All this talk about Crais got me curious, so I tried one --
LULLABY TOWN. I read about half of it and skimmed the rest.
If this installment is typical of the Cole series, I'm going
to have to vote with the naysayers.
The debt to Parker/Spenser is obvious, and while that's kind
of annoying it's not a big deal -- Crais is a better writer
than Max Byrd, say. And Cole isn't nearly as irritating as
Spenser can be. But LULLABY TOWN is far too long, with a
false ending, and the basic plot is both confusing and
boring. Also, the Mob figures big in this book, and Crais
doesn't handle them well. (I've started to think that the Mob
is to hardboiled fiction what vampires are to horror fiction.
If you're going to tackle the subject be damn sure you do a
good job with it, because it's been done to death, and if you
goof it up you're going to have readers rolling their
eyes.)
The more I read the "descendants of Parker", the better
Parker looks to me. Whatever else one wants to say about
Parker, his books (at least, the ones I've read) are tight,
clearly plotted, and usually pretty funny.
If LULLABY TOWN isn't typical of the Cole series, I'd like to
hear recommendations. Barring that, though, I'll give this
guy a pass. (One final note: just once I'd like to read a
series that features a psychopathic killer whose sidekick is
a big old sensitive PI who's a gourmet cook in his spare
time. Or am I the only one who prefers Hawk and Pike to
Spenser and Cole?)
doug
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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