Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2012 April 20 • Friday

If you're a fan of Donald Westlake who ever wondered what a comic Tucker Coe novel might be like, well, this book could be for you.

Charlie Hardie is an ex-cop who's been numbing himself with booze and a new career as a housesitter ever since accidentally causing the death of his partner and his partner's family. When he shows up for his latest housesitting gig he walks into the middle of a sort-of movie production.

The production isn't actually a movie though it's run that way, with directors, stars, assistant directors, grips, scripts, props, costumes and the all important narrative. The only thing that differentiates it from a movie is that the studio is known as The Accident People and what they do is murder—murder that looks so much like an accident that nobody thinks of it as murder.

For MacGuffinish reasons these people are in the midst of killing washed-up, in-rehab, almost-movie-star Lane Madden, who has, in one of many coincidences, taken refuge in the house that Charlie Hardie is supposed to be sitting.

So now Hardie is dragged into this mess and eventually sees it as a chance of some kind of redemption.

It moves fast, it's funny and much too entertaining to worry about the numerous coincidences and contrivances. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The first line, more or less, is "She discovered Decker Canyon Road by accident, not long after she moved to L.A.".

Each chapter has a quote from a source related to the tone of the novel, usually a movie but not always. For example:
Guns, guns, guns.—Kurtwood Smith, RoboCop".

This is apparently the first book in a trilogy about Hardie. I might read the other two one of these days. One of the things I like about him is that he's not some superman type of character. He's not especially smart or skilled or anything. The only thing he has going for him is an ability to take punishment, and this makes sense for his character.