Sun 23 Dec 2018
A PI Review by Barry Gardner: RICHARD HILL – Kill the Hundredth Monkey.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[4] Comments
RICHARD HILL – Kill the Hundredth Monkey. Randall Gatsby Sierra #3. St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, 1995. No paperback edition.
I don’t know anything about Hill, other than that he is described as a prize-winning author, and lives in Gainesville, Florida.
Old three-names isn’t really looking for work right now, but some things a man’s just gotta do. One of the nation’s sports icons, a young white basketball player who was also a Rhodes scholar, has just been gunned down in Atlanta in an apparent random act of violence. Sierra is called down off his North Carolina mountaintop by n ex-movie star who lives not too far away in the mountains, where she presides over a group dedicated to stopping the destruction of personal liberty, civility, and various other Good Parts of American Life.
The dead youth had come from their community, and she wants Sierra to investigate his death. It’s not his thing — he specializes in finding people — but he was one of the youth’s admirers himself, and can’t resist her entreaties. It’s a cold and dark trail, but he puts his nose to the ground and starts.
I wish Hill weren’t quite as good a writer as he is, so I could just unload in this and be done with it. It’s filled with the Crumley/Parker macho, Brotherhood of Real Men bullshit that annoys me so much, and has pages and pages of commentary (in a not too lengthy book) on the ills of our society and how we have lost our way.
I hate being preached to at the expense of the story, and particularly so by writers who get off on and glorify violence. I mean, hey, if we’ll all just do a little bonding and then kick some righteous ass, everything will be fine. You bet,
But he is a good writer prose-wise, a very good one when he remembers to tell his story. His men and women are just a little too good, staunch, and caring to be true, but they’re the kind you want to root for. The plot really wasn’t all that bad, which is surprising: kick-ass books are usually more than a little silly when you look at them closely.
Decidedly mixed feelings, that’s what I’ve got about this one.
Bio-Bibliographic Notes: I have discovered little more abut the author than Barry knew at the time he wrote this review. He is listed in Ak Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV as RICHARD (Fontaine) HILL (1941-1999?), along with the three books in his leading character’s series given below. Hill has escaped notice from both the Fantastic Fiction and Thrilling Detective websites, but both his second and third books were reviewed by Publishers Weekly.
The Randall Gatsby Sierra series —
What Rough Beast, Foul Play, 1992
Shoot the Piper. St. Martin’s, 1994
Kill the Hundredth Monkey, St. Martin’s, 1995
December 23rd, 2018 at 10:54 pm
The difference between this and Crumley is that Crumley was genuine, nor was he suggesting that manly bonding over violence got anyone much of anywhere. Crumley, at least, was well aware that Milo and Surghue were flawed humans, not to be admired or emulated, but that sometimes such men were useful.
Hill seems to have misread and missed the point. You can’t just imitate the Crumley style, it has to come from something.
December 24th, 2018 at 1:11 am
I don’t really know why both the author and the books seem to have disappeared almost without a trace, but it seems to me that even given the the space of three books, Hill hadn’t found his own voice yet.
December 26th, 2018 at 2:53 pm
This author sounded interesting so I managed to find a bookstore on abebooks.com that had all three novels in fine condition with dust jackets. Price? One dollar each and with postage the entire amount was less than $10.00.
I used to think these prices were a good thing but because of the internet the used book business is now just about worthless. There are exceptions of course but most books can be found for a buck plus postage or close to it.
I recently took a box of books that I no longer wanted to The Old Book Shop in Morristown, NJ. I was curious as to what they would pay for hardcovers in nice condition. In less than a minute they rejected half the box and offered me $18 for the remainder. About a buck a book and not even worth my time to bother with.
I have a friend that opened one of his storage areas and tried to give the books away to his pals. We all cherry picked and the place is still full of books.
December 26th, 2018 at 3:12 pm
Selling books anywhere is a race to the bottom, especially online, where any seller with the same book can reprice theirs for a few cents less, sometimes automatically and within minutes. Lots of books are essentially worthless to begin with, though, and these are the ones I trade in myself at a nearby bookstore. Whatever they take at whatever price is a bonus. Money in hand, plus books out of the house.
If you ever read any of the Hill books, Walker, let me know. I’d like to have your opinion of them.