RARA-AVIS: Dennis Lehane/Carl Hiaasen
Andy Hughes (AHughes@sbtinfo.com)
Tue, 25 Aug 1998 13:56:19 -0500
I finished the new Dennis Lehane novel, "Gone, Baby, Gone,"
this
weekend, and it's one of the finest P.I. novels to come along
in a long
time. It's part hardboiled and part noir, but fully satisfying
and
original. For those who read "Sacred" and weren't impressed,
reconsider.
I'm a fan of Lehane and agree "Sacred" was deeply flawed, but
"Gone,
Baby, Gone" finds Lehane writing far above the level of even
his first
two novels, "A Drink Before the War" and "Darkness Take My
Hand."
"Drink," in particular, was excellent, but "Gone" makes that
novel look
like practice work. Of course, part of this reaction is based
on reading
the first two novels and concluding that they and "Gone" form a
trilogy
linked by the characters and their setting. Squeamish warning:
It does
get down-right gruesome in some parts and the violence quotient
is high.
Yesterday, I read the second of the Carl Hiaasen/Bill
Montalbano
collaborations, "Trap Line." It's better than their first,
"Powder
Burn," with better pacing, characterizations and plotting. It
is,
essentially, a revenge caper novel, but with very little of
the humor
Hiaasen would use later in his solo novels. Recommended, but
not as
highly as, say, "Double Whammy."
Andy
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