Nobody's Angel
Just finished reading "Nobody's Angel" by Jack Clark (http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books_bios.cgi?entry=bk65), and while it wasn't perfect by any means, it was a solid read. It's in the Hard Case Crime line, which mostly features 50's style crime and detective novels either new or obscure. Think the Black Lizard line of books only with ones that aren't well known.
The novel's author is a cabdriver, and he sold copies from his cab back in the 90's. After getting some other work published, he sent it to Hard Case Crime and after a rewrite, they published it.
My problem with it was that the "mystery" wasn't much of a mystery. There are a few suspects, but the killer comes out of nowhere and what little detective work is done doesn't add anything to the plot. It's a great mood piece on being a cab driver in 90's Chicago and is worth the price of the slim paperback just for that. It's a lot like the Travis McGee novels by John D MacDonald in that regard, musings on a changing part of America and how those changes are affecting the people seemingly powerless to stop it.
As for me, I think my mood has improved enough to get back to my fiction, especially when a few people are interested in my pro wrassler/private eye novel I worked on for last year's NaNoWriMo. My writing/creative itch has been mostly scratched with the podcast and the comic strip, but I want to finish up the half-written novels I have sitting around on my hard drive....but unlike most writers, I have a lot of trouble writing when my life is so unsettled and messy. You'd think being out of work would be a perfect time to get a lot of writing done, but it isn't.
I have to hustle on things that might bring in money, the job hunt, following up leads, anything like that. Writing is what I do for my soul, and rent takes precedence.
Still...
The novel's author is a cabdriver, and he sold copies from his cab back in the 90's. After getting some other work published, he sent it to Hard Case Crime and after a rewrite, they published it.
My problem with it was that the "mystery" wasn't much of a mystery. There are a few suspects, but the killer comes out of nowhere and what little detective work is done doesn't add anything to the plot. It's a great mood piece on being a cab driver in 90's Chicago and is worth the price of the slim paperback just for that. It's a lot like the Travis McGee novels by John D MacDonald in that regard, musings on a changing part of America and how those changes are affecting the people seemingly powerless to stop it.
As for me, I think my mood has improved enough to get back to my fiction, especially when a few people are interested in my pro wrassler/private eye novel I worked on for last year's NaNoWriMo. My writing/creative itch has been mostly scratched with the podcast and the comic strip, but I want to finish up the half-written novels I have sitting around on my hard drive....but unlike most writers, I have a lot of trouble writing when my life is so unsettled and messy. You'd think being out of work would be a perfect time to get a lot of writing done, but it isn't.
I have to hustle on things that might bring in money, the job hunt, following up leads, anything like that. Writing is what I do for my soul, and rent takes precedence.
Still...