Re: RARA-AVIS: Bruen and the Tinkers

From: Al Guthrie ( allanguthrie@ukonline.co.uk)
Date: 15 Mar 2005


If I hadn't already read it, your description would have made me rush to the nearest bookshop and buy it. Different strokes, Michael. Not everybody likes Guinness, nor should they.

Al
----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Etchison" < etchison@mleconsulting.com> To: "Rara Avis List" < rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com>;
< rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com>; < rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 5:24 AM Subject: RARA-AVIS: Bruen and the Tinkers

>
> Several folks have warmly praised Bruen's The Killing of the Tinkers in
the
> last couple of weeks.
>
> I don't get it. I tried, but I didn't get it.
>
> To my eye, the book is structured like this [warning: SPOILER]:
>
> PI hits self on head with skillet.
>
> Someone kills Tinker A.
>
> PI hits self on head with saucepan.
>
> PI thinks about some loud half-talented rock group. He thinks about
George
> Pelecanos. His thoughts about each are not very interesting.
>
> Someone kills Tinker B.
>
> Lead Tinker insists that a single person is killing the tinkers because
> they're tinkers.
>
> PI makes limp wisecrack, hits self on head with waffle iron, says he'll
get
> the killer.
>
> Someone kills Tinker C.
>
> PI feels bad about his headache, hits self on head with branding iron.
>
> For no apparent reason, PI gets a reading from A Profiler.
>
> Profiler describes the killer as left-handed, prone to spill his
buttermilk,
> who buttons his shirt from the top down and uses washcloths with stripes
on
> them.
>
> For no apparent reason, PI spends some time with someone who is
left-handed,
> prone to spill his buttermilk, who buttons his shirt from the top down and
> uses washcloths with stripes on them.
>
> PI hits self on head with cricket bat.
>
> PI tells Lead Tinker that someone else did the killings.
>
> After Lead Tinker takes care of the named culprit, PI says, "Oops." Hits
> self on head with bootjack.
>
> Book ends.
>
> Michael Etchison

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