Pink Vodka Blues [Paperback]

Neal Barrett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1997

Awakening in a seedy hotel next to a beautiful young woman he cannot recall meeting, Russell Murray finds himself in the middle of a mystery involving a briefcase full of galley proofs and--when the woman in his bed is found dead--murder.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Barrett's ( The Hereafter Gang ) mystery about a lost weekend hits the ground running and never lets up. Russell Murray, alcoholic editor of a Chicago literary magazine, agrees to carry a manuscript in a briefcase from Chicago to Dallas and back. Days later, he wakes up in a Chicago hotel room just before two thugs come in and shoot the unknown woman in bed with him; he escapes, finds some booze and winds up in a Wisconsin detox center. After calling a reporter friend at the Chicago Tribune and learning he's wanted for murder, Murray escapes with fellow rehab inmate Sherry Lou Winn, the most irresistible partner in crime since Bonnie. Following the trail of a locker key from O'Hare Airport to Dallas as the body count climbs, they discover they're caught in a squeeze between the New York and Chicago mobs, with the reporter their only lifeline. A double-crossing FBI agent, a 70-year-old, Uzi-toting hit lady and sundry sordid characters follow the pair to Miami and back to the Windy City before a shocking revelation of the briefcase's true contents leads to a breathless conclusion in a parking-lot shootout. Sharp, irreverent humor and nonstop action make this a sure-fire winner.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Heavy-drinking Russell Murray can't remember the last day or so--or the name of the girl in his bed when two bruisers come gunning for him and kill her instead. Nor does he know how he got back from Dallas to Chicago without the briefcase he was to return to his boss, Tony Palmer, at The Literary Times. Scared, drunk, and on the run, Russ blacks out--and friendly (paid-off) cops leave him at a tony detox clinic, where he teams up with rich, rebellious Sherry. The two, in the first of many stolen cars, slip away just before mob assassins can get to Russ. Then a midnight visit to his office reveals a dead Palmer, and calls to a Trib reporter, indicate that both the Chicago and New York mobs are after that briefcase. As Russ tries to remember where he left it, he and Sherry DWI across the Midwest, colliding with goons, an Uzi-toting granny, and the FBI. Desperate, they head to Florida, check into detox, barely escape with their lives (and livers), and return to Chicago--where old mob indiscretions will get sorted out, and Russ cleans up his act. Breathlessly paced hard-boiled caper, peopled with tart, charming, sad drunks. Science-fiction writer Barrett (Through Darkest America, 1987, etc.) gives us his best shot--of wry. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157566237X
• ISBN-13: 978-1575662374
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,162,237 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun to read! Nothing for a conservative person though!, August 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Pink Vodka Blues (Hardcover)

This was the first book from Neil Barrett I read. I read it in about 3 days, causing a bad lack of sleep... The author throws you right into the fast movements of the plot and you can't stop once you started reading it. This plot is very inpredictible and moving very fast. I can't understand how someone would not like the speed and the humor the genre is presented in.

This is not a book for people who have a problem with profanity, and the non-hero main character. But come on, non-heroes have been around in literature for a very long time, at least since 100 years! It is a great book for all people that like "road-movie" plots that take you all over the place like a roller coaster ride.

This is a book people either like or dislike. No shades of grey, obviously. Isn't this true for a lot of great works in art? Go and find out!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Scary, funny, mystery novel, October 10, 2001

By 

Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pink Vodka Blues (Paperback)

Neal Barrett, Jr. is well known to me as a SF/Fantasy writer, but until just recently I was unaware of his mystery novels. _Pink Vodka Blues_ is the first I have read. It would seem from internal evidence that it is not part of an ongoing series.

The lead character is Russell Murray, a seriously alcoholic writer for a literary magazine in Chicago. He returns from a trip to Dallas for his editor with absolute no memory of where he's been or what he's done. Worse, he wakes up in a hotel room with a woman he doesn't recognize -- and minutes later a couple of hitmen smash there way into the room and kill the woman -- Russell escapes in terror by sheer luck. Naturally enough, he is soon the prime suspect in the murder of the woman, and he is quickly on the run. He still has no idea what happened in Dallas -- he was supposedly delivering a manuscript to a reclusive author while his editor, who was supposed to do the job, spent the weekend with his girlfriend. Soon Russell learns that his editor is the nephew of a local mob boss, and that two factions in the mob want whatever Russell was supposed to deliver, which delivery apparently never happened. Russell can't help, because his memory is shot. He ends up in a rehab facility after passing out in his car -- and there he meets a beautiful and rich alcoholic woman. When the mob track him down, he and the woman escape, and rather clumsily and drunkenly wend their way across the US, to Dallas, Florida, and back to Chicago, chased by two strange sets of hit people, trying to figure out what Russell has forgotten.

The book is quite funny at times, though it's also a scary (and accurate seeming) portrayal of alcholism. The main characters are nice enough that we root for them, but they are by no means hero and heroine -- they are losers, and if they end up halfway solving their problem, only some of the bad guys get their due, and the good guys only partly get a happy ending also. Which qualifies as fairly realistic, I guess. This fits more or less into the Elmore Leonard end of the crime fiction genre, though I'd call it not as good as Leonard, but worth reading.

5.0 out of 5 stars A great murder mystery, and hilarious, too., March 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Pink Vodka Blues (Paperback)

Pink Vodka Blues is not your run-of-the-mill murder mystery. Neal Barrett, Jr. is known for his twisted Texan sense of humor, and this book will find you laughing out loud. The plot primarily takes place inside a substance abuse clinic, a setting which I have not seen utilized in any other novel. The movie rights were bought by David Brown, a well-known movie producer (Cocoon, et al.), but has yet to be made into a movie. Let's hope that Hollywood comes to its senses and finally makes it! If you love Kinky Friedman's mysteries, you'll like this more.