Thu 10 Feb 2011
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: LIZA CODY – Bucket Nut.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[4] Comments
LIZA CODY – Bucket Nut. Eva Wylie #1. Doubleday, hardcover, 1993. UK edition: Chatto & Windus, hardcover, 1992. Mysterious Press, US, paperback, 1995.
I haven’t been a big fan of Cody’s Anna Lee stories. Haven’t really hated them, you understand, just haven’t like them well enough to seek them out. For better or worse, Eva Wylie is a different breed of cat entirely.
Eva is a big, not very pretty, not exceptionally bright young lady who is a security guard for a wrecking yard, and a lady wrestler (the villain), and an errand runner for a shady Chinaman. She has an attitude, a drunken whore for a mother, and a sister from whom she was separated in childhood and with whom she yearns to be reunited.
She’s a bit of a thief, too. She’s a brick or two shy of a load, and it’s probably because she threw them at someone. Her best friends, maybe her only, are two guard dogs, but she wants none of your effing pity, thank you. Innocently enough (according to her own lights, anyway), she gets herself involved in a gang war, and ends up with what seems to be half of London looking for her.
This is different. If you’re tired of the same old thing in crime fiction, this isn’t it. It’s a portrait of a young woman who hasn’t been given a whole lot of a breaks by either nature or nurture, and is coping the best way she can. Cody tells her story in a matter-of-fact first person, and the language is the lower-class language of London.
It’s a rough story, told in rough words, about rough people. The picture painted of the world of professional wrestling is fascinating, if not particularly edifying.
Cody seems to strives for neither humor nor tragedy, though you may find elements of either or both, depending on your own psyche. While first-person a narration has its limitations, it is perfect for the kind of portrait that she paints here.
This is as good a job of making an unlovely, unlikable character seem human enough to be worthy of sympathy as I’ve seen lately, and it’s excellent storytelling. Eva sticks in your mind.
Note: Bucket Nut was awarded the British CWA Silver Dagger in 1993. Cody’s other series character, PI Anna Lee, makes a cameo appearance in this first outing for Eva.
The Eva Wylie series —
1. Bucket Nut (1992)
2. Monkey Wrench (1994)
3. Musclebound (1997)
February 11th, 2011 at 1:02 am
Wow! Where have I been? Stuck in the ever-lovin’ past obviously. When I do read contemporary books I usually go for the offbeat. Here I thought the only crime novel about a female wrestler was Christa Faust’s HOODTOWN, described by her publisher as the first “lucha noir” because it deals specifically with the lucha libre wrestlers of Mexico. Now I gotta hunt down these Eva Wylie books.
February 11th, 2011 at 1:55 am
That’s why we’re here, John. To tell each other about the stuff we’ve missed. And as far as Eva Wylie is concerned, and after reading Barry’s review, all I can say is me too!
February 11th, 2011 at 3:58 am
I’m not as big a fan of the Eva Wylie books as of the Anna Lee series, but only because it took Cody away from the Lee series. Other than that I agree with everything Barry said in his review.
Eva is an unsusual protagonist, because she is not particularly likable or sympathetic, and yet you can’t help but identify with her — even if you resist doing so. Cody is also to be commended for staying true to Eva, who hasn’t mellowed all that much, but has resisted becoming a cartoon character too.
But to sneak in a word for Anna, even if you don’t read the books (and you should) find the BBC series with the wonderful Imogen Stubbs as Anna. They ran on A&E here, and they were among the most entertaining private eye fare I’ve seen in many a year, and Stubbs was stunningly well cast as Anna.
February 11th, 2011 at 9:53 am
I agree with what Barry and David said – there is something about Eva that sticks in your mind, even gets under your skin. She’s not particularly likeable but you can’t help caring about what happens to her.
According to my database I never read the third book in the series, so I need to rectify that.