Mon 25 Nov 2019
Archived PI Mystery Review: MICHAEL Z. LEWIN – Outside In.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
MICHAEL Z. LEWIN – Outside In. Willie Werth/Hank Midwinter #1. Alfred A.Knopf, hardcover, 1980. Berkley, paperback, 1981.
Most of the work that Lewin has previously produced in the field of detective fiction has been steady if not spectacular private eye fare, Albert Samson, the hero he has used most often, is known as the cheapest detective in Indianapolis, which means that he invariably gets stuck with the cases o one else will touch.
None of this, however, adequately paves the way for the tables that Lewin turns upon himself in this, his latest effort. With a nod to the credo always given to the beginning writer, “Write what you know.” Lewin’s newest protagonist is a middle-aged writer named Willie Werth, whose life has grown soft and comfortable from the proceeds gained over the years fro a long series of mystery adventures starring that premier private eye, Hank Midwinter.
Now, Hank Midwinter is the kind of guy who outhammers Mickey Spillane’s hero, for example, but his author, who finds himself compelled to try to help the police investigate the murder of a friend, quickly discovers that the real cops are not like, and do not like, fiction.
Werth is also going through a minor crisis with his wifem who tolerates but who does not always understand the artistic muse. Nor is Werth (nor the reader, for that matter) entirely sure that part of what attracts him so greatly to the case us not the presence at home of his friend’s daughter, whose newly found fame is for having made one of “those movies” back in New York.
The combination os Werth’s case and the eventual wrapping up of Midwnter’s own latest caper is a synergistic entanglement that finds each feeding off the other in alternating chapters. The result is a highly amusing and yet an intensely retrospective view of the world as it exists within its own shell of reality.
Or perhaps, as Lewin strongly suggests, with the right perspective, why couldn’t that be taken the other way around?
November 25th, 2019 at 7:37 pm
Sounds like fun in the tradition of Schorr’s Red Diamond.
November 26th, 2019 at 1:27 am
Not quite the same kind of story, but in the same tradition. As I recall, the hero of the Red Diamond was a cabdriver who read a lot of pulp detective stories, and started to live the life of one of his favorite characters he loves to read about in them, Red Diamond.
There is a small sub-subcategory of detective novels in which author characters get mixed up with their own fictional creations. There may even have been a made for TV movie (or even a series??) along these lines
Unfortunately my mind is drawing a blank on specifics.
November 26th, 2019 at 9:42 am
I read a few of the Samson books, but generally preferred the more acerbic ones with Lt. LeRoy Powder. Somehow, Werth escaped my notice totally.
November 26th, 2019 at 2:43 pm
Acerbic is exactly the right word to describe Powder. Me, I’ve enjoyed the Samson books more than his, and pretty much that’s been the reason. A little too acerbic! All three of Lewin’s main characters appear in and out of all of his books — that includes social worker Adele Buffington , who is also Samson’s sometimes girl friend. There is at least one book in which she’s the primary protagonist.
November 26th, 2019 at 2:45 pm
I forgot to add that I’m fairly sure that OUTSIDE IN is Werth’s only appearance.