Thu 19 May 2022
A PI Mystery Review: ARTHUR LYONS – The Dead Are Discreet.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[11] Comments
ARTHUR LYONS – The Dead Are Discreet. Jacob Asch #1. Mason & Lipscomb, hardcover, 1974. Ballantine, paperback, 1976. Henry Holt & Co, paperback, 1983.
If you’ve read as many PI novels as either you or I have, you know without my telling you that there are very few plots to match up numberwise with all of the PI novels that have been written over the years. So when I tell you that in the first appearance of PI Jacob Asch in a detective novels he is hired by a lawyer whose client is accused of murdering his wife and her lover when he unexpectedly walks in on them, you may be reminded of the current TV series of The Lincoln Lawyer, in which, guess what? Mickey Haller inherits another lawyer’s caseload after he’s murdered, and the big one he’s tasked with has to do with a client who…
And of course a good defense in such situations is to find someone who wanted the lover dead, not the wife. Bingo, right again. Not that that’s the case in either book or TV show, but it does provide for a lot more story to tell.
There are variations on this. What’s different about this one is that the wife is into matters of the occult, hence the cover of the paperback edition, and so there’s that angle to be investigated, and it doesn’t matter one bit that the setting is Los Angeles, primarily Hollywood, although the movie-making aspect of one of the town’s major industries isn’t really a factor.
I didn’t realize it while I was reading it, but as it so happens, it was a re-read. I’d read this one before. That’s not a fact that matters much, but in my review of Castle Burning, the fifth book in the series and reviewed here, I mentioned I didn’t care for this one and that I had given it a “Dâ€. I haven’t come across the full review from back then, but sad to say, I wouldn’t rank much higher this time around either.
Lyons’ writing style is smooth enough and doesn’t call attention to itself, which is a good thing, and he knows his way around even the seediest parts of town, but I don’t get the sense that he’s as hardboiled as he wants to be. I’m also always unhappy when a detective in a detective story doesn’t do any detecting. Asch, in this case, at least, simply goes with his gut feeling. Sorry, my friend, that’s simply not good enough. Not for me, it isn’t.
May 19th, 2022 at 8:50 pm
Only have read “All God’s Childrenâ€. It was good enough, serviceable, fine. All the things you want if you’re shopping for tires. I’m not shopping for tires.
May 19th, 2022 at 9:20 pm
Don’t give up completely on the series. Note that I gave CASTLES BURNING an A minus. On the other hand, I think that this one and that one have been the only two I’ve read.
May 19th, 2022 at 9:11 pm
I missed this one so I lasted two or three in before Lyons and I parted company. He was a good writer, but Asch never really amounted to much as a detective and I never really got into the series.
I might have given him more time a few years earlier or later, but at that point there were several much better writers competing for my money and time.
May 19th, 2022 at 9:29 pm
Looking back from a perspective of some 45 (!) years later, you’re right. We’ve discussed this before. There was a multitude of PI series back in the 70s and 80s. Some were only good and a handful were great. Asch probably wasn’t in the latter category, and he’s remembered by hardly anyone today, but he did work his way through eleven novels and a handful of short stories. Not many series even back then lasted that long.
May 19th, 2022 at 10:02 pm
I’m a fan of Arthur Lyons and Jacob Asch. Fast, easy reads with enough action to please me. Lyons may not have been the greatest PI author to come down the pike, but the eleven Asch novels gave me eleven nights of satisfying reading.
May 19th, 2022 at 10:56 pm
If they came out in paperback, I have the complete series. I never missed a chance to buy a PI novel back then, even if I knew I’d be hard pressed to have a chance to read it. Next time I come across another, I’m going to find the time.
May 20th, 2022 at 8:39 am
It’s been a long time since I read them, but I liked the Lyons/Asch books enough to read them all, which for me is endorsement enough.
May 20th, 2022 at 10:50 pm
Lyons’ publisher for this one, Mason & Lipscomb, sounded unfamiliar to me, so I looked them up in Hubin. Turns out they published only four mysteries:
1973:
*Triple Mirror, Leigh James, hc
*Going Public, David Westheimer, hc
1974:
*The Dance of Love, Daniel B. Dodson, hc
*The Dead Are Discreet, Arthur Lyons, hc
For whatever that’s worth. I was just curious, I guess.
May 21st, 2022 at 10:15 am
I read maybe half the series, and all these years later I don’t recall if this was one of them. My overall opinion of the series was favorable at the time, though. When I look at the list of the books, CASTLES BURNING, HARD TRADE, and THREE WITH A BULLET all sound familiar to me. They were well written, but I’m not sure Asch was a very compelling protagonist. I don’t remember much about him.
May 21st, 2022 at 11:10 am
I remember The Dead Are Discreet as average, but the other Asch books I’ve read are pretty good, although as with many series, I find it hard to recall which ones they were. Not sure if that’s my problem or the books.
May 21st, 2022 at 1:00 pm
I think the consensus is that the books were generally above average, but that Asch himself may not have been a very memorable protagonist. Thanks everyone for all of your comments!