Thursday, June 17, 2010

This Wicked World (Jimmy Boone) by Richard Lange


In this tale of L.A. noir we are introduced to a very cool protagonist, ex-con and ex-Marine Jimmy Boone now living life as a bartender. Asked by the bar's bouncer to help him out in investigating the death of a young migrant worker he gets involved with a young wannabe-gangstah, a wild young girl and some heavier baddies.
He also finds time to get romantic with an ex-cop and take care of a toothless pitbull.
Richard does a great job of bringing all characters to life, managing to make also the bad guys look like real, at times even good, people.
There's a good amount of action crime but there's also a very literary quality to this story. The comparisons made to George Pelecanos by the media aren't that far off. Good stuff!