Customer Reviews

The Next: A Novel

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Jimmy Miles may be an L.A. private detective but he's far from your ordinary gumshoe. Jimmy's a member of a shadowy fraternity of "Sailors" who haunt the night seeking to make sense of a bizarre purgatory condition that mere mortals couldn't begin to fathom.

Jimmy's latest assignment is to track the despondent young Lucy, an unexplained favor for his close friend Angel. Lucy leads him to San Franciso, where Jimmy discovers she's a likely target in a rash of murders disguised as suicides. While trying to protect Lucy from afar, Jimmy runs across Mary, the lost love of his life, gradually realizing that their past, and Lucy's present, are converging in dark, disturbing ways.

"The Next" blends elements of L.A. noir with urban fantasy in a hip, stylish way. The author's prose is taut, his characters are vivid and his ability to capture San Franciso's otherworldly charm is mesmerizing. Midway through, however, the plot begins to move sideways, the pacing of the mystery suffering as Jimmy shifts his focus toward Lucy and the events precipitating their breakup. Some of the scenes, beautiful and vivid as they are, also fall flat, as the author winds the characters up for confrontations that never materialize.

The oblique trajectory of this story may be displeasing to readers of traditional mysteries and noir. But for those willing to sample fantastic realism served up on a strange platter, it may hit the spot.

Jimmy Miles is not your run of the mill PI; neither is he your run of the mill human being. Jimmy, you see, is a dead man, or, rather, a man who came back from death as part of a sub species of humanity known collectively as Sailors, due to their penchant for gathering together near large bodies of water. For what it's worth, Jimmy is not your run of the mill Sailor either, choosing to walk alone, rather than joining a group as most Sailors do.

In this follow-up to Vining's impressive 2005 debut novel The Quick, readers walk with Jimmy as he tails a troubled young woman seemingly hell-bent on self destruction. Jimmy's fascination with the woman borders on obsession, as he tries to discern the motivations behind her odd behavior. While immersed in the case, a former flame reenters Jimmy's life, further distracting him. Unfortunately, what Jimmy doesn't know about the girl or his ex-lover can hurt him, as evidenced by the increasingly perilous situations he finds himself in.

Dark and atmospheric, The Next is an impressive hybrid, marrying the tropes of the standard detective novel to the brand new mythology Vining is creating for the Sailors, supernatural creatures apparently resurrected because they have unfinished business to attend to. Jimmy Miles is a perfect point of view character, cynical and witty, but sensitive and thoughtful as well. Readers fond of mystery and horror alike will be pleased to make his acquaintance, and to follow him as he pursues his unique destiny.

I really liked the first book, The Quick, and was looking forward to this one. But it was so cool it left me cold. Jimmy Miles, a detective with a strange history, is sent to look after this woman, and sees all sorts of suspicious activity and makes no connections at all. As a reader I could see what was happening a mile off, and resented that he couldn't and did nothing to stop it. Also, Jimmy's pining for the mysterious Mary without really telling us what was going on... not so engrossing.

So I read it and kept putting it down and then forcing myself to pick it up again. Finally i got about 3/4 the way through, and just sighed and let it go. It still has the occassional glowing sentence, but this one didn't work for me.

Jimmy Miles is a private detective who only takes cases that interest him. That is the perfect profession for a Sailor, a person who died but didn't pass on and in all ways that count remains alive. They interact with the "Norms" have all the money they need, have relationships with the opposite sex and don't need to eat or sleep although they do both. At the moment Jimmy is tailing Lucky, as a favor to his Sailor friend Angel to make sure she doesn't commit suicide.

Strange things are happening in San Francisco surrounding Lucy. Two women always seem to be always around her and she never notices him even though he has passed her while walking. The Norms are committing suicide in record numbers and the sailors are edgy and nervous. When he sees Mary, the woman he loved and lost, Jimmy is reminded about similar circumstances when they resided in Los Angeles. Something dark is causing all the deaths in San Francisco just as it did in Los Angeles years ago and Jimmy is determined to find out what it is.

Dan Vining is one of the few authors who can consistently write great urban noir with a supernatural twist. The concept of Sailors and their similarities and differences to Norms is one of the reasons THE NEXT is so very entertaining. The mystery is well thought out and realistically within the framework of the storyline. Readers will adore Jimmy who is a good sailor who still loves the woman who walked out on him years ago; readers will adore him for being so understanding while trying to help the living.

Harriet Klausner

The Next seemed to have the problem a lot of second novels do that carry on characters or story arcs from the first. Maybe since I knew the secret of the Sailors at the beginnning there was not such a surprise up front. Either way, the story did not grip me the way the Quick did. I didn't care very much what happened to anyone except the main character, and he seemed more distant and uninvolved with the story and other characters. However, I still recommend you read it if you liked the "Quick"

Undead PI Jimmy Miles leaves his beloved L.A. to follow a very sad girl, Lucy, to San Francisco. His only instruction - from his undead friend and mentor Angel - is to keep an eye on her. This he does while she picks up a younger boy with a guitar - obviously her brother - and settles into a house in San Francisco.

The boy, obviously uncomfortable with his sister's depression, twice saves her from suicide attempts minutes before Jimmy himself could intervene. San Francisco is experiencing an alarming rash of suicides. In one day there are ten, and at least some of them show up later among the ranks of the Sailors, as the undead call themselves. Sailors, you see, arise from people who died of unnatural causes - accident, suicide, murder.

On Jimmy's first night in town two teenage girls jump off a building while a rowdy crowd gathers below. As they jump Jimmy spies a dark shadow between them, seemingly urging them on. Then a silver-painted mime is attacked and beaten by a group of Sailors. His crime? Imploring the girls not to jump. The mime, Jimmy is surprised to discover, is also a Sailor.

Jimmy is having trouble distinguishing the Sailors from the living in this town. Their blue auras are not so distinct as those in L.A. Are the two beautiful women who have taken Lucy under their sympathetic care Sailors? Are their whispers benign or evil?

Strange things are happening among the Sailors. A manic, sinister atmosphere is spreading, gathering strength. Disoriented by the town and the peculiar events, Jimmy finds himself spread a little thin. But when he catches a glimpse of his old love, Mary, everything else fades into the background. Obsessed with everything about Mary, he discovers anomalies in her life, odd connections, possible dangers.

His investigation becomes rather scattershot to the reader. Checking on Lucy he follows one of the beautiful women, becomes distracted by Mary or a taunting Sailor, catches a glimpse of a sinister figure, ends up in a blind alley. But, except for a bit too much of this kind of confusion as he gears up for the big finale, Vining keeps most of his balls in the air most of the time.

The writing is coolly noir, brooding but contemporary, and the San Francisico atmosphere, particularly the underground air of carnival, is very evocative. The whole Sailor idea is intriguing and with this second novel (after "The Quick") Vining fills in a lot of gaps, while leaving enough questions and unknowns (even to the Sailors) to go on with this lively and haunting series.

-- Portsmouth Herald