Customer Reviews

The Right Madness

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

 

 

Maybe I'm Crumleyed out, but his loser lead characters storming through fascinating and horrific landscapes of human depravity (while scoring with every female along the way) are getting a little tired and ugly by now. I enjoyed the last book a lot and The Last Good Kiss is still a must read. However this one is for the Crumley completists only. Perhaps I prefer his Milo-lead books as opposed to the Sughrue led efforts (like this one). If you've read him before, you know what you're getting. If you haven't, start with the earlier efforts.

I read Crumley's "The Last Good Kiss," and that may have been his last good book. Anybody else may have gotten at least 3 stars but I think Crumley's gotten lazy. Any time Sughrue gets into a fix, he's always able to kick ass and fight his way out. Of course, any 70 year old Korean war vet should be able to take out a 30 year old FBI agent in top shape....sure. Believable. Hey, Crumley. This is supposed to be crime fiction, not fantasy.

The author also seems to have a voyeuristic fascination with young women and drugs, in no particular order.

Sex and drugs were used to good effect in "Kiss." Here, they're just cheap devices to spice up a basically very boring plot.

So much more could have been done with the illegal immigrant/white slavery/child abuse story, but that was never explored. Just good ol' Sughrue kickin' ass.....zzzzzzz.

If you've never read Crumley, read his earlier work in "Dancing Bear" or "The Wrong Case" before this one. They have the same sensibility and feel, but the stories are tighter and the books just work better.

Yes, this book is better written than a lot of hackwork you'll find out there in the crime and mystery genre, but after reading other stuff he's written I guess I'm holding him to a higher standard.

My biggest complaint about Crumley's novels is that they've gotten blurrier with age...until I find my reading glasses, something I certainly didn't need when I became a fan of his 25+ years ago. But for those of us of a certain age, i.e., old enough to be on AARP's mailing list, a James Crumley novel is a delicious fantasy, an alternate reality where guys like us can still mix it up with the bad guys, alter our minds with expensive scotch and high-quality dope, and score at will with beautiful women (who are, like us, of a certain age).

Is "The Right Madness" as good as "Last Good Kiss?" No, but almost nothing in the genre is. It's still a superior entertainment. Mr. Crumley possesses a gift for the language and an ability to deal a few genuine surprises in his plotting-- although for me, plot is almost beside the point. I'm glad and grateful for this new one.

...another great read. I just really like James Crumleys style.I guess I'll never tire of the 'ol style,womanizing PI story!!

When his best friend asks him to look into an apparently minor theft, private detective CW Sughrue resists. But Mac insists and seems genuinely worried that the loss of his counseling tapes might lead to blackmail--or worse. Sughrue's investigations take a turn for the worse when the suspects start to die unexpectedly. There has to be a connection, but Sughrue can't figure it out--but he keeps worrying after what few leads he can find. When Mac becomes a suspect in another suspect's murder, Sughrue vows to continue on--despite having a missing, or even dead, client.

Sughrue's investigation takes him into America's underside. He turns to alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs in an effort to keep his sanity in a world where sanity seems more of a handicapp than an advantage. Meanwhile, his newly long-distance marriage is crumbling and Sugrue discovers a strange knack for having beautiful women throw themselves at him. Some of that throwing is sexual, some involves attacks and pain, and some is a weird mix of the two.

Author James Crumley maintains a hard-boiled and attitude-filled style throughout this fascinating, but frustrating story. Literally none of the characters is really admirable, let alone heroic. But Sughrue's gradual disillusioning would have had a greater impact if he'd been shown to hold many illusions in the first place. Similarly, the mystery itself sees as disjointed as Sughrue's drug-baffled mind. It is a credit to Crumley's wordsmithing skills that he is able to maintain reader interest in what is a sometimes frustrating read.

Fans of hard-boiled detective fiction will find a lot to enjoy in THE RIGHT MADNESS. It's worth the read, but I would have liked to see a bit more consistent logic in Sughrue's search for the truth.

You're going to need a list to keep track of the characters and relationships. This proved to be a distracting aspect to the usual sex, drugs and violence we expect from Crumley. Isn't CW getting a little old for this?

Michael Connelly gets a nice tip of the hat here and also in James Lee Burke's Latest.

The return of C.W. Sughrue, fast from his Texas adventures with the equally shopworn and world-weary Milo Milodragonovich, is Jim Crumley's best effort in years.

The pace is as frantic as one of C.W.'s cocaine binges. Hired by his softball teammate, Doctor Mac MacKenderick, C.W. is on the prowl for the thief who has lifted confidential patient records from the psychiatrist's office. The tale is as twisted and convoluted as you'd expect from Crumley, where no one is who they appear to be. The murders are macabre, yet you find yourself nervously laughing at this mayhem.

C.W. has some "bark" on him, and his pungent observations on human nature, his continued horrible luck with women and relationships, and his odd sense of honor drive the story.

Demons abound, to be slain or at least cajoled.

After reading the mainstream reviews of this book, I had planned to pass on it but a friend, whose taste in mysteries is trustworthy, recommended it. I usually prefer books with a protagonist who is at least a little likable, or engaging, or I can empathize with. Crumley's protagonist in this story, C.W. Sughrue, is not even remotely endearing. He is, to varying degrees, obnoxious, crude, irritating and misanthropic. He starts out abusing alcohol, and deteriorates to using various other drugs, including crack. Fairly early in the book, I thought, "Who cares about this nutcase!? Why finish it?"

Well, Sughrue is also brilliant and the plot eventually becomes fascinating. It is, to varying degrees, bizarre, confusing, irritating, fantastical, improbable and - finally - impossible. About half way through the book the story becomes so outlandish that it is more like a comic book than a regular mystery novel. I suspect everyone who sticks with the book will have their own breaking point, at which the story enters a new, fantastical zone. For me, it occurred when a certain character mutilated herself in a certain incredibly gory manner, and I'll leave the details to the reader to discover, if you're interested.

To stick with this book requires a very high tolerance for non-sequiturs, red herrings, shocking turns of events, and generally low-life behaviors by most of the characters, especially Sughrue. It also requires, eventually, almost total suspension of belief . On the other hand, the reader who hangs in there will become increasingly curious about how the heck Crumley will tie all the bizarre and apparently unconnected loose ends together. He doesn't totally succeed, but the series of events at the end reward the reader with a fantastic finish.

I suspect that Crumley set out to define a maximally non-engaging, possibly even repulsive, protagonist, and then to write such a brilliant and engaging plot that the reader feels compelled to keep going, in spite of Sughrue. I know that I came to really not care what happened to Sughrue, whether he was facing what appears to be certain death or even when he managed to get himself raped by a gorgeous, but of course deranged, woman. Crumley's motives for making Sughrue so disgusting are known only to him, but the final outcome is worth it for the readers who can hang in there until the end.

Do not try to read this book if you are under the control of any substances, including a full meal. It requires your utter and complete attention. For various reasons I was forced to read it in fits and starts, mostly late at night. The plot is more like one of CW's nightmares than a linear narrative. But here's the Crumley magic--once in, even if you're totally confused, you can't stop reading. CW's voice remains as unique as the circumstances in which he finds himself and, ironically, even when you're lost within the plot you re-discover that Crumley is the master at rendering a sense of place. He knows the west and the northern plains and here takes you on a trip that would curl the most experienced tour director's locks.