This installment in the Rick Holman mystery series sees the Hollywood fixer and semi-private eye to the stars embroiled in a case involving a missing starlet, a child kidnapping, murder, arms trafficking, and a whole lot of lies and deceit.
Sounds like this one's got a lot of depth doesn't it?
It doesn't.
Rather than take those pillars of a thriller/pulp mash-up mentioned above and write a decent story with some semblance of good plotting, Carter Brown, instead, takes the minimalist approach; much of the above is pure facade and about as deep as a child's wadding pool. The characters, Holman included, are as equally shallow with their dialogue seemingly written by a horny adolescent male.
Despite my misgivings, I knew this wasn't going to be high end noir of the Chandler or Jim Thompson variety. These books are pure popcorn pulp, written for a quick form of escapism and a cheap thrill or two - and that's what I got; two or three nice takeaways from what was otherwise one very convoluted and confusing story.
No comments:
Post a Comment