Customer Reviews

The Distance (Billy Nichols Crime Novels)

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Picked this up on a whim, it looked interesting enough. But the book is taut, engaging and very noir, with effortless writing. Certainly a KO-- am now reading the sequel and looking forward to more of "Mr. Boxing."

I knew of the author through his fine work on the film posters of famous film noir movies. I had no idea he could write a great novel, but that is exactly what his debut novel is.

The Distance covers the boxing scene in the Bay Area in 1948. The author's father was a sports columnist for over 30 years covering boxing, and it would seem that his understandling and love for the sport passed through to his son.

Not since James Ellroy's The Big Nowhere has a crime novel caught the sense of place that The Distance does. The reader experiences mid-century San Francisco and the many larger than life characters there as if he had been transported there. One literally feels that he could walk the streets of San Francisco with nothing but this book serving as a map.

The novel opens with a bang and does not let up all the way through. There's great tension between the charactes and we care greatly about the protagonist and his many challenges. The argot of the period is expressed with panache and complete realism.

All I can say about the plot without spoiling it is that it crackles all the way through the book. I read this book in a very crowded coach section of a trans-continental flight and completely forgot how crammed in and tired I was.

If you're a fan of sport, the Bay Area, and or noir, you can't go wrong with this book. it will stick in memory for a very long time.