAME OF THE GAME
IS DEATH I raced right through it. It's both hard to pick up
and hard to put down: it's so awful to see what happens that
I kept wanting to stop reading it, but I couldn't, and I had
to keep on going because it's so good.
Tommy Russo is a loser. He's a compulsive gambler trying to
make it as an actor, working as a bouncer in a bar in New
York. He's into his boss for several weeks' pay, his
apartment is a tiny sty, he can't get any acting jobs, he
can't stop gambling. He talks to a guy at the racetrack and
starts to think that going in with some others on buying a
horse would be the ticket to making him rich and famous: but
where can he get the $10,000 to join in?
Right from the start, Russo's screwing up, but he never
figures out why he's doing so badly, and just keeps on doing
worse. It reminded me of Thompson's THE KILLER INSIDE ME,
except Lou Ford was smart, and Russo's not. It has the same
inside-the-head feel to the it as you watch Russo lie, steal
and abuse to get what he wants.
NOTHING PERSONAL, Starr's last book, surprised me because at
the end it didn't seem like things were so bad, until you
thought about it, when you realized everyone in the book had
had their lives completely ruined. In FAKE I.D. the
destruction is right up front, and you can only watch as
things go down the sewer for all concerned. Starr's blurbed
on the covers as a successor to Willeford and Chandler, and
he's in the Cain/Thompson vein, but he's an original writer
with his own style. His books are some of the best noir
happening these days. FAKE I.D. is only out in the U.K. right
now, with the U.S. to follow eventually, I suppose. Get it
when you can. It's a shame his stuff isn't getting a big push
in the States, when all manner of junk is crowding the
shelves.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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