Customer Reviews

THE LAST GOOD KISS, a novel

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gardner Dozois recommended James Crumley's The Last Good Kiss to me as the best hard-boiled detective novel written in the last ten years. With that kind of recommendation, I would have been hard-pressed to pass it up. And Dozois is correct, as far as I can tell. Crumley's C.W. Sughrue has that quality that I thought was lost when I finished reading the last Dashiell Hammett story. But Crumley isn't just playing off of Hammett and Chandler, although he is firmly in their tradition. Crumley is as post-modern as they come, and knows that life and people are as sleazy as anything James Ellroy or Andrew Vachss has put to the page (not to even mention the real thing).

C.W. Sughrue is hired to track down a derelict author who's on a drinking binge by the author's ex-wife. What begins so simply quickly soon complicates--I can't quite explain how complicated it becomes, either. There's a point in the middle of the novel where I said to myself, "Well, that's it. We've had the set-up, the complication, a little goose-chase, a climax, and here we are." But I was only halfway through the book. Contrary to normal novel structure, Crumley leaves you hanging within the denouement while he sets up an entirely new climax not once or twice, but three times.

Crumley has taught literature in Texas, Arkansas and Montana, and understands the directions recent fiction has taken. Although he's not about to give up the traditional, he has assimilated some of the modern tricks. The ending, in particular, is something that I doubt you would have seen in a previous decade.

All in all, Crumley is a voice that is worth looking out for. On the basis of The Last Good Kiss, I plan to search out his other two novels and his short story collection. I recommend that you do, also.

By the drawing of the bulldog on the most recent cover, one might mistake `The Last Good Kiss' for a cozy, cute mystery. That would be a mistake of monumental proportions. `The Last Good Kiss' is a hard hitting, gritty, graphic hard-boiled novel about some pretty nasty people doing some pretty nasty things. It's also exceptionally well written.

C.W. Sughrue, a Montana P.I., is hired to track down a drunken writer. He finds his man, but along the way Sughrue takes another case, a case he knows will lead to nothing good. His job is to find a girl who ran away from home many, many years ago. The hunt for the girl leads Sughrue through a parade of despicable degenerates with no redeeming qualities.

It can be a hard novel to read and a difficult one to forget. In Sughrue, Crumley has created a detective who lives in a broken world, hoping that there might just be one good thing on the horizon, one good reason to live, one good thing to believe in. The settings, characters, tone...it all works, establishing the novel as one of the greats in the hard-boiled mystery genre. But again, if you are looking for a nice, cozy mystery to curl up with for a relaxing evening, this is not for you. Definitely not for kids.

244 hard-boiled pages

The Last Good Kiss lies squarely in the private eye genre, specifically starring C.W. Sughrue from Montana, a down at heel private investigator. It is strongly American in tone, strongly written and dense, often poetic. But there is nothing staccato about it, as is often the case with modern writing when the author hones everything down to the bone. Rather, the narrative often meanders giving descriptions of the past and near present. In other words it is an excellent piece of work.

The novel borders on the hard boiled and is often very cynical as C.W. searches for the well known writer and alcoholic Abraham Trahearne. C.W. catches up with him in a down and out bar in the company of a beer lapping bulldog. After that sweet meeting they join forces and search for the bar owner's missing daughter of ten years.

The first half of the book keeps one on edge, then there's a lull before things get going again, but it's not as good as the beginning. I got the feeling the writer was running out of steam, whereby the writing is not quite as strong, nor the action as believable.

I did not care much for the ending, far too cynical for my taste. It needn't have been that way, but then I'm not the author.

That's my crit, and perhaps it sounds bad, but the book on the whole is definitely up there among America's best. I will read more by this author who demonstrates that mystery novels can reach the heights of literature.

The first hundred or so pages of "The Last Good Kiss" are as good as any harboiled detective fiction ever written. Crumley's vivid detail, down-and-out characters and brief bursts of violence make his story as vivid as a Hank Williams tune. His hero, C.W. Sughrue ("Sugh" as in "sugar" and rue as in "rue the goddamned day") is everything a hardboiled detective ought to be; alcoholic, rebellious, cynical and beholden to no code of honor but his own. The mystery itself unfolds in a bizarre and complex manner, leading to a payoff that you know won't be pretty. It may take Crumley a bit too long to get there, but its a fun trip while it lasts.

Overall, a flawed but classic novel that fans of Andrew Vachss, George P. Pelecanos, Jonathan Valin and John D. MacDonald in particular ought to enjoy.

James Crumley, here in his second detective novel (and only his third book) penned a bona-fide classic of the genre. Let me clarify further - not only is this one of the greatest mystery novels ever written, it is also one of the best novels of modern fiction written in the last 20 years. Crumley shows in this novel his unparalled prose style that in many passages reads like the best poetry. The opening line to the book is justly famous, both lyrical and tragic in its tone, but throughout the book Crumley does what a few truly great writers are able to do - to construct passages that transcend their time and place and possess a beauty that transforms prose into poetry. Crumley with this book established that he had no contemporary equals; only Chandler in a few of his books is able to equal or surpass Crumley for unabashed poetic brillance. (In fact a close reading of The Last Good Kiss shows it's indebteness to Chandler's The Long Good Bye.) Many of the other reviews have touched upon the book's cynical and tragic elements - which are certianly there - but this only helps to contrast with the beauty of the writing.

Crumley is one of the great, underrated American writers and this novel is his masterpiece. Tough and tender, he captures the spaces and hard-bitten culture of the Rocky Mountain region of America like few others. Plus, this novel has one of the greatest endings you will ever read; it will knock you on your rear and put a tear in your eye. Absolutely required reading for people who think the detective novel can be literature.

One of the best mysteries I've read. Crumley is a heck of a writer, part Hemingway, part Chandler, part Hank Williams (as one of the other reviewers mentions). His hero, Sughrue, is tough, moody, and completely believable. The opening pages of this book are perfect and ought to be mandatory reading for all aspiring crime writers: this is how you get your reader into the story.

The story begins with private detective C.W. Sughrue tracking down poet and author Abraham Trahearne, who has taken off on a drinking binge. Just as Trahearne is found and run to ground in a California bar, the owner of the bar asks Sughrue if he could investigate the disappearance of her daughter. Problem is, the girl, one Betty Sue Flowers, went missing 10 years ago and finding her drifts into the realm of impossibility. Nevertheless, Sughrue agrees to do what he can.

James Crumley presents us with another private detective hailing from Meriwether, Montana. C. W. Sughrue is a very interesting character. While he's not without his faults, he drinks, chases women and breaks the law when he has to, he is a morally strong character who is determined to see that justice prevails above all else. He finds himself in an unusual position in dealing with Trahearne. Trahearne seems to live peacefully with his wife, ex-wife and mother, but feels the need to occasionally get away and go on a bender every so often. He befriends Sughrue and they do a bit of travelling together, but Sughrue keeps getting the feeling that something's not quite right, but can't quite put his finger on what it is.

There's quite a bit more to this story than first meets the eye, and the key to it has to do with Sughrue's feelings towards Trahearne and his family. Sughrue's uneasiness rubbed off to me a little and I was beginning to wonder what I was supposed to be picking up. It was a clever device that drew me into the story, ensuring that I read every word closely, looking for a clue that would tip me off.

This is an easy-going hardboiled story, if there can be such a thing. Sughrue is a very laid back character and seems to have all the time in the world to look for his missing persons, enjoying the journey as much as possible. This made it feel as though I was cruising through the book along with him until all the pieces of the jigsaw fell together towards the end.

This is the best mystery novel I have ever read. Absolutly. No question. If you like Hammet, Chandler, or Ellroy you won't go wrong reading this terrific book.

Reading a James Crumley novel is like getting hit in the face with a two-by-four swung by a tennis pro. Great form, tremendous pain.

C.W. Sughrue, a private investigator who also tends bar and metes out tidbits of cynical wisdom, is hired to track down a world famous novelist notorious for his months long binges.

C.W. is one step behind the great man, finally tracking him down to a bar in Sonoma. Cash flush -- a rariety -- C.W. agrees to take up the search for the barmaid's long-missing daughter, and Crumley drags us through his own version of Western hell while C.W. makes what he believes is a futile search for the woman.

Add a seedy porno ring, a beer-drinking bull dog, a talented writer grappling with the issue of whether he can write again, toss in a couple of scenes of gun play, shake with several bouts of alcohol-induced hazes and you have a general idea of how the novel goes. Above all, it works. Crumley plays the cards like the pro he is, and other noir and hard boiled writers need only to thumb through this book to see how it's done.

A marvelous, engaging, and satisfying story.