2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can a loser be a winner?, October 31, 2009
This review is from: Losers Live Longer (Mass Market Paperback)
Having finished reading several of Donald Westlake's comic crime series featuring John Dortmunder, the bad luck loser among thieves, was I ready for a private eye loser? Well, ready or not, Atwood's Payton Sherwood was a winner! Sherwood is an underemployed private eye who in the investigation of the death of an elderly famous P.I. endures beatings, verbal abuse, attempts on his life, and unceasing doubts about his abilities. But Sherwood, like Dortmunder, is persistent. At one near-fatal point in his life, Sherwood says "I hung on. It's what I do." Sorta like you and me (well, me, anyway!) rather than the James Bond super-hero. Atwood's writing is crisp and appropriate for the characters and locales he portrays, including his carefully chosen incomplete sentences. His frequent similies are creative, such as: "I was trying to gather my wits, but it was like reconstructing a blown-apart dandelion." That is writing well worth reading. And the "loser" Sherwood -- what about him... well, he comes out on top at the end. My hope is that Russell Atwood is busy writing his third Sherwood novel now!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fast, Smart, Intense, January 27, 2010
This review is from: Losers Live Longer (Mass Market Paperback)
This might be a crime novel, but protagonist Payton Sherwood is the most likable guy you're apt to meet, the kind you wish was your friend. Russell Atwood's dialogue is clever and entertaining, and his rich cast of colorfully drawn characters holds your interest. I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good mystery, and especially to anyone who's ever spent an afternoon wandering around the East Village, a place Atwood knows like the back of his hand and brilliantly recreates.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A decent read, if not a memorable one, January 4, 2010
This review is from: Losers Live Longer (Mass Market Paperback)
The follow-up to author Russell Atwood's debut novel (and cult favorite), East of A, was ten years in the writing. Originally titled Between C and D (making for a sort of A-B-C-D motif across the titles, which is cute), Losers Live Longer is also a sequel, featuring Atwood's private investigator Payton Sherwood and a beautifully unconventional horizontal cover painting by Robert McGinnis.
At 9:30 in the morning, the Thursday after Labor Day, private detective Payton Sherwood's buzzer sounds -- a highly unexpected intrusion during a time of few clients. But it is a client ... sort of. Private eye extraordinaire George Rowell (called "Owl" by his friends and colleagues) wants Sherwood to follow a follower, a simple soft cover job.
But before Sherwood can get down to the street to discuss the job with the great detective, Rowell is killed, and Sherwood sets out to find the killer. However, nothing is ever so simple in New York City, and Sherwood gets deep into the dark side of the city and finds out more about human depravity than he ever wanted to know.
Losers Live Longer has an odd sort of protagonist: Sherwood seems to only be playing detective, more interested in spouting pop-culture references than in doing any real legwork. (Though any book that obliquely references The Electric Company and Sesame Street and directly name-checks Murder, My Sweet can't be all bad.)
I have a tendency to think this is a result of the author's putting too much of himself into the character (Atwood, Sherwood: it's not a big leap, and it reminds me of the Lawrence Block stories with characters called "Lenny Blake" and the like). This is generally a bad idea unless your plot is particularly strong, and the plot of Losers Live Longer is just OK. It also takes a while to get going. (As usual in this genre, things don't get really interesting until the ladies show up.)
Flaws in either plot or characterization can generally be overlooked, though, if they complement each other. Neither is strong enough to carry Losers Live Longer by itself, but they're just good enough together to make for a decent read, if not a particularly memorable one.
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