|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Johnny Lane is a famous private eye in Denver; his column 'Fast Lane' in the Denver Examiner recounts some of his more interesting cases. Lately there hasn't been anything worth writing about, just a lot of little stuff he passes along to some of his less fortunate peers. Not all of them appreciate his largesse, but beggars can't be choosers. The first case Lane shares with us involves tracking down a runaway teen, who is working in a peep-show. Debra Singer has run from her sexually abusive father, who is anxious for her to come back home. Lane beats the crap out of Craig Singer, and tells him to leave town. Singer's wife isn't very happy about this, which makes life a little difficult for Debra when Lane does bring her home. Then Mary Williams enters his office, and his life. He has feelings for Mary, and they are not based just on her looks, although she isn't a beauty, just a nice-looking young girl. Mary wants him to track down her birth parents; her adoptive parents aren't thrilled about this but are willing to help, both financially and with what little information they have. Mary won't take their money, preferring to pay the cost herself. For some reason, Lane gives Mary a sweet deal on his fee. It doesn't take him long to track down Mary's mother. Lane killed her husband about 20 years ago; the story made the front pages, Lane was a hero, and his career took off. He's pretty sure that Rose Martinez Murphy won't want to see him again, which makes it difficult for him to reunite Mary with Rose. Lane is blackmailing the husband of one of his other clients -- cash in return for not telling the client just how often the husband is cheating on her. Lane sees this as a win-win situation. Jerry Bry gets to keep cheating on his wife; she doesn't kill him, which is what Lane knows she will do if she finds out; and Lane gets to put the screws to Jerry every once in a while. He decides to have Jerry pretend to be Mary's father, telling Mary that her mother died shortly after her birth. This doesn't work very well, since Jerry tries to rape Mary. One of the blurbs for FAST LANE referred to it as, "Hilarious in the darkest fashion, violent, bitter, psychotic and unputdownable . . ." (Ken Bruen). Well, I don't get the humor, and I had no trouble putting this book down. Other than that, Bruen has it right. Perhaps my reaction to FAST LANE was affected by my just having finished a biography of Raymond Chandler, a biography which gave some attention to the similarities between Chandler and Philip Marlowe. Johnny Lane is not a nice man. He is a man quite willing to do what needs to be done to cover his ass. He's fast on his feet, a quick thinker, and definitely delusional about where to place responsibility for what happens in his life. He seems to function in an almost constant manic phase, with the occasional foray into depression. Johnny Lane is not, and could never be, Philip Marlowe. I was expecting Marlowe, and got Manson. A bit of cognitive dissonance took place before I realized that. FAST LANE is very noir. The violence is frequent and graphic, the sex frequent and fairly unexplicit. The plot is actually believable, once one accepts Johnny for what he is. The characters tend toward the stereotypical, but not offensively so. The writing kept me reading, even when the content made me want to stop. I doubt that I'll read more Zeltserman, not because he's a bad writer but because what he writes about doesn't appeal to me. If you like being inside the head of a crazy man, and you like noir detective fiction, you will probably like FAST LANE very much.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, September 2004
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
