FRIDAY'S FORGOTTEN BOOKS:
In La-La Land We Trust
by Robert Campbell
Back in the early '80s my friend Deborah Greenwood pointed me in the direction of a lot of writers. Some, like Milan Kundera, I loved. Some, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I couldn't be arsed with. Robert Campbell was one of the good ones.
The hero of In La-La Land We Trust is Whistler, a private eye with a philosophical bent, as it were.The story involves a headless corpse, a drunk driving actor, snuff films, kiddy porn, power, corruption and lies.That's all ye know and all ye need to know.
It's a beaut, as were the other Campbell books that I read. There really is never a dull moment and there are loads of cracking lines of dialogue and nicely quirky characters.
There are more Forgotten Books at Patti Abbotts' blog, which is here
9 comments:
New writer for me, Paul. Thanks.
Great choice. I like his books about Jimmy Flannery, too. Especially HIP-DEEP IN ALLIGATORS.
Yeah, they were great too. & great titles. You know I'd forgotten about him for about ten years until recently!
Robert Campbell is another of those guys, like Ross Thomas, who've I've read a little of and their books were so prevalent twenty years ago that I figured I'd get around to more soonish...thanks for the pointer and reminder!
The first Left Coast Crime - and the first mystery convention - I attended was when Campbell was just about at his peak. I saw him in the hotel lobby and he came over and sat, chatting with myself and a few others for nearly half an hour. You couldn't ask for a nicer guy. I read his first one, La-La Land, and meant to get tot he rest, but it's the classic story of never got around to it. Thanks for the review, Paul.
I loved the Whistler books! They painted a fairly sordid, hard-bitten, and cynical view of L.A. and Hollywood. Campbell mined other territory equally well with a couple of other series, lighter yet just as good. I still think his one-off JUICE should be considered a must-read. Campbell is an excellent choice for the Forgotten Books series as I am certain that anyone who started reading crime fiction after the late 90s has probably never heard of him. And his books are definitely worth hunting down!
Hey Paul, Been having issues with my laptop getting on your blog, since last week. I can see the front page, but nothing else. Thinking my Internet Exporer (ver 6) is causing the issue. Finally at PC where I can see everything. Looking forward to catching up on a weeks worth of your posts I missed.
Keith, Juice is a great call. I remember the tag line on the cover: 'Like A Tap On The Shoulder In An Infriendly Bar'
Sean, I know nothing about computers. I know that I use Mozarella Firefox but that's about it! I'm kicking off more of the heavy to load stuff today.
Sounds good. Does the Whistler really whistle?
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