Customer Reviews

The Kind One (Five Star Mystery Series) (Five Star First Edition Mystery)

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

 

 

Tom Epperson's "The Kind One", set in Depression-era Los Angeles of the 1930s, is a well written and fast-paced gangster tale with heart. The main character is Danny, literally and figuratively a "lost soul". Having no memory because of an unspecified accident, Danny finds himself consorting with killers and thugs and molls, and on the payroll of a psychotic crime boss. The brutality of his criminal companions is a stark contrast to Danny's humaneness and decency - he saves an abused and neglected little girl, he's chivalrous to the woman who beguiles him, the beautiful Darla, he's even loyal to his monstrous boss. The action in this book keeps our interest piqued while its non-action - Danny's melancholy dreaminess and search of self - engage our empathy. There is an elegant symmetry to the surprise ending of this story. It's an altogether pleasurable read.

Tom Epperson's thrilling Hollywood noir echoes the greats--Chandler, Cain, Ellroy--while at the same time introduces a hugely original new voice to the genre. Though as hard-boiled as the best of them, "The Kind One" moves beyond category with the artistry of its character depth and descriptive eloquence. Epperson's 1930s Los Angeles is portrayed with time capsule clarity, every page in the novel filled with fascinating (and well-researched) period detail. This is a book that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.

After all the five star reviews I was excited to get this book, but other than the period I found no comparison to Raymond Chandler. You can get a gist of the plot from all the other reviews but I found the characters separate stories, particularly Dulwich's and the Butler's, to be distracting at best and filler at worst. As for the tale, while marginally holding my interest from beginning to end, it truly surprises me seeing all the five star reviews this little noir novel is getting. I'm a big fan of Chandler, James lee Burke, and Ed Mcbain among others and certainly didn't feel that this stacked up along any of the aforementioned.

I read "The Kind One" on something of a personal dare. A friend thrust a copy of the novel into my arms and insisted, "Read it. You'll like it." I thought "Never!" I hate gangster films. I never see them. And a gangster novel? What could be worse! But since this book was a gift from a good friend, I felt obliged to actually read the damned thing. And so I did it with an I-dare-you-to-make-me-like-it attitude.

I lost the bet -- big time! But in this case, losing meant winning -- I gained a thrilling read. To label this book a gangster novel does not do it justice. It is really a first-rate character novel about an interesting, likable fellow, two-gun Danny, who just happens to be thrust into the world of gangsters. How he got there is precisely the issue -- and one he keeps asking himself since he has lost his memory of his past life. He does not seem to fit into the thuggish world of his truly frightening boss. As he struggles to figure out his past, he meets several other misfits, both in and outside of the gangster world. For me, the most interesting set of characters were those he met in his Hollywood apartment complex, each of which is sharply drawn and wonderfully memorable. Epperson deftly weaves all of their lives together in surprising twists as this psychological thriller unfolds, with their lives converging at the end. By the time I approached that end, I found myself reading more slowly to draw out the pleasure of remaining with the characters. As I closed the book cover, I wondered: is this really a gangster novel if Epperson's artful, psychological portraits made me forget his characters were largely in a gangster world?

Fans of Raymond Chandler will enjoy the debut novel "The Kind One" by Tom Epperson.
It isn't a private eye with a Philip Marlowe to lead an investigation but we do have the Los Angeles and Southern California setting and we have Chandler's wonderful storytelling and dialogue.


It's the 1930's and Danny Landon works for mobster Bud Seitz.

Danny, aka Two Gun Danny has amnesia from being hit on the head with a lead pipe and goes through the story trying to find out who he really is.

Bud asks Danny to act as bodyguard for his mistress, Darla. When the story opens, Bud's chimp, Doc, bites Darla and Danny has to put it down.
This is almost too reminiscent of the recent champanze attack on the woman in Stamford,Ct.

This descriptive novel wastes no time with unnecessary facts. It is plot driven with intensive dialogue and little character development.

After a slow start we see Danny and Darla interacting with each other and Darla showing her discomfort with being Bud's mistress and his autocratic approach to their relationship.

The reader is made to wonder what will happen as Danny and Darla fall in love. Will they meet the fate of Bud's last girlfriend and the employee who made a poor choice and inappropately touched her and paid the ultimate price.

Life is cheap in the 1930's surrounding Bud Seitz who doesn't hesitate to kill anyone who displeases him, be it a stranger or one of his employees.

While this is happening, Danny is trying to help his 11 year old neighbor Sophie who is being abused.

The plot twists and turns are interesting and we find that there is a relationship between Danny and Bud Seitz, more than just employer-employee.

The novel culminates with Danny wanting to take Darla away from Bud and Sophie away from her alcoholic mother who intends to send her to a reform school.

Very nicely done and I look forward to the filmed version that is due to be released in 2010.

". . . Although it may not be hard to imitate a genre's cliches, it's
difficult and exceedingly rare to transcend the cliches and produce a work
that can appeal to readers who are not necessarily aficionados of the given genre. Tom Epperson has managed the uncommon feat of writing a genre novel that can hold its own alongside (if not best) other works considered more literary. On every page, the language is crisp and fresh, the details sharp and keenly observed, the dialogue real, never forced. When Epperson elevates his prose to the lyrical, he reads like a streamlined Joseph Conrad. . . . the novel itself is of the highest caliber in its genre and makes the leap into literature, as do the best works in all genres."

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.calendarlive.com/books/la-et-book2feb02,0,4451483.story

With the creation of Danny Landon, author Tom Epperson has given us a wonderfully nuanced character who simultaneously provides an outward glimpse of wildly colorful 1930s LA as well as a clever existential peek inward at a truly lost soul. Yes, "The Kind One" contains all the fun and picaresque adventures one would expect from the City of Angels. But Epperson is going for so much more, and it's immensely satisfying to realize how successful he is. One would have to go back to the Argentinean master Borges to find such a skillful exploration of identity and its ontological implications. All that and gangsters shooting it up--what's not to love in this exciting and thought-provoking novel?

Being a fan of crime novels based in the 1930's I was attracted to this by the great reviews, particularly by a writer Robert Crais who I really enjoy reading. However don't be fooled, this is a boring, predictable story completely lacking in suspense or surprise. I kept waiting for the plot to take off but it never happened, only sheer determination made me finish this.

Tom Epperson's The Kind One works the miracle of making an iconic genre original again. Set in 1930's Los Angeles, this noir gangster tale is deep, nuanced, and breathtakingly true to its material. Noir has always harbored a soul of kindness and justice, the harshness and squalor of circumstance suppressing that fragile core. Eppersons's hero Danny perfectly embodies the goodness which must don the garb of cynicism to survive in a miserable world. While Danny has lost his memory, Epperson more than compensates by showing us that world from the inside out. This is not a re-creation, but a loving and contemporaneous depiction. Epperson's prose has the eloquence of verisimilitude - always true and always rooted in its subject matter. The story is tight and active through all its twists and turns, but the plot never spins away from the necessity of the vivid characters that drive it. The Kind One is a wonderful and immensely enjoyable book.

Tom Epperson's, first novel, a retro look back at Los Angeles in the dirty thirties entitled The Kind One, is a direct hit out of the ballpark, and how! If you like your crime fiction darkly atmospheric this will prove an interesting and entertaining ride. Beautiful gangster molls, cruel, sadistic hoods, golden sunsets, quirky neighbours sharing a bungalow-court apartment building and references to period film stars all add up to page turning excitement.

The main character, Danny Landon is struggles to piece together a past that only comes to him through dream fragments. Badly beaten during a vicious attack, he is nursed back to health at the expense of mobster Bud Seitz and transported from the east coast to Los Angeles. Seitz takes Landon under his protective wing, but the pieces of the puzzle don't seem to fall together in a way that makes any sense until a fellow gang member spills the beans. Danny has some big choices to make and the climax to the story makes for thrilling reading.

This reviewer found a reference to Mae West particularly well painted in word pictures, perfectly illustrating Epperson's snappy way with dialogue, which made reading this novel so much fun.
"So I'm living downtown near Pershing Square, and I'm taking a trolley car out to the beach, and there's this guy in a bowtie looking at me. I think he's trying to pick me up, and I'm ignoring him, then he says, Mae West has only got one thing that you don't have. An agent. And I says, are you an agent, and he says yeah. And I says how do you know that I don't have an agent, and he says if you had an agent you wouldn't be riding in some dumpy trolley car. And I says you're riding in a trolley car, who kinda lousy agent does that make you, and he says it makes me a very good agent, 'cause I just discovered the next Mae West."

If this sophomore effort is any indication, Epperson has earned a place for himself on the crime fiction bookshelf.