Thu 15 Sep 2016
ELLIOT WEST – The Killing Kind. Houghton Mifflin, hardcover, 1976. No US paperback edition.
It starts fast, beginning just as private detective Jim Blaney takes out two hoodlums seen shooting a pair of undercover cops, and from that moment on, events flow in a swirling multitude of directions: a missing wife and some stolen diamonds, a raid on the home of a Las Vegas casino owner, a daughter strung out on an overdose of heroin, a $150,000 reward out the window when a client is murdered — or is it?
That’s not all. Blaney has woman trouble as well, being happily divorced and 30 years older than his secretary, who wouldn’t at all mind his moving in with her. He may have found the case he can retire on, and if straddling the limits of the law will do it, well, maybe it’s worth the chance.
Two murders need a solution, however, and if there’s a weakness in the tale West tells, it’s that it takes some questionable behavior on Blaney’s part before his deductions can be made to work — an objection outweighed in my mind by the many fine pages of character development and suspenseful action, with action the key ingredient of the mixture. (If you’ve come to think that I’m biased in favor of tough private eye yarns, I’d have to say you’re right.)
Rating: A
Note: Of the five novels by Elliot West included in Al Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV, this is the only one in which PI Jim Blaney appears.
September 15th, 2016 at 12:49 am
I remember the cover, but I don’t remember the book.
September 15th, 2016 at 4:11 pm
Abebooks lists a UK paperback edition from 1986, published by Futura Publications. The cheapest one could be had for $3.45 total price, if anyone’s interested.
September 15th, 2016 at 4:43 pm
It’s supposedly in Very Good condition, too. But at that price how can a seller in the UK ship it to someone here in the US and make any money on the sale? Answer: They can’t. There’s no way.
September 15th, 2016 at 4:45 pm
As long as I was looking on ABE, I discovered a US First Edition in Near Fine condition for only $7.99, including postage. That sounds like a bargain somebody ought to follow up on.
September 17th, 2016 at 8:10 pm
This type of private eye tale always reminds me of what Samuel Clemens said when his beloved wife Lizzie swore for the first time: “Honey, you have the words right, but you got the rhythm wrong.”
September 18th, 2016 at 12:05 pm
I don’t know about that. I did give it an “A.” You’ll have to take it up with my younger self, though. Nothing about it comes back to me now.