RARA-AVIS: How many Apocalyptic Angels dancing on the heads of pins....

From: Kevin Burton Smith ( kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com)
Date: 09 Jan 2008


Joy wrote:

> John Shannon's first three in his Jack Liffey series verge on the
> apocalyptic: Concrete River, Cracked Earth, Poison Sky. And they're
> PIs,
> too.

Actually, John's been preaching the end of the world (or at least LA) for so long -- and so well -- I'm pretty sure his continuing cold shoulder from mysterydom is probably just another sign of the apocalypse.

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- there is nobody out there right now writing a better, smarter, more provocative and challenging LA crime series than Shannon. Mosley, Crais, Connolly are all great, but they don't dig and scratch and root under the skin of the City of Angels like Shannon does.

And he doesn't always clean under his fingernails first. There's a bleakness, an uncertainty and uneasiness, a moral dirtiness in them that always seems on the verge of going over the edge. His P.I., Jack Liffey, wants to be a moral man, a good man, an ethical man, but he knows it may be too late. Not just for him, but all of us. And yet he keeps going...

Shannon has a new one coming out soon, THE DEVILS OF BAKERSFIELD. Maybe this one'll do the trick.

Kevin Burton Smith www.thrillingdetective.com 1998-2008: 10 Years of Thrills

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