Customer Reviews

Damnation Street (Weiss and Bishop Series)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Klavan pushes the envelope of hard-boiled noir with this third non-stop but not quite over-the-top Weiss and Bishop tale, again narrated by the callow youth, Andrew Klavan.

Scott Weiss is a big man with a basset hound face, an ex-cop turned PI with a soft spot for prostitutes. Jim Bishop, an adrenaline junkie and definite bad-boy-lost, was one of Weiss' operatives until he betrayed his trust ("Shotgun Alley"). Andrew Klavan is the Jimmy Olsen of the operation, an earnest young man who has met his soul mate but been diverted by lust.

Weiss has taken up the trail of Julie Wyant ("Dynamite Road"), a prostitute "with the face of an angel" who spent one night with the sadistic "Shadowman" and has been on the run from him ever since. As evil and clever and crazed as psycho "specialist" killers come, the Shadowman is using Weiss to find Julie - as Weiss is using Julie to find him. When Bishop comes cross a crucial piece of information about the elusive killer he joins the hunt, bent on saving Weiss from certain death.

And Klavan is left to hold down the fort. Under the direction of Sissy, the lonely, lovely, older woman who has distracted him from his true love, Emma. And he gets his first client. A Pulitzer Prize winning author who wants his daughter Emma followed - yes, that Emma.

Klavan gleefully uses every cliché in the genre, punching the story to the edge of parody. And it works. The relentless story moves so adroitly that every skillful twist seems as plausible as it is clever - the ratio of lighted motel lights to cars in the lot, for instance, alerting Weiss to the killer's presence, and the killer's use of disguise and misdirection to slip away once again. The pace ratchets up so tightly that at one point it almost seems to spin out of control.

But Klavan - the author Klavan - reins it in with finesse, demonstrating that character drives action and while his characters may have the outlines of clichés they have souls and torments and aspirations and skills that make them behave the way they do.

There are a few preachy moments, when the prig in Klavan threatens to overwhelm the romanticist, but a sense of humor and a lack of respect for proportion redeems the sentiment. His fictional counterpart provides some hilarity along with a wide-eyed gallantry that's as refreshing as it is old-fashioned.

Cinematic, funny, violent, and riveting, this is Klavan at his manic best.

-- Portsmouth Herald

Narrated by a writer who has decided to give up writing "bad smart novels" to work for private investigator Scott Weiss, this action-packed novel has "movie" written all over it. Weiss, formerly with the San Francisco Police Department, has been looking for Julie Wyant, a young prostitute with a mysterious past. A psychopathic killer-for-hire, John Foy, known as Shadowman, is trailing Weiss, hoping to find Wyant--the woman he wants for his own.

Jim Bishop, a violent and street-smart former employee of Weiss, is at a crossroads in his life. Having stolen money from Weiss, he is now charged with being an accessory to murder, thanks to his "girlfriend," who has killed four people. Bishop feels some loyalty toward Weiss, though he lacks the discipline to work in the "civilized world," but he becomes involved when he fears Weiss's life is in danger. The writer-narrator, a thirty-something klutz who has been having an affair with Sissy, a secretary in Weiss's office, is really in love with Emma McNair, daughter of a college professor. As these three plot threads interweave, the action is fast, furious, and often bloody.

Entirely plot-driven, the novel strives for sensation, relying on improbabilities, coincidences ("If this were fiction, you'd complain about the coincidences" says the narrator), horrors which may be dream sequences, characters who may be "undead," and every plot device of the early noir novels--hidden cameras, trap doors, and secret rooms. Because Weiss is described as able to "get inside people's thinking," he doesn't need to analyze events carefully or engage in brainstorming before taking action against the most threatening of villains.

Imitating the hard-boiled, noir style the writer-narrator says he admires, the novel is filled with very short, staccato sentences, a tough-guy attitude, and all the conceits of thirties detective stories, with constant, arch references to "the man who called himself John Foy." More a parody of noir novels than a serious contender for that label in its own right, this wild novel by author Andrew Klavan is chock full of violence, fast action, and the pseudo-macho style of noir detective stories from the thirties--a novel with the potential to become a blockbuster film. (3.5 stars) n Mary Whipple

Klavan ties up most of the loose ends of his Weiss/Bishop series (following "Dynamite Road" and "Shotgun Alley") in this hard boiled noir, "Damnation Street." Scott Weiss, ex-cop and head of his own PI office in San Francisco, is still tracking the elusive Julie Wyant, a prostitute that he may or may not be in love with...even though they have never met (don't ask).

The man who calls himself John Foy, dubbed "the Shadowman" by the media, is also still tracking Julie for his own perverted purposes which include his belief that he also is in love with her based on a one night encounter. Both these protagonists are obsessed with Julie, or what Julie represents to them. Scott has come to realize the only solution to this on-going cat and mouse game is for him to find Julie knowing "The Shadowman" will follow him setting up a final, ultimate confrontation. Foy also realizes the unhealthy symbiotic relationship that has developed between he and Weiss and also agrees to an inevitable confrontation with the three of them...of course, with a different predicted outcome than Weiss's.

Scott's former employee, the nihilistic, violence prone Jim Bishop, is still trying to find himself when he stumbles upon information that Weiss is in deadly peril from "The Shadowman" due to a secret strategy guaranteeing Scott's death. Bishop's respect for Weiss impels him to enter the chase and save Scott thereby redeeming his own self respect and meaning in life. Now we have four main characters all moving across the chessboard with similar plans yet vastly different motives.

Klavan's pacing is non-stop, full-speed-ahead action leaving little time to stop and catch your breath. It is one of those books that if you like these characters, you will find most difficult to put down. Reading the first two installments will give you a deeper appreciation of the characters but this effort can certainly be read as a stand-alone. Weiss's intuitive ability to "know" or sense things about people acts almost as a sixth-sense allowing him to keep a step ahead of others and to outguess the best plans of the villains. It is a unique "hook" that I find intriguing in this series.

The story is told from several points of view including a first person insertion of Klavan into the plot as an operative out of Weiss's agency. All in all, I found this a most enjoyable read that stretched the noir/crime thriller genre without going over the top. You'll laugh, you'll cringe, and you'll lose your breath at times...but, hey, isn't that what a good book should do for us?

This is the third outing of Weiss and Bishop, narrated by a young Klavan. PI Scott Weiss realizes the only for beautiful prostitute Julie Wyant to ever be safe and stop running from the psychopathic killer called "Shadowman," is to find Julie, knowingly leading the killer to her, and killing the killer first. When Jim Bishop, now estranged from Weiss, learns "Shadowman" has a trick he is counting on Weiss not having planned for, Bishop is determined to find Weiss and save him. Add to this young Klavan, working in Weiss' office. He finally has a case of his own following the daughter of the Berkeley professor who is concerned that she has suddenly become distant and staying out more. Unfortunately, the young woman is someone Klavan fell in love with after meeting once, but let her slip away when he become involved in an affair with an older woman who also works for Weiss.

Now for a bad analogy--this book made me think of figure stating with major sections of fast skating punctuated with daring jumps, occasional slower sections to alter the pace, an explosive crescendo and finally stopping and taking their bows and, as with figure skating, I loved it.

The story is totally plot driven but that doesn't mean without character development. One could actually read it as a standalone, although it is better to read the whole series. The dialogue is sharp and the action gripping. There is brutality and profanity but appropriate, with exception to one character where I felt it was misplaced. There is humor and pathos which balance out the action and violence.

You can tell author Klavan is a screenwriter as the story is very visual. I highly recommend this for the noir reader, and what a treat you'll receive.

As stated in its Author's Note, Damnation Street is part of the continuing story (following 2003's Dynamite Road and 2004's Shotgun Alley) of "two lost men," Scott Weiss, head of San Francisco PI agency Weiss Investigations, and Jim Bishop, formerly one his operatives.

The novel picks up with a conflict in progress: Weiss is using his extraordinary tracking skills to find a hooker that he thinks he's in love with. Weiss has another motive for tracking her down, because he knows she's attracted another unrelenting suitor, a twisted killer known as The Shadowman; Weiss believes that once he finds her, he'll also find the killer, whose very existence is deeply offensive to him. Fearing that Weiss is in way over his head, the nihilistic Jim Bishop tries to protect him by taking out the Shadowman before he can hurt his ex-boss. The devious and deadly Shadowman, however, has other ideas.

To say that Damnation Street is hard-boiled is an understatement that wouldn't do the book justice--dark, depressing, steeped in violence, the book is a story arc from Sin City exquisitely rendered in bleak, hard- hitting prose. Balancing cruelty and tenderness, pathos and humor without ever insulting the intelligence of readers, the book features several set pieces which definitely aren't recommended for the faint of heart. At it's core, though, this is a book about redemption and rehabilitation, and, more importantly, about courage and loyalty. A journey into the dark side of human existence, it ultimately conveys a message of hope and optimism.

THE BAD NEWS FIRST: You're going to want to read Dynamite Road and Shotgun Alley before you read this one. That's bad news because you'll have to find them first. That's good news because you'll enjoy reading them, and be fully familiar with the characters and the careful painting that Klavan does to set things up. The other bad news is that after you get about halfway through, you'll lose sleep until you finish it. And then be hungry for more.

THE GOOD NEWS: This is a terrific mystery, with a complex interweaving of plot, idea, and shoeleather that follows Weiss, Bishop and....the narrator... around a complex plot involving love, fights, and the discovery of reality. The twists in the plot will surprise you, and the resolution delight you. And you wanted that, right?


Buy the other two first, and read them. Then buy this. Read it. Feel oddly accomplished. Look for more by Klavan: he knows when to push a plot into interesting shapes.

The conclusion of the matter is what seems to float or sink most story series. Even if previous installments are watertight, no one will much care if the ending is as shipshape as a sieve. ... Readers will forgive a lot -- everything from hackneyed characters to tired plots to familiar themes -- if you manage to engage them in some other way. But squander their time with a slapdash ending, and every writerly sin will transmute from venial to mortal in a heartbeat. A lot rides on a finale, and so I was nervous when I picked up Andrew Klavan's Damnation Street, the last Weiss and Bishop book. Would it consummate the plots of the previous two or end in a less than satisfying manner?

Weiss Investigations has gone out of business in everything but name. Strangled by bad publicity after rogue investigator Jim Bishop broke both contract and the law, the firm's flow of clients has wheezed to a near stop. But rather than attempt to drum up new business, owner Scott Weiss vanishes, simply disappears as though the earth had swallowed him up. Bishop thinks he knows where his former boss has gone -- after Julie Wyatt, a prostitute of nigh ineffable beauty. And that's a problem, because Weiss isn't the only one drawn to her. There's also the man who calls himself John Foy, a stone-hearted killer whose kindest deeds look like direst hate, a man who has sworn to claim Wyatt as his own.

The first two Weiss and Bishop mysteries jerked readers back and forth genre-wise, shifting from over-the-top actioner to hardboiled fable. Damnation Street continues the trend, Klavan writing it as a gritty thriller largely stripped of previous romanticism. You know what? It works. Far from feeling jarring, the change to a meaner, more murderous story reconciles more than a few questions about Weiss' yearning for Wyatt and her toleration of his affections. Seems the angel-faced whore possesses motives that are less than holy, while the hangdog old PI is filled with darker stuff than just lovelorn longing. Not that the novel entirely lacks lighter moments. A passage wherein the narrator, a fictionalized version of Klavan himself, discovers a client's daughter has begun (gasp!) secretly attending a house church contains some of the funniest lines I've read in ages. A worthwhile conclusion to an engaging series.

PLOT LINE: A 50ish, overweight but intuitive San Francisco P.I. named Weiss is obsessed with finding and eliminating a professional killer known as The Shadowman, who considers himself to be "smarter under fire" than his adversaries. He, in turn, is obsessed with an unbelievably beautiful prostitute named Julie, who he once nearly killed, and now is determined to find her so he can finish the job. Got the picture?

There is also another individual in Weiss's office who has an obsession of his own and this lends a lot of humanity to the tale, not to mention themes such as loyalty, discovery and humor.

I did wince a couple of times at the brutality in certain chapters, but must admit I was never bored.

The writer reminds me of Tom Wolf in his graphic writing style. Klavan became a Christian and his writing took on redemptive characteristics. But think Flannery O'Connor and don't assume a sanitized text. Human nature's not pretty. The narrator describes himself as "a penis with some human personality attached" and meets a girl (Emily) he falls in love with at first sight. He is then seduced by his boss and begins an affair with her. His redemption comes when he breaks it off with his boss and gets beaten to a pulp in an effort to "become a better man" for Emily's sake.

DAMNATION STREET by Andrew Klavan is the third in the series featuring detectives Scott Weiss and Tim Bishop. I haven't read the previous two novels, but was easily able to jump into this one. There is some history between Weiss and Bishop as this novel opens. Weiss is on the trail of the Shadowman, a hired gun who is searching for a prostitute. Weiss is searching for the same woman, expecting a showdown between himself and the Shadowman. Bishop is feeling guilty over the events of the last book, and decides to help Weiss in his quest for the woman. Then, there is a third character, the narrator, a young man who works with Bishop, who has found the love his life. Now, only if he can become the man she wants him to be.

Klavan has had a long and successful career as a novelist and this book shows why. Its easily readable, and the characters are enjoyable, flaws and all. Each character kind of operates on their own, and at the end, their stories come together. Klavan seems to rely more on creating memorable characters than creating complex, twisty plots. For example, I'm not entirely sure why Weiss and the Shadowman couldn't just go after each other, instead of trying to find the woman first.

This is a good thriller that I highly recommend. However, if you've been reading Klavan's young adult Homelander series, you really shouldn't read his adult novels unless you understand they are filled with violence, swearing and sex. They are books for two totally different markets.