Lately, it seems we are getting a slow influx of true noir – the kind that is just black and white, with nothing but wet streets, where everyone should look like Robert Mitchum or Lee Marvin.
That is the type of world in which DAMNATION STREET lives. Andrew Klavan’s novel follows three characters all in their search of a mysterious prostitute who has run away. That’s great, but this being the third book in a series, its continuing storyline leaves some a bit confused.
The three leads include Scott Weiss, a former cop turned P.I. who is hot on the girl’s trail. But also on her trail – and his – is a hired killer called The Shadowman, a man so devious he literally could be in front of you and not even know it until it’s too late. Finishing off this happy little trio is Bishop, a former employee of Weiss’ who is too much of a loose cannon for his own good – a former Special Ops soldier who needs the adrenaline to keep him going.
None of these guys are what you would call warm and fuzzy, and their exploits should give action fans a thrill. Throughout the Bishop storyline, he has flashbacks to a previous job: that of finding a woman he used to go out with. The client? Her father. It’s these parts that lost me for a bit, since they refer to Bishop being a total screw-up.
But that’s a minor quibble. Klavan’s writing is so sharp and stacao you feel as though it’s projecting on a screen, but then moves into reality with some truly brutal sequences that will remind some readers of KILL BILL. Klavan based Bishop and Weiss on his former coworkers, but makes it perfectly clear this is a fictional account of their lives. If you’ve read the two previous books, you’re in for a dark ride. On its own, it can stand alone, but just barely, since sometimes, all that baggage needs a little explanation. –Bruce Grossman
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“Klavan based Bishop and Weiss on his former coworkers, but makes it perfectly clear this is a fictional account of their lives.”
Not true. When Klavan writes that, he’s already ‘in character.’ It isn’t Klavan telling us he based it on real guys; it’s a fictional narrator — the same one who tells the rest of the story. The “Author’s Note” is actually the beginning of the novel, rather than a true Author’s Note; Klavan did a similar thing with his novel “True Crime.”