I recently finished reading Run by Douglas Winters. And it is
quite a run, keeping up a quick pace throughout. I think
George's (Pelecanos) blurb hit the nail on the head,
comparing it to classic John Woo films. Actually, George said
"early" John Woo, but I'd move past the two Better Tomorrows
(along with Woo's earlier films which I've never seen). It
seems to me it has a lot more in common with The Killer
(which, in case you didn't know, George got his then-bosses
at Circle Films to distribute in the US) and Hardboiled in
its pacing.
SPOILER ALERT
Plus, like The Killer (and Woo's later Face/Off) the
climactic shootout occurs in a church and like most Woo (and
Ringo Lam and many other Hong Kong crime films) there is a
tenuous alliance between a cop and a crook
(although in this case, the crook doesn't know until just
before the end).
Even though a couple of the surprises are not quite as
surprising as I think they were supposed to be, the book is a
good, fun, fast read.
Oh yeah, I didn't have any problem with the lack of quotation
marks as the entire book was in the narrator's voice. So even
when he was saying what someone else said, it was still in
his voice, kinda like a guy telling you a story in a
bar.
Mark
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