Mon 21 Jun 2010
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: ROB KANTNER – The Red, White, and Blues.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[5] Comments
ROB KANTNER – The Red, White, and Blues. Harper, paperback original, 1993. Ben Perkins #8.
As I’ve said before, I don’t understand why Kantner’s stories of the Detroit PI, Ben Perkins, haven’t made it into hard covers. Perkins, a cigar-smoking ex-union enforcer who is now a part-time PI, part-time maintenance manager for an apartment complex, is no threat to the memory of Marlowe or Archer, but there are certainly those around who are less so.
Ben is trying to adjust to being a father, and to reinvent his relationship with the child’s mother, a lawyer who was once his lover and is still his occasional employer. Now she wants him to look into the disappearance of a child from one of Detroit’s major hospitals.
The problems from Ben’s point of view are two: it happened a year ago, and the mother is a thoroughly disreputable sort of person whom he neither likes or believes. He agrees to look into it, though he warns his ex-lover not to expect a happy ending.
He meets with deception or indifference everywhere he looks, but gradually accumulates enough facts to make him believe that something shady is going on. He’s “assisted” in his investigation by a recovering alcoholic from his apartment complex, a lady who presents him with a few problems on her own.
I like the way Kantner writes, and I like the character he’s created in Perkins. His knightly armor is far from unblemished, and the streets he walks are plenty mean enough. I think Kantner does as good a job as anyone when it comes to writing about Detroit.
The first person narrative is straightforward and effective, and Kantner has an ear for dialogue and a deft hand at characterization. The plots are the weak link in the series. They tend to degenerate into unlikely cowboy action, and this one is no different. With that caveat, I enjoyed it.
The Ben Perkins Series —
* The Back Door Man (paperback, 1986)
* The Harder They Hit (paperback, 1987)
* Dirty Work (paperback, 1988)
* Hell’s Only Half Full (paperback, 1989)
* Made in Detroit (paperback, 1990)
* The Thousand Yard Stare (paperback, 1991)
* The Quick and the Dead (paperback, 1992)
* The Red, White and Blues (paperback, 1993)
* Concrete Hero (paperback, 1994)
* Trouble Is What I Do (hardcover, collection, 2005)
* Final Fling (hardcover, 2008)
June 21st, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Without getting into the series I read several of these and enjoyed them. I don’t know why it took them so long to get into hardcover. These are far better than mid level private eye fare and the only problem may have been at the time there was a spate of good eye series to compete with. In retrospect I’m surprised how many of them I did read.
June 21st, 2010 at 5:08 pm
While I have them all, except for perhaps the most recent one — I’ve forgotten if I ever ordered it or not, but I meant to — and I’ve read three or four.
I don’t remember anything outstanding about them, but neither of course were they terrible. Far from it!
Barry may have been right in picking on the plot as the weak point in Kantner’s writing, but I do remember recommending the series to someone, who reported back that the one he read was too softboiled for him.
You’re also right, David, in saying that there was a lot of competition from other PI writers at that time, authors like Valin, Greenleaf, Straley, and Lyons, none of whom are still writing, for various reasons.
We took a lot for granted then. PI novels are still around, but in paperback at least, they’ve been swamped by the deluge of cozy mysteries filled with quilters and teddy bear collectors.
— Steve
June 21st, 2010 at 5:44 pm
I felt the same, Steve (and David) – I sort of liked them without getting excited about them, and just stopped after a few. I’ve read some of his short stories and they were pretty good.
I did read all the Lyons books (from your list); sadly he died a year or two ago.
June 21st, 2010 at 6:02 pm
I guess these just weren’t special enough, or missed something that the other writers had, because while I enjoyed them well enough I didn’t get into them really, and I have to go back and read a few pages before I recall if I read the book or not.
Though at times it feels as if the cozy thing is going to last forever I suspect it will run its course and be replaced by something else, and it will only take one really good p.i. series catching on to start a new flood.
But someone is reading all the cozies — many of which are mostly about quilting or whatever and not much about mystery as if someone had read Christie’s Miss Marple and thought how much better they would be without all the clues and those pesky murders …
In all honesty while I may read a mystery that has a background of some hobby (like book collecting) it better have a sleuth and a mystery or I’m dropping it pretty fast. I swear some of these books throw in the murder as an afterthought, as if the writer remembered at the last minute it was supposed to be a mystery.
June 22nd, 2010 at 9:28 pm
I was turned onto this author by a friend in the mid 80’s. I remember they were hard to come by even at used paperback specialty stores. This title being reviewed was the last title I purchased. The reason being that, if I remember correctly, it was over 300 pgs. thick, maybe closer to 400 pgs. The first few were only in the near 200 pgs. count,tightly written and entertaining. The more the series went on, the more personal problems seemed to crop up, watering down what ever mystery content were in the books. I just had enough
already. Too bad for me.