RARA-AVIS: RED RAIN, Michael Crow

From: Michael Robison ( miker_zspider@yahoo.com)
Date: 29 Aug 2003


Read this one on the plane and during the layovers. Luther Ewing is a detective for the Baltimore County Police Department, but he's got a hardboiled superhero past. He was dismissed from the Army after a shooting incident in the Iraqi war. He was a mercenary sniper in Bosnia, with more than a hundred kills to his name.
 He's got a numbered bank account in a foreign country, a fast car, and a centerfold girlfriend. He's got big guns.

Usually I like this kind of simplistic machismo, but there's something lacking here. Maybe it's the similes that don't quite hit the mark. Maybe it's because the plot doesn't have any surprises. Maybe it's because the other characters just seem like filler material. It's a weak and unconvincing mix of Mike Hammer vigilantism, 1950's drug propaganda, and Unitarian psychology.

Luther is somewhat reminiscent of Trevanian's Nicholai Hel or Jonathan Hemlock, but Crow's story lacks the cynical wit, the great characters, and the vivid sense of place and adventure that shines in Trevanian's writing.

miker

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 29 Aug 2003 EDT