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Five Star First Edition Mystery - Unfaithful Servant

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It was very exciting to see that Timothy Harris had pulled his L.A. private eye, Thomas Kyd, out of retirement, and "Unfaithful Servant" is even better than his two excellent adventures in the 80s, "Kyd for Hire" and "Goodnight & Goodbye". He's once again offered a large number of fully developed, vivid characters especially Kyd himself and the city of Los Angeles.

This is character driven, p.i. fiction very much in the Raymond Chandler tradition and not the sentimental and insipid who-done-its that have recently been making their way onto the best seller lists. Kyd is very much like Marlowe without sinking into imitation and self-parody as so many have. Like Marlowe, guilt and self-doubt eat away at him, and he is prone to getting beat up.

"Unfaithful Servant" never lags, and Harris' prose remains exciting throughout. Apparently Harris took a break from fiction to write screenplays, and Hollywood provides the background for this novel about the death of a producer, his widow, a major star whose career is about to fade, and his teenage son who forms a close bond with Kyd. The relationship between Kyd and the boy is very moving without ever becoming sentimental, and unlike the sanitized version often found in fiction, the boy feels real and very believable.

Here's hoping that Harris keeps the Kyd series going without taking another lengthy break! With all the detective fiction being published these days, this is the real thing -- the best I've read in years.

A few years ago I was staying at a friend's house in England when I came down with the flu, and had to spend several days in bed. Once the worst part of it was over, my friend gave me a couple of detective novels by Timothy Harris to read, which he assured me I'd love: Kyd for Hire and Goodnight and Goodbye.

I've been waiting for a third one ever since, and now it's finally here. Fortunately, I only had to wait five years rather than 20, like some people. Unfaithful Servant picks up Harris's PI hero, Thomas Kyd, a quarter of a century after the first novel, in foggy Santa Monica. Kyd still hasn't entirely got over his Vietnam days, and the 1990s were apparently lost to booze and bad memories. (Maybe that's why we didn't hear from him.) Anyway, the good news is that the third book was well worth the wait and may even be the best in the series.

The basic story reads a bit like a cross between Hamlet and About a Boy. One evening Hugo Vine, a spoiled 14-year-old Hollywood rich kid with a face full of jewelry and a $15,000 wrist watch, shows up in Kyd's office hoping to get him to spy on his movie star mom and newly arrived step-father. Hugo thinks his late father, an old-school movie industry titan whom he worshiped, was murdered by his step-father, Raj, a suave arriviste with a talent for flattery; trouble is, no one else in the family seems to share his concern. Initially, Kyd brushes the boy off -- he's not about to take money from a teenager -- but a few months later they meet again, and this time he is dragged into the case.

This is very much a Hollywood novel, as well as a Los Angeles one, and Harris uses the inside dope he must have picked up as a screenwriter (he wrote Trading Places, among other movies) to superb effect. The scenes showing what it's like to share a house with a world-famous actress are brilliantly done, and the ability of hangers-on to gradually take control of the person who supposedly controls them is chillingly demonstrated. Also memorable are the various minor characters -- Corelle Lamb, the buff black female police officer with a heart of gold who helps Kyd out; Ken O'Doul, his alcoholic lawyer; and Serafina, the Mexican housekeeper who functions as Hugo's surrogate mom. There are also dead-on descriptions of Venice Beach poetry readings (the poets are nude), AA meetings in which half the people present are Hollywood big-shots, and many wonderful descriptions of L.A. itself.

What makes the book so genuinely moving -- and how many detective novels can you say that of? -- is Kyd's growing love for young Hugo, and the often very funny relationship that develops between them. Though he initially dislikes Hugo, he soon realizes that the boy needs a father figure in his life as desperately as he himself seems to need a son. What happens between them as Kyd solves the mystery of Hugo's father's death is what gives this novel its tremendous emotional punch. If you're a fan of detective fiction, or indeed any kind of fiction, you should definitely take a look.

Bruce Wagner meets Raymond Chandler. A great novel, it's too bad it will remain obscure. Some of the best writing about LA and sharp observations about the kind of people who live there.

As an old drinking buddy of mine used to say: "It's like a desert out here!".

Fans of good, literate crime fiction and the work of Timothy Harris in particular (and there are many: see Steven Rea's "The Coolest PIs", Hardboiled Mysteries and Thrilling Detective online reviews, not to mention those here on Amazon.com for Harris' "Goodnight and Goodbye") will appreciate that sentiment, as it's been 25 years since P.I. Thomas Kyd has been on the scene.

That's one looong dry spell for any reader, but Harris has made it worth the wait by bringing our hero back , newly sober but having lost none of his sere sense of humor. And as ever, the descriptions of Los Angeles and its denizens are, by turns, devastating and poetic.

If you haven't yet read the first two novels in the series, consider adding "Kyd for Hire" and "Goodnight and Goodbye" to your library along with "Unfaithful Servant". I guarantee you, Kyd's a character you'll want to get to know better.

Recovering alcoholic Thomas Kyd has stayed on the wagon for six months, but knows that each moment is a challenge. Fourteen year old Hugo Vine visits the Santa Monica based private sleuth to hire him to investigate his mom and step-father. Thomas refuses to accept the teen as a client because he is underage. Hugo storms out of Thomas' office.

Not long afterward the lawyer to Hugo's mother renowned actress Sally Vine threatens to have Tomas arrested for aiding to the delinquency of a minor. Not concerned by the intimidation, Thomas tells Sally's retinue to go pound sand. However, Sally hires Thomas to keep an eye on her son who she worries is doing illegal things. However, Thomas soon learns that Hugo has deep questions as to whether his mother and his stepfather killed his father. The sleuth plans to learn the truth.

Thomas is an intriguing protagonist who is a combination nurturing hard boiled soul. The who-done-it takes awhile before it surfaces, but once it does it is fun to follow. Much of the early segment of the novel introduces the audience to Thomas. Readers who remain patient for the case to commence will enjoy this solid Southern California private sleuth tale starring a solid lead character and a delightful support cast.

Harriet Klausner

Private eye Thomas Kyd makes a welcome and very satisfying return in Timothy Harris' new novel. Mr Harris, for my money, is the worthy successor to Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald in examining Southern California through the honorable and appropriate prism of detective fiction. For those of us who live here, Mr. Harris' Los Angeles is vividly recognizable in all its ambivalent messy glory; for those who don't, it's an invitation to witness a sun-drenched car wreck where you actually care who survives.

Like Chandler's Marlowe and MacDonald's Archer, Mr. Harris' Thomas Kyd has become not only older and wiser over time, but also even more haunted by his past. Salvation appears in the person of a 14-year-old boy, a surrogate son, who offers at least a glimpse of hope for some kind of future. While the mature Kyd might be more reluctant to pull a gun, inflict a beating, chase a skirt, or crack wise, his observations of people and place are sharper than ever.

While the traditional elements of the genre are solidly on display, what sets this novel apart is the author's ability to always keep Kyd's moral sense in focus - the difference between right and wrong, just and unjust, pathetic and contemptible. Like those other great crime writers, Mr. Harris has a unique talent for tackling serious moral issues without being in the least bit moralizing.

This book was wonderful in the style of the old masters but
with modern rendition. Thomas Kyd is thoughtful, observant and attractive. He's a man who pays attention.