Customer Reviews

Alice In La-La Land

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Had Phillip Marlowe been working his L.A. beat in the 1980s, he might have been a bit like Robert Cambell's Private Investigator Whistler. Whistler works the underbelly of the city in much the same way Marlowe did. But L.A. has become even more corrupt and morally bankrupt than in Marlowe's day. The sort of human predators that Whistler runs up against are a product of our modern media age. "Alice in La-La Land" is a solid entry in the Whistler series and a good read for anyone who likes detective fiction.

"Alice in La-La Land" is anti-Lee White. It's anti-Kenneth Harvey. There are lots of extra words. An editor could have trimmed a third of it. But it's also fun and enjoys its freedom. "Alice in La-Land Land" is loose. The plot rambles and drifts. The story is moves along the underbelly of Los Angeles in the 1980's, among big-ego TV stars, street oddballs and prostitutes. It features a private eye with some strange preferences. I'll leave it at that. A few key "preferences" aren't revealed until the bitter end. Unlike "Junkyard Dog," which I read recently, Campbell's style and voice here is more omniscient, but no less colorful, even when applied to trash: "The Santa Ana winds were blowing in from the valley through the passes, sweeping up the pulverized dog droppings, gum wrappers, old newspapers, and bleached confetti, whirling the mess down the gutters toward yesterday."

It's at least remarkable that Campbell moves so effortlessly from The Windy City to La-Land Land and captures the essence of both. Here the plot revolves around Whistler, hired by the soon-to-be ex-wife of a popular TV talk show host who thinks she is a target of her husband's rage. The writing shifts points of view, including from inside the head of Roger Twelvetrees, the brute TV talk show host. Fair warning that how he views the world, and women in particular, is not a pretty picture. The end is a bit of cat's cradle, as even the characters point out, and the tangled sensation is accurate. Recommended for completists of L.A.-based fiction and those who don't mind a rambling read or a one-of-a-kind detective. Like I said, I'll leave it that.

If you have seen Modern Times you know in the end you highly doubt that beautiful hope they have is going to play out but you still hope. Whistler, the main character, would understand that statement.

It is not a novel for the faint hearted. Campbell explores a world of sex, murder, pleasure and pain. A world of hooker of all sexes and none, TV, Transsexuals, Gender Benders, runaways, throwaways and the atmosphere around them. Set in this is a beautiful woman who isn't what she seems, a star who is what he seems, a daughter who plunged thru the looking glass from Alanta to La-La land. It takes a while but you'll figure out who the Red Queen is, who Alice actually is, who Chessie is, the rabbit and the rest.

Hardbitten, hard boiled and with that hope no matter how lost it is at the end. Not for the faint hearted, not for those who like pink colored glasses. A passing knowledge of Thru the looking glass and Alice in wonderland helps.