Tonight I finished Willeford's last book, published shortly
before he died, the last Hoke Moseley book, THE WAY WE DIE
NOW (1988). It's excellent. About half covers Hoke's
undercover job investigating missing Haitian migrant workers,
and gets into a real mess. The whole trip to backwoods
Florida is disturbing, and there's an astounding explosion of
violence in the middle that's just riveting. The book ends
strangely, with his family broken up after Ellita marries a
paroled murderer and drops out of his life. He's promoted to
lieutenant, and things are looking up there, but his home
life is worse. It's a shame there was no fifth Hoke book. I
wonder, what do people make of that ending? What might have
happened next?
I think this was the third Willeford book I ever read, after
PICK-UP, which I picked up blind because Black Lizard had
reprinted it so I knew it'd be good, and MIAMI BLUES. I
remember reading it while on a bus trip. PICK-UP was great,
of course, but MIAMI BLUES seemed a lot like one of those
Miami novels that Elmore Leonard and others write. Then I
read this:
"Hoke clutched his stomach with both hands and tried to
regain his breath. The griping pain went all the way through
to his spine. The Mexican kicked Hoke in the right side, and
Hoke heard his ribs crack. A sharp, searing jab inside his
gut made him yelp--just as his breath returned--and he felt
as if his side had been piereced with a spear as the Mexican
kicked him a second time in the same place. Hoke vomited then
and his breakfast came up--coffee, Diet Coke, oatmeal, and
bread chunks. Hoke was kneeling, with both hands on the
ground supporting his upper body, and trying not to breathe.
Even a shallow breath increased the pain in his side. The
Mexican went behind Hoke and kicked him in the buttocks.
Hoke's arms gave way, and he sprawled in the dirt, his face
in the pool of vomit. The Mexican then picked up Hoke's feet
and dragged him, face down, arms trailing, across the yard
and into the barn.
"On the near verge of passing out, Hoke thought: This son a
bitch is in trouble now, because I'm going to kill
him!"
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 17 Jan 2001 EST