QUICK SHOTS: A Lonely Place to Die by Art Bourgeau

Every now and then, I'll roll the dice. It's a big gamble. I'll buy a whole series of books without reading one of them or anything by the author. It'll usually be at used bookstore and a spur of the moment thing. I mean whatever more books is never a problem to me. That's how I ended up all four of Art Bourgeau's "Snake" Kirlin mystery series. I probably picked them up because they were slim Charter books. I don't run across a lot of Charter books, so I'll pretty much always take note of them if I see them and this being a rural set mystery seemed interesting. 

Art Bourgeau apparently had a mystery bookshop and wrote The Mystery Lover's Companion, a book of reviews of mystery novels that I remember checking out of a library at one time but remember nothing about. Either way, he's got mystery chops. He wrote a couple of stand-alones, but his main work seems to be this series about Claude "Snake" Kirlin and F.T. Zevich, two ex-marines who get involved with various murders. Sounds like fun.

A Lonely Place to Die is the first in the series and we are introduced to Snake and F.T. as they return to Snake's old hometown where there's a mayoral race happening where (gasp) a woman is running for mayor! It's riled up all dudes in the 1980s town. Small town life and its quirks is painted well throughout the book. I'm from a one-horse town and I instantly knew a lot of the people Bourgeau wrote about. Anyway, Snake and F.T. mostly want to hang out in a shack, drink beer, joke and fish. Until they do something, honestly despicable to get the murder plot going.

It's a book very much of its time and place. It seems like Bourgeau wanted to meld mystery fiction to the bawdy literary fiction (and its questionable sexual politics) that was happening in the 70's. This is a book more interested in day-drinkin' and vibes than getting down to any detective work. I found the writing pretty fun. I was curious to hang out with F.T. and Snake, even after they did something I found super gross (I'll get to it) mostly because it's not a big deal to the rest of the characters for the rest of the novel. Bourgeau is able to create some fun banter and good 'ol boy-ism's. It did have the feel of a 70s Hicksploitation B-Movie, with mentions of Waylon Jennings, Leon Russell and other musicians I dig which was fun. Anyway, here's the unfun spoiler thingy. 

 

MILD-SPOILER --

So, F.T. and Snake are in their shack in the woods and F.T. sees two women pull up to a nearby cabin. The women begin to kiss outside the cabin then go inside. F.T. goes and peeps on them through a window and the women are having sex. F.T. goes back and the boys wait for days, staking out the cabin for the women to return with a camera.

The women do return. Snake and F.T. takes photos of the women having sex, once they have them, they bust in a blackmail both women into having sex with THEM with the photos. It was a bizarre thing to have your two "heroes" do. And later it's pretty much brushed over, and Snake has a romantic relationship with one of the women and the other is the murder victim that spurn the whole plot.

SPOILER OVER --

 

So, I kept reading this to see if it ever seemed to be a big deal within the plot, nope, it just seems to be played as "boys will be boys," and other then the photos coming into play (minorly) later it's never a big deal. Just gross. It's a pretty dark lump to have in your mostly for laughs mystery-novel. I might not even think about it being in a twisted adventure of The Sharpshooter or in other trashy series, but it stuck out like a sore thumb here. I'm all for complicated characters but if you're not going to explore anything you set-up what's the point of doing it?

Anyway, the mystery itself is sorta not really explored too much. Things happen to solve it without Snake or F.T. doing much. The "red herrings" are all sorta light pink at best, most of the book is devoted to watching houses, bathing in rivers while always trying to get laid and drinking tons of beer. 

The books did have some minor Joe R. Lansdale's Hap and Leonard book vibes, but nowhere near as good. But I got all of them, maybe someday I'll check out the second book, The Most Likely Suspects to see if it was in better and if by the second Bourgeau rounded off the sharp edges any. 

And my now traditional sign-off, my first novel Gunpowder Breath is available on Amazon as an eBook!

QUICK SHOTS: Quarry #2: The Broker's Wife by Max Allan Collins

I've long been a fan of Max Allan Collins work. A couple of his novelizations were some of the first "grown-up" books I read when I made the switch from Hardy Boys and Sherlock Holmes to the harder stuff. I read quite a few Nathan Heller's in my teenage years and read through some of his comic book work but Nolan and especially Quarry eluded me for a long time. First off, I think I just never ran into them at the used books stores I used to haunt. I picked them up when I saw them, but they were all out of order. And I knew I'd like them, so I wanted to read them through the right way. 

When I did get my hands on the first Quarry, I read it quick and guess what? I liked it a lot then the series sorta became one of the ones that I decided to "savor" waiting for the right time when I needed a sure-fire treat. Since I'm still getting over the reading slump I was in that I talked about in the last review I wanted some sure-fire hits. And I don't think I'll be waiting too long to tackle any more of them.

The Broker's Wife has Quarry, a mid-western hitman who is in quasi-hiding after being around when his boss, The Broker got dead. He's mostly just bored, so when two hired killers come and try to take him out, he's relived to be back in the fray. Along the way he tackles with more killers, shady lawyers and, obviously, the titular Broker's Wife. This is a clean book man; everything works and isn't showy about it. Max's style is sparse and wryly funny. The twists are laid out before and waiting for you to remember about when he lets you in on the REST of the story. Never fails to make you smile. 

Quarry himself is a lot fun too. He's a tough guy, sure, a 'Nam vet who has no qualms about murdering people for money, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have a sense of humor. The humor element is a little stronger here and I think it grows a little more as the series goes on. All-in-all, you just sorta like Quarry, he seems like a good guy to have a soda pop with, as long as you don't cross him.

So, The Broker's Wife (also published as Quarry's List) is a fun time, halfway through I paused my reading and watched The Last Lullaby, a feature film based on the Quarry short story A Matter of Principle. The movie was written by Max and stars Tom Sizemore as Price (Quarry) who does a pretty good job, his Quarry isn't quite as relatable/funny but its solid casting. The movie is an indie joint so adjust your expectations. It's a sturdy adaptation with some flair and really nice acting by Tom and Sasha Alexander. It also seems to take a little from the ending of The Broker's Wife, so I could sorta see where this book was going after a bit. Didn't affect the enjoyment any though. 

So, this one's got like the easiest and highest recommendation. All the Quarry books are easy to get too with Hard Case Crime republishing and publishing the new adventures of Quarry, which isn't always the norm in the books I review here. So, you got no excuse not to pick one or all of them up. 

And my now traditional sign-off, my first novel Gunpowder Breath is available on Amazon as an eBook!