The Violet Hour - Review

The Hungry Detective has read a fair number of 'new' authors as of late. They are 'new' in the sense that they have a few books in their canon, but until now unread by me. Daniel Judson is one of those guys. And he falls into the loose and vague category of tough guy crime writer.

Mr. Judson's latest is THE VIOLET HOUR and it is just about the best thing I have read this year. Cal is a somewhat normal guy. Well, normal enough for a Crime Novel anyway. He works as an un-certified mechanic paid under the table by his shyster boss while hiding a pregnant friend from her abusive husband.  Besides this female entanglement, Cal is on his own. His criminal father and drug addicted brother are now dead. Cal is the straight arrow. He has kept his head down and minded his own business.

I'll cut to the chase here and point out a moment that I think encapsultes this book perfectly. Near the end of THE VIOLET HOUR Cal is rummaging around his apartment before he leaves to rejoin two woman he has been hiding. The scene is rather simple. Cal is collecting the money he has earned and hidden over the last four years. He has killed men in the course of the book, all in self defense or in defense of those he loves, but in these moments of near victory there is the unmistakable loneliness. Lonliness of the life he is leaving behind and lonliness for the life he will now have to live. What Cal has done over the course of THE VIOLET HOUR had been for expressly for others. These are noble actions particularly as they are all done for people who can never repay him. Cal's reward for his selfless actions is only more wasted solitude. Crime Fiction is littered with this kind of desolation of the human soul, but Cal is a different guy. He does not shun the attentions and affections of others. He yearns for it. From the very open pages of THE VIOLET HOUR it is apparent that he has a desperate longing for contact. What comes out of this book is a terrific dark novel. I don't mean to be trite when I write that it is a story about how violence can touch our lives and devastate everything in its path. There is a beautiful awfulness to THE VIOLET HOUR, but nothing quite as devastating as Cal's journey into his own wilderness. Read this book!

Dead of Winter - Review

Rennie Airth's John Madden series returns with DEAD OF WINTER. The series has taken a leisurely rout toward publication, three books in ten years. The peerless RIVER OF DARKNESS appeared in 1999 with THE BLOOD-DIMMED TIDE showing up in 2004. In the chronology of these books we have jumped from just after WWI to the waning years of WWII. In those years we have seen John Madden move from a seasoned Police Detective to, of all things, a farmer in this latest work.

I don't want to belabor this point, but I really can not think of a finer piece of historical Crime Fiction than RIVER OF DARKNESS. Character, setting, and plotting are exceptional in this book. THE BLOOD-DIMMED TIDE delivered a completely opposite experience. The book was a baffling affair that failed as equally as RIVER OF DARKNESS succeeded. This disappointment aside my admiration is undiminished for John Madden's first adventure. The dichotomy of the first two books made it hard not immediately think about which end of the spectrum DEAD OF WINTER falls into. Is it cheating to say this book falls in the middle?

The murder of an immigrant Polish girl sets in motion the events of DEAD OF WINTER. What unravels from it are killings and assassinations that stretch back decades and traversing the European continent. DEAD OF WINTER is a handsome affair that paints England in the clutches of the WWII conflagration. The book is a return to form in the sense that Mr. Airth is able to paint across the broad canvas of WWII that renders the whole terrible affair with polished detail. Mr. Airth has particular skill at combining the twin cataclysms of war and the more intimate murder of a young girl. It is Mr. Airth's execution of the 'war' across the city and countryside that are enthralling to read.

So where does DEAD OF WINTER go wrong? The story, sort of. A criticism of current Crime Fiction is that expansive back stories blunt the effectiveness of novels as large swaths of the plot and characters are lost to large expository explanations of unseen events. Of course, if done well back story detail fills in gaps and can be become addictive story and character 'crack'. At times this level of detail certainly assists DEAD OF WINTER to become and atmospheric crime riddle. More often, THE DEAD OF WINTER and Mr. Airth just info dump huge pieces of story detail. Within the context of the book it fits because the story requires that the reader learn this new piece information, but the information is not organically delivered. The hand of the author is too present in these moments where a character appears and opens his mouth delivering the exact bit of information we require. Frustratingly, this happens most often in the presentation of the Killer's own story. In much the same manner of his previous novels the killer's story is only revealed through others. The killer is an unknowable specter in Mr.Airth's books. It is a brave choice by the writer particularly as crime fiction today virtually requires that we become fellow travelers with the killer on their warped journey. With RIVER OF DARKNESS, Mr Airth has proven that this technique can work, but in DEAD OF WINTER we left with an inert villain. We are told he is a dangerous man, but I never really felt it.

Still, DEAD OF WINTER is an elegantly mounted book that is richly detailed and rewarding. While I have some issue with how this detail was imparted, I still think DEAD OF WINTER is deserving of your time.

Loot the Moon - Review

I spent a couple weeks reading BLOOD'S A ROVER by James Ellroy. I am not likely to read a denser book until Mr. Ellroy's next work. I turned to Mark Arsenault's LOOT THE MOON as a palate cleanser more than anything else. LOOT THE MOON is Mr. Arsenault's fourth book and second in the Billy Povich series after GRAVERWRITTER.  I had no expectations to the extent that the author is unknown to me.

LOOT THE MOON turns out to be a pretty breezy read with some nice dark turns here and there. Billy Povich is on the Obit desk. He used to be an investigative journalist, but a gambling addiction put an end to that. His Dad is at the end of his rope with his dialysis treatments, and his son is dealing with the heavy baggage of losing his mother. Billy is asked by his lawyer friend, Martin, to investigate the murder of a Judge. Everyone thinks the murder was the unfortunate consequence of a robbery gone seriously wrong. Martin thinks someone paid somebody to kill the Judge, and soon Billy agrees.

What does work here is the nice interplay between Billy and his family and the lose collection of criminals he runs up against in trying to figure out who killed the Judge. Mr. Arsenault writes Billy as a serious minded man-child who just needs to be pushed into to growing up that last little bit. Always using humor to deflect a lot of his personal and professional troubles, Billy is a lot of fun to be around. But Billy has problems. His Dad, his son, his own personal life have left him with very few positives. You would like to say that Billy has his head above water more often than not, but make no mistake Billy is slowly drowning. Mr. Arsenault does a very fine job of drawing real and compelling characters.

What works less well is the 'mystery' to who killed the judge. The 'who-done-it' aspect of the book I felt was pretty obvious. Nothing really wrong about that, because a lot of the time it is about the journey, right? But disappointingly once we get to the denouement it was lacking in dramatic heft of any kind, and it was a let down for what is a really good read. This aside LOOT THE MOON is a book with a lot of heart. Its hard not to root for a loveable screw up like Billy Povich. Here is hoping he gets a few more books to figure it out.