ROSS THOMAS – The Fools in Town Are on Our Side. William Morrow, hardcover, 1970. Avon, paperback, 1972; Mysterious Press, paperback, 1987; St. Martin’s, paperback, 2003.

   A long book, 383 pages, most of it about a Poisonville named Swankerton. To clean up a corrupt town, apply Orcutt’s First Law: “To get better, it must get worse.” The crew consists of a crooked ex-cop, an ex-whore, an ex-secret agent named Lucifer Dye, and a boy-wonder boss named Orcutt.

   The story is Dye’s, with threads from his past – his boyhood in a Shanghai bordello, his life with Section Two – combining into a full-life portrait. The action is hard, tough, utterly ruthless and ultimately frightening. Corruption is hardly a sufficient word.

   After juggling three stories, Thomas finally settles down to the tale of Swankerton. Unfortunately those threads from Dye’s past fizzle out after the long buildup. I don’t believe this has been published yet in paperback, but it might be worth reprinting, pertinent to today’s CIA inquiries – if that piece of action had only been followed up with care.

Rating: B plus.

— Slightly revised from The Mystery Nook, Vol. 2, No. 2 (whole #8), 15 December 1975.

   

UPDATE: In this review, I wondered why this book has never come out in paperback. The fact was, and I didn’t know it, that it had. I missed it — the Avon paperback from 1972 — nor was I the only one. Very few copies of that edition show up offered for sale today online.

   In the comment he left following Dan Stumpf’s recent review of Red Harvest, Sai Shankar asked me if I’d ever reviewed this book. I said I had, but I didn’t know where it was. Lo and behold, here is is.