Thu 10 Mar 2016
BRAD SOLOMON – The Gone Man. Random House, hardcover, 1977. Avon, paperback, 1980.
When Charlie Quinn’s not working as a Hollywood extra, he gets his kicks a a private eye in the city of dreams, a town not primarily noted for soft, tender feelings.
The restrictions of the private eye novel being what they are, it’s no surprise to find yourself reading yet another case involving the missing son of a wealthy father who finds that hes hired more help than he’d bargained for.
But with non-stop dialogue as pungent and striking as this, it goes down quickly and smoothly one more time.
Rating: B plus.
Bibliographic Notes: Brad Solomon wrote one other PI novel, The Open Shadow (1978), but Quinn, whom I liked as character, is not in it, nor did he ever show up again. Bill Crider reviews that second Solomon book here. He found a lot of good things to say about it, and as I recall, I did, too.
March 10th, 2016 at 3:29 pm
Solomon was well on the way to doing some very interesting things with the private eye novel.
March 10th, 2016 at 4:27 pm
Makes me wonder all over again what happened to Solomon.
March 10th, 2016 at 4:41 pm
I knew I’d read the THE OPEN SHADOW, and not only did I find the review I wrote, but I discovered that I’ve already posted it on this blog:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=10024
My notes at the end re more extensive than the ones I wrote up for this review, but as for any more information on Brad Solomon himself, I knew nothing then and I know nothing more now.
March 10th, 2016 at 5:18 pm
I read “The Gone Man” in the spring of 1980 when I was taking a course on “The American Detective” during my final semester at Yale and was scouting for new PI novels to write about. I did an essay that included it as well as Stephen Greenleaf’s “Grave Error” and Phillips Lore’s “Murder Behind Closed Doors”.
Later that same year I read “The Open Shadow.” I enjoyed both Solomon novels. I had no idea until now that he was a mystery man. I too would love to know what happened to him.
March 11th, 2016 at 5:57 pm
I was going to mention wondering what happened to him as well, but thought I was the only one who didn’t know.