I hadn't read any Howard Browne books, so I thought the
logical place to start would be with the first Paul Pine
book. Took me a little while to get into it. The style was so
reminiscent of Chandler that at first it read almost like a
parody. But I got over that and wound up enjoying the book.
The plot is very complicated, which I like, and the action is
pretty tough. Part of the solution at the end was something I
didn't expect at all but made perfect sense. That always
makes for a nice moment. A good humorous touch is how several
characters are referred to as reading pulp magazines. Browne
stops short of using actual titles, but I'm sure they were
magazines he edited. I've heard so many good things about
these books over the years that I was a little disappointed
because I didn't think this one measured up to all the
comments. Still, it was enjoyable enough that I'll probably
read the others.
James
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