The title in both the Simon and Schuster and Gollancz
editions is THE TASTE OF ASHES. I am very fond of the John
Evans novels of Paul Pines. Just this week I picked up HALO
IN BLOOD, the first, and was sucked in by the style and
language immediately. But there is a qualitative difference
with ASHES, which carries the Howard Browne name.
I have read it several times over the last 25 years or so and
it keeps moving up in my estimation. I am not a big list
maker but ASHES would certainly be on my top ten list of
private eye novels and, when all is said and done, would
likely be in my top five. It is Howard Browne's greatest
achievement as a writer. Browne had a natural gift and his
language and descriptions are consistantly interesting and
amusing. He was also a gifted mimic with an editor's eye for
desconstructing and reconstructing other writers' styles.
Great fun but in THE TASTE OF ASHES he went beyond that and
achieved something very special indeed.
Richard A. Moore
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