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HARD KARMA SHUFFLE, THE
by Mike Nettleton and Carolyn Rose
Deadly Alibi Press, February 2003
209 pages
$16.99
ISBN: 188619923X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

I really wanted to like THE HARD KARMA SHUFFLE and I did. I'm a tough audience when it comes to "looking back on the sixties"; I hold much of that time in higher reverence than many people, and think a lot of good came out of the political dissent and even the experiments in lifestyle - not everything was peachy, mind you, but it wasn't all awful like the revisionists say either. So when I meet a one-named character called Paladin who lives "off the radar" (no social security card, no license, no credit cards), I look long and hard at the attitudes. The book worked well, especially as it was written by two people; that's never easy. When it does succeed, it's often a collaboration of two long-time veteran authors. Nettleton and Rose here offer their first mystery, and I couldn't tell where one writer began and the other ended (or however it was done), which is a good sign.

Paladin (the baby boom generation will recall the television show) is named in an ironic pun that he picked up years ago. Woodstock changed him, he left his old life behind and is one of those "follow the dead" "live off the land" types who gets his clothes at the Salvation Army shops and who works for cash or barter. The story begins as he's making a delivery for an attorney; the package is delivered, but the lawyer is screaming at Paladin to get it back. When Paladin arrives at the lawyer's office, package in hand, he finds his erstwhile employer dead. Then all sorts of weird stuff kicks in; strangers appear, he's chased by thugs (perhaps too long a chase scene, even if it's a bike v. car chase in Portland). When he gets home, he hides the package (apparently computer stuff, but Paladin has managed to avoid all that modernization as well, and doesn't know a CD from a diskette from a laptop). Obviously, he's got something that someone wants.

Paladin's network of friends and acquaintances from all walks of life, the places he barters work for food, these all work for me. I've known hippies and ex-hippies and hippies-who-are-still-using-their-hippie names (sometimes because they just can't shake them). I've known serious pacifist anarchists who don't function in the "normal" world; they live without identification or licenses, they find work and satisfaction and commitment and lives without either becoming the cliched drug burn-out or the sell-out stockbroker. I still keep in touch with my friends from the protest and demonstration days of the past and the not-so-distant-past. I genuinely like many of these people and respect them.

There are some clunkers in Hard Karma Shuffle: the kid who shows up claiming to be Paladin's son? Given Paladin's casual life, that's not so unbelievable; but for the kid to immediately call this stranger "dad" and act like there is nothing to deal with? Didn't work - no one becomes "dad" overnight like that, no matter how much the kid wants a father. Paladin's unreal attempt to deal with a necktie (sorry, but it's not that hellish, and he probably did wear one once or twice as a young man) was over the top, as are the occasional examples of "wow, the sixties generation can't communicate with Gen X" dialogue. (Oh, yeah, and that thing about how Cass Elliott died? All wrong.)

Overall the story works, though, and that's what counts. Paladin's ideals and ways of functioning mean that he often just doesn't get the 21st century and sometimes, I think he's got the right idea or at least an idea I can understand. Living off-line, no computers, no bank accounts, no worries about car theft and stock options, has its benefits. 

The whodunit was fairly obvious from the start, although not the "whydunit". The book was about a more-or-less outcast functioning in a modern smooth-running society on his own terms, and I don't think he does all that badly. I couldn't live Paladin's way, but I'm glad he's out there. I look forward to his next appearance.

Reviewed by Andi Shechter, February 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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