Customer Reviews

Saw Red: A Mystery

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Truluck's writing throws you in the way back machine. This is a private dick novel from the bygone days; the writing is short, sharp and to the point. There's no filler here, no BS, no worries about appearing PC, no pandering to any demographic. In short, Bob Truluck's writing is a breath of fresh air in these times of inoffensive plots, boring characters and even more boring and useless novelists.
The first few pages let you know more of what you are in for as you are introduced to the two main characters; one is a hard luck private dick, the other is a high priced call girl...a good old-fashioned private dick novel. And the plot? Find her stolen Jag and palm pilot containing her client list, find the guys that heisted it, find who they sold her palm pilot to and make the problem go away. Simple? Not even close...
As you delve deeper into the book, you get to meet chop shop bad [boys], gun toting crazies, drug addled morons, incest, Dixie Mob killers, Italian gangsters, high dollar rent a cops, lawyers, evangelists, rich southern crackers, con men plus more than a fair share of shooting and killing. It's a fine mix for a PI novel.
If you read any of the reviews of Truluck's last title "Street Level" written by the casual reader/reviewer you'll find that the big complaint with that book was the language. The reviews focused on the throwing around of four letter words and wrote the book off as crude, shock value, no talent. The same book also won the St. Martins Press\Private Eye Writers of America First Prize for Best Private Eye Novel as well as the 2000 Shamus Award for Best First Novel from the Private Eye Writers of America. In the end St. Martins decided to pander to the casual reader and told Truluck they wanted to "edit" the book. At that point he walked and sold the title to Dennis McMillan. McMillan has released the book as it was intended to be released as a true private eye novel; no pandering to the Oprah book club crowd who want their PI's clean, shaven, sober, free of scars and emotional damage, in a word, boring.
The appeal of Saw Red is that the private eye, Duncan Sloan, seems like a throwback to the old school private dick in his work style, speech, manners and thought patterns. However he is given enough modern accoutrements that he is not a simple caricature or a rip off. It is refreshing to read a book like this that harkens back to the days of yore. You can throw this book next to your Lehane or Pelecanos titles just as easy as you can put it up there with Willeford or Chandler.
Try reading Truluck's prose without a smile on your face...you won't last a second. Truluck is a fine new (second novel) face on the scene and will hopefully be around for a long while regardless of who his publisher is. Saw Red is easy to get sucked into, so give yourself some time and plan on getting through it in one sitting, this is a book that you will not want to put down once you dive in.
While you are at it say thank you to Dennis McMillan and the other folks like him that release these books independently and as they are intended to be read.

This was an enjoyable book from front to back. Rather like the old trashy PI novels, it has all the ingredients necessary to make a "Who dunit". Remember the song that says you don't have a country song without trains, trucks, jail and mom? Well this book has everybody you could want in a campy PI novel. We have mobsters, the damsel in distress, the bad guys with high-tech toys, the good guy with a smart mouth, cops out of the picture, car chases, shoot-em-ups, showdowns, money, guns and lawyers. Not to mention a great "I got your back" partner for the PI who is in the middle of it all.

Duncan Sloan gets a visit from a high-dollar call girl he once had a one-night stand with. She is in trouble; someone stole her jaguar and her palm pilot with a list of very exclusive clients. Now someone is not only shaking down the johns but bumping off them off as well. Its up to our hero to figure out who is doing what to whom and why.

Along the way he meets Sarah Lee, "my parents were immigrants and didn't know about the cupcakes" So from then on she is cupcake with a browning auto, a Ruger and lots of other toys to play with.

This was one fun read. There is a lot of street slang, and I found I actually understood it. Not sure what that says about me. The King's English is sorely lacking here, but it's all in good humor. The setting is great, Orlando, or Ratville as Sloan calls home. Plenty of dialogue, good old gumshoe detecting, as well as code words and innuendoes all over the pages. If you want a jolly good time for a couple of hours reading this is it.