What's New
 Books
 Movies
 Music
Reviews
 Books
 Movies
 Music
 All
Weblogs
 Somebody
  Dies
 Colet and
  Company
 Music?
  What Music?
Banned Books
Letters
Posters
Links
Lists
About Me
Guestbook
 Sign
 View
Off-Site
 Reviews
 Hosted By:
Ex Libris
 Reviews
Green Man
 Review
Video Vista
Designed for
 1024 X 768
 and Internet
    Explorer
Craig's Book Club
Book Reviews

Spotlight on: Dutch Uncle by Peter Pavia


To arrange to have products considered for review, send an email to [email protected].


Dutch Uncle by Peter Pavia Peter Pavia, Dutch Uncle

(Hard Case Crime is a new imprint from Dorchester Publications and Winterfall LLC that focuses on books written in the style of the old pulp crime novels, publishing new works in the old style, like Peter Pavia's Dutch Uncle, while also reprinting classics from the masters.)

His third day out on parole, Harry Healy runs into Leo, his one-time weekend cellmate. Leo offers Harry some work, but it's the kind of job that could put Harry right back into the clink; he refuses. But then Harry's "Dutch Uncle," Manfred Pfiser, presents another offer: just make a delivery and collect some cash. Easy, right? Well, it seems simple enough, and what's a favor between friends?

After a clumsy opener with a lot of exposition to handle, Peter Pavia's debut novel Dutch Uncle (he is the author of two non-fiction works: the lauded The Other Hollywood and the upcoming The Cuba Project), takes off ... sort of. The first corpse shows up on page 28 but, apart from a few distinctive scenes (the photography session was especially inspired), Pavia simply can't maintain the creativity or the speed necessary to make this kind of book work. This made it easy to put down and hard to pick up again.

Pavia seems to have patterned Dutch Uncle after the works of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen (Leonard goes by "Dutch" and it takes place in Miami, Hiaasen's familiar stomping ground). At least he aims high, unfortunately he doesn't come near to their quality and pure entertainment satisfaction. He is much better than they were starting out (some of Leonard's early novels are particularly unreadable) -- and this gives him a definite head start on longevity -- but he can't match Leonard's liveliness or Hiaasen's wackiness.

Pavia has a good grasp on his setting and a terrific ear for dialogue, but his attempts at zany characters seem to rely solely on silly personal quirks that do little more than take up space, like one policeman's need for sensitivity training. And while quirks certainly flesh out characters, it's hard to build a real human around them. Even so, Dutch Uncle's main problem is its pacing. It drags in many spots, is merely slow in others, and I often found myself waiting for the story to "get on with it," leaving me sitting there with what suspense I could muster remaining unfulfilled. It's a fairly simple narrative -- there are a lot of distractions, but nothing truly complex takes place. This should have made it easy to pick up the pace, but it takes too long to get anywhere. And that's just not what I want in a crime novel that purports to be about criminals "on the run."

On the other hand, this cover is one of the best Hard Case Crime offerings yet. Richard B. Farrell (The Confession, 361) is fast becoming my favorite of their artists, and he comes through again with an evocative illustration that portrays the essence of the novel without giving away too much of the plot. The cocaine-fueled title is singularly inspired.


Click on the links above to purchase any of the books mentioned, or use the search box below to find what you like.

Search:
Keywords:
In Association with Amazon.com

(Email me and let me know what you think.)

The Readers Ring
This Readers Ring site is owned by
Craig Clarke
Want to join the ring? Get the info here
The Readers Ring Page
[Prev 5] [Prev] [Next] [Next 5] [Random] [List Sites]

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1