Customer Reviews

Bluebottle (A Lew Griffin Mystery) (Library Binder)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

New Orleans resident Lew Griffin awakens from an almost year-long coma caused by a gunshot wounds head. He remembers nothing about the incident, but quickly learns that he had been leaving a club accompanied by an older white woman when he was shot. Lew does not recall the incident, his healing in the past year, let alone the identity of the woman.

Lew needs to know who wanted him dead and why. With the help of his friend Don Walsh, he begins to investigate who the white

woman is, who was the sniper, and why did they target him? While seeking the truth, Lew also searches for a missing writer, who was looking into a white supremacist group.

The fifth Griffin mystery, BLUEBOTTLE, is a fantastic tale that is highlighted by James Sallis literary and exciting prose. Lew tells his story ashe deles into his own past providing insight into his life. The who-done-it is fabulous as expected by the great Mr. Sallis, who deserves reader recognition. This

series is one of the best on the market.

Harriet Klausner

James Sallis is a careful, thoughtful writer. His words are chiselled out of granite. There is nothing casual about his writing. I have read many of his books, with unfailing pleasure. This particular book is ruined by countless typographical errors, which completely spoil the reader's involvement. On almost every page, you have to stop and try to figure out what the author was trying to say. The early days of Kindle were like this. It is hard to imagine how proofreading standards could get so low.

The fifth book published of the Lew Griffin novels, Bluebottle begins with Lew having just been shot and taken to the hospital. Over the next year as he slowly recovers from his injuries and temporary blindness, Lew is attempting to reconstruct the events of the shooting, but his memories of the shooting and the year after are clouded and unclear. This part of the book is highly disjointed and frustrating to read. It lacks the purpose and poetry present in the other Lew Griffin novels. The novel starts to get back on track after Lew recovers, but even at that point there's not much to compel the reader. As Lew investigates his own shooting, he uncovers the involvement of a white supremacist group, but even when we finally learn what happened on the night of the shooting, it's neither very touching nor satisfying. There are some emotionally powerful moments but not nearly as many as I expected after reading the other Lew Griffin novels. And although many of the same themes are present, they are not as well developed as in the other books. If I had not already been a fan of these books, I would have been even more frustrated. Although I was pleased and eager to learn more of Griffin's past, this book simply does not live up to expectations created by Sallis' other novels. My score would actually be a 3.5 because Sallis' writing still has a charming quality to it even when he's not at his best.

Sallis is clearly at the top of his game (a height most of his peers will never come close to) in this wonderful read. You can taste and smell everything Griffin does ... and the trips back and forth to his past will keep your eyes glued to the page and the story deep in your heart. How this guy gets ignored year after year by the MWA and bigger publishers kind of puts all those "mystery awards" and "bestsellers" in perspective. Sallis is simply one of the best ever. Bluebottle proves it.

Bluebottle takes place in New Orleans, circa 1975. The main character is Lew Griffin, an African-American PI with an eclectic literary taste. Griffin is shot by an unknown sniper as he exits a bar one evening. He survives but the recovery process takes nearly a year. A year during which he is handicapped by blindness and a loss of sense of time.
This novel is first and foremost a study of Lew Griffin the human being. It examines his relationships with others as well as how his early experiences have influenced his present attitudes and behavior. The mystery or crime aspect of the novel is a secondary consideration. Sallis sparingly drizzles in information about Griffin's shooting, including how organized crime and a white supremist group may be involved.
The frequent use of obscure literary references is overdone. If you are able to understand all of them, then you, my friend, need to get out of the house more.
Quite frankly, I found this book disjointed and hard to follow. I didn't enjoy it.

It came highly recommended by a local bookshop so I was really looking forward to getting started. Unexpectedly, I was very quickly put off, amongst other things, by the jarring, clever-clever literary references that seemed more to be to do with an ego-trip for the author than anything that added to the story. Confused, I gave up after just twenty pages.