"The Drop": Dennis Lehane's Latest Crime Thriller Is Understated And Perfectly Paced

Frank Wilson, my friend and former editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, offers a good review of Dennis Lehane's crime thriller The Drop in today's Inquirer.

Bob works at Cousin Marv's. Marv really is Bob's cousin, but the bar that bears Marv's name isn't really Marv's anymore. Controlling interest has fallen to some Chechen mobsters, who use the place to drop off the day's take from gambling, drugs, and prostitution for an overnight stay and a next-day pickup.

So when two guys in ski masks - one with a pistol, the other with a shotgun - rip the joint off, it's lucky for Bob and Marv that all they get is the money the bar made that night, about five grand.
Bob doesn't fail to notice the two guys could easily drop-kick him and Marv through the goalposts of life, but another thought distracts him: "I just want to raise the dog, he thought for some reason. I just want to teach it tricks and live more of this life."

... Quite a few threads go into this taut little thriller, which started out as a short story called "Animal Rescue." (The film version, which features James Gandolfini in his last role, is scheduled for release on Friday.)

What makes The Drop so good is not just the pacing, which is just about right, but the mood, which mirrors perfectly Bob's supremely understated personality.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/literature/20140907_Lehane_s_latest__understated_and_perfectly_paced.html

You can also check out Frank Wilson's popular literary blog, Books, Inq, via the below link:

http://booksinq.blogspot.com

Rhythm And Blue: Michael Connelly Interviews Joseph Wambaugh

 

The Los Angeles Times Magazine offers an interesting piece with crime writer Michael Connelly interviewing with one of his heroes, Joseph Wambaugh.

(Wambaugh is seen in the above LA Times photo by Andrew MacPherson).

Below is Connelly on Wambaugh:

The cop turned author was writing contemporary novels full of grit and humor and street truth. I found them inspiring—and haunting. I can still remember reading "The Choir Boys" in college and the searing images the story conjured in my imagination. All these years later, I remember the “moaning man” from that book as if I had read the passage yesterday. I was probably too young to understand just what Wambaugh was doing—using the police novel to tell larger stories about ourselves and our world.

At that point, I had not even set foot in Los Angeles—and wouldn’t for another 10 years—but it was a place that came alive in Wambaugh’s stories. His books were entertaining as hell, but they weren’t mere entertainments. They transcended that. They told it like it is.

Here is the assessment of him early on from the New York Times: “Mr. Wambaugh is, in fact, a writer of genuine power, style, wit and originality who has chosen to write about police in particular as a means of expressing his views on society in general.”

You can read the rest of the piece and watch two videos featuring the interview via the below link:

http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2012/03/rhythm-blue.html

Joseph Wambaugh's new novel is called Harbor Nocturne and Michael Connelly's latest novel is called The Drop.   

Are We In A New Golden Age Of Crime Fiction?

Tom Nolan writes about a possible new Golden Age of crime fiction in the Wall Street Journal.

The private-eye novel, for instance, the hardiest of American detective-story forms, had another fine season, thanks to exciting books by both veterans and newer writers. The lone investigator uncovering nasty truths and righting wrongs has proved as appealing as the cowboy hero; and he (or she) has survived longer than the cowpoke by adapting to change: in technology, in literary technique and in job description. 

...The police-procedural is also a resilient U.S. form. No one wrote a better one in 2011 than Michael Connelly, with "The Drop," his latest chronicle featuring LAPD detective Harry Bosch. (And no one wrote a better legal thriller this year than Mr. Connelly, whose "The Fifth Witness" extended his equally compelling series with lawyer Mickey Haller.)

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203430404577094511710196688.html?mod=googlenews_wsj