Customer Reviews

Gumshoe Gorilla

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The year is 2025. Scientists have discovered the gene for homosexuality, the Cherokee are suing the US government for their rights to large tracts of Georgia (with China's support) and the Baptist News Network is struggling to survive in the face of Reverend Stonewall's infamy. Keith Hartman paints a remarkably plausible picture of the United States 24 years in the future, full of humanity and rife with startling glimpses of humor. Gay private eye Drew Parker and his Wiccan partner Jen Grey are hired by Skye Phillips, the Plot Coordinator of the hit show Czechmates. Skye wants to know what her boyfriend, the hunk movie star Charles Rockland, is up to. Although she fears she won't like the answer, she is more afraid that he is in trouble over his head. Meanwhile, Drew's old friend Daniel believes he has met the love of his life in the shadowy character of Vincent Jett. While _Gumshoe Gorilla_ lacks some of the brilliance of his first book, _The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse_, it is nevertheless a very good book. First, it's a well-written mystery that kept me guessing to the very end. Second, it's a fascinating view of things to come if current trends continue in American society. This book contains very little violence. It has "adult situations" but they aren't explicit. While this book is a sequel to _The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse_, it does not contain all of the same characters and can function as a stand-alone novel. It also leaves some plot lines open, so there will probably be another book to follow.

I read this book in about 2 days. It's a good, fast read. The plot moves quickly and the character development is just enough to make you really like them. There are some parts of the book that touch on some deep, intense subjects, such as testing for a gay gene, and political/religious ethics. I like the fact that the author doesnt spell everything out. He assumes the reader is of average intelligence and can put 2 and 2 together. Although the mysteries arent that hard to figure out, the fun is in how the characters deal with them. My favorite character is "Jen" the witch. Not just b/c we share names... but she is Wiccan and has a wicked sense of humor. I would love to see a book just about her. My ONLY complaint is that some of the story lines were left hanging at the end of the book. Maybe that was on purpose to pursue them in the next book. I am definately doubling back to read his first book, The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse.

When momma had the idea of cloning five children from the cells of a well-known actor, she knew exactly what she was doing. In 2025, the Rockland Brothers are hot property, especially since they make it possible to film five scenes at once. This is important when the average television show must be instantly available at all levels of sex and violence. So when Skye Phillips shows up in the offices of private investigators Drew Parker and Jen Gray worried about some 'trouble' that Charles Rockland may have become involved in, it gets their attention. Soon Jen is on the set posing as an acting intern and Drew is digging up trouble in the background.

Drew has another problem. Daniel, a not even slightly reformed prostitute and good friend has started to use drugs and has gotten into serious trouble. He has become entangled in a relationship that seems to be leading him into places even weird people shouldn't go. Drew is more than a little worried, especially when he finds that some of Daniel's new friends have a strong taste for fresh blood. Between the brothers Rockland and Daniel Drew is getting very little sleep. Just to make things a bit more complicated Drew finds himself nursing a two-week-old kitten and arguing with the Cherokee Nation.

This is a complicated tale that never unravels, full of a rich stew of ideas of what can happen in the future with only a few twists. Witchcraft works and large gaps divide the various religious segments of the population. Fundamentalists have their own schools and cry out publicly about the International Satanic Conspiracy. Homosexuality has gained general acceptance, but the ability to test for the gene involved has had major social repercussions, which add much of the punch to the story line of the 'Gumshoe Gorilla.' If you like science fiction, fantasy and mystery in a heady concoction with a good dose of tongue-in-cheek social commentary, Keith Hartman is the author for you.

Hartman manages his story by telling it from multiple viewpoints. Unlike 'The Gumshoe, the Witch & the Virtual Corpse,' where no one was in charge, Parker and Gray are clearly the stars. But expect to see the action from the viewpoints of most of the rest of the caste, both victim and bad guy. Normally I do not like this style of writing, but Hartman manages to make it work, building great rapport between the reader and the characters. Occasionally things get confusing, but no worse than it must be like to live in Hartman's novel new world.

Let us begin this review with a renewed claim on the publisher (there was one in my review of the first episode too): not only the editing is lousy, this has already been pointed out by the other reviewers, but how is it possible to let such a fun book go out of print? Again? Just like volume one?

This second episode is vastly different from the first one.

This time Mr Hartman employs less points of view, nearly always Drew and his partner Jen, which is an extremely fine thing because he still has not found out the way of giving each character an individual personality through his writing. As in the first episode this is particularly noticeable in the use of puns and witty remarks which are alike.

Another remarkable difference is that this time we are faced with two unrelated intrigues, far less complex and involving less characters and a more straightforward plot. It may seem a loss and maybe it is, but the book gains proficiency and focus.
This time the supernatural gore though still present leaves more room to a classical mistery.

The novel is quite long but such a page turner that you hardly realise it. It is funny and keeps you laughing silly but it has an edge, a hard one. No major villain this time, less attention to the town's complex melting pot, but if you do not get to much distracted by the wit you still notice the issues of mass media and that of the selective abortion of gay kids. Once again there is no direct statement about them, Mr Hartman leaves it to his reader to do the the ethical math, he simply displays -all too- believable facts that are likely to take place in our globalised future.

The general tone seems lighter but it is not. Once again we are lead to wonder about this future Atlanta of religious intolerance, where so-called Christians throw away the life of their gay children, where corporations globalise tastes and individuality and where the government of the biggest democracy of Planet Earth does nothing to preserve the right to happiness of its citizen, their cultural development, their well being; it prosecutes crimes such as drug using and adult prostitution (involving after all consenting adults) but allows gross social injustice and corporated crime.

Characterization is simple but well done. The matter of Drew's being a shaman and Justin Weir's death are hinted but not developped, calling out loudly for a further episode I am most eager to read.

Enough already! I loved the first book, and the second is no exception . . . but several plot twists, hooks, thingamignies - what ever you want to call them are not explained. So where does that leave me? Desperately wanting book three!

For those of you who may not have read Keith's first book (I take some sort of pity on you, as you obviously live on a desert island some where in the pacific) this second installment takes off like a marathon runner and shows no signs of stopping, right up to the last page.

Very nice Mr. Hartman, I'm looking forward to knowing more about Daniel.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series and equally enjoyed this sequel. The new edition is really fantastic. The editing is much better and the interior illustrations are a neat surprise. The storytelling is the same high level. I love Keith's visions of the near-future, the interplay between the characters and the fun, involving story. Keith has a gift for characterization and dialogue and I find myself drawn into Gumshoe's world. The interior illustrations really are top-notch and add to the overall enjoyment of the novel.

I'll say this: I was hooked by page two. Some of the characters from the first book have been cut out, or their roles downsized, and several characters have been added. I was pleased to find that Jen, Drew's Wicca partner has a larger role in this one. OK, to be fair, I still havn't finished it, but so far, so good. I'm already hoping for another sequel.

Keith Hartman's next novel should feature a really bad copy editor who is horribly killed because he simply couldn't recognize an error, even to save his skin. It would be partial revenge for the work - or lack of work - done on Gumshoe Gorilla. Almost every page contains an error, and almost every error in the grammar book is made more than once. Capitalization, font, spelling, and every element of punctuation known to the English language (especially apostrophes) - each and every one gets horribly mangled in this novel. So, if you can read English reasonably well, don't expect to be able to read this book without cringing and moaning in pain.

Despite that, though, it's a fairly good book - it'd be worth four stars without the editing problem. The characters are still fun, the writing is still funny (even if it would make Strunk and White foam at the mouth), and Hartman still has a deft hand with social satire. Unfortunately, the plot isn't quite as intelligent as The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse's was - it's too easy to put the pieces together. Readers who are looking for a puzzle to solve will be finished well before the book is over.

But readers looking for a light, enjoyable book with lots of humor will really like Gumshoe Gorilla. They'd just better bring their red pens with them.

This is the follow on to The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse a really outstanding book. But if you don't read it first this book is very confusing as situations and characters are carried over from the previous book and explained late or not at all.

The Gumshoe Gorilla is Drew's (he's a seer as well as gumshoe) totem. The Totem is Monk Malone a character from a TV series. Totems are more powerful than traditional and are taking on their own characteristics from TV etc.

4 1/2 Stars if you read the first book first. The plot here is exceptional with a villain who is quite mad but the madness is not the cause of the villainy but rather is the reason that the villain sees his behavior as acceptable.

You down load TV and can chose ratings and content; i.e. more sex, more nudity etc. A possible future concept, however the author makes fun of himself with the ecco friendly Hindu lesbian version with extra car chases..

Some good humor as the nude version of Oklahoma. And the SMOF (Secret Masters of Fashion). The characters are vividly and well drawn and the plot is convoluted and exceptional. There are a few pieces that never get resolved; for instance Drew is assumed to be looking for the Poet and he is not. Then there's the bird who recites a poem to Drew and is then eaten by some jaws that form out of the pavement. This just adds interest.

The Poet using the highway status signs for his poem like the old Burma Shave adds (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave for explanation and examples).

Two minor bobbles: encryption is not the protection that the author thinks but hey it's a fantasy and he's entitled. The other is a matter of fact; copyright is created when a work (poem) is fixed in a tangible media (the traffic signs). And runs for 95 years from publication. But the Production guy probably doesn't know that.

Keith Hartman is a national treasure--I love his view of the near-future, I love what he does with characters, the details and sly cultural references make 2025 Atlanta feel very real to me.

There are some frustrating things about this book, though. As other reviewers have mentioned, there are plot threads that get brought up and just dangle, forgotten about. There are also typos every three or four pages, and the font size keeps changing--who proofread this?!?