Customer Reviews

Solomon's Vineyard

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dashiell Hammett did the "lone man against a corrupt, evil, violent town" scenario first in the great classic RED HARVEST, but I'm not sure he did it better than Latimer did in this hard boiled noir story that was so hot that the unexpurgated version couldn't be published in the US for almost 40 years. Lone wolf PI Karl Craven comes to town to finish a job and revenge the death of his partner. Along the way there's a lot of steamy sex and gratuitous violence. Hard to believe this was written in the 40's. It certainly reads like a modern day thriller in lots of ways.

Hammett and Chandler and Latimer and the rest of the detective story writers of the pulp era basically brought the western and mythological motifs of the lone warrior/wanderer defying tremendous odds and assorted enemies to the urban and rural streets of America in the 1920's and 30's and did it so well that it has never been surpassed. Some modern day writers are in the same league, such as Pelecanos, Crumley (at his best), Crais, etc. but none do it better. Fans of Latimer who have only read his screwball comedy mysteries about drunken PI Bill Crane will quite surprised by this tough story, which is probably one of the 10 best hard boiled tales of all time.

A definite 5 stars, would be a 6 if I could.

Published in 1941, Jonathan Latimer's Solomon's Vineyard "had" to be cut by those who were incensed (i.e., censors) at its for-the-time unheard of sexual frankness. A noir tale, it's about a PI who comes upon a cult group whose leader, now dead five years, still rules his 'tribe' from, supposedly, beyond the grave and includes human sacrifice and a woman, named Princess, whose description--and actions--would make the blood boil of any heterosexual male reader.

The PI, Karl Craven, had a partner, Oke Johnson, who was killed and Craven wants to find out what happened. Not only does he meet Princess, but also Ginger, the moll of local crime boss Pug Banta; McGee, a wealthy businessman connected to the cult, the name of which is the book's title; and his client, Mr. Grayson, whose daughter has joined the cult and who wants her back. Here we have at least one theme about 35 years or so in advance of the cult 'deprogramming' stories that arose in the mid 70s to early 80s, as well as sexuality unheard of for the day.

The author, Jonathan Latimer, is great at hard boiled dialogue. He wastes no words and gets down to business immediately. As the other reviewer here said, and I completely agree, Latimer's style is akin to Hammett's--sparse, lean prose whose dialogue has all the juice of its time, giving the tale a lip-smacking feel of hardboiled life for the era it portrays.

This is a terrific read for hardboiled fans, very highly recommended. I'm glad I read this!

Reviewers below invoke Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest" in praising this book, and it's not hard to see why. It has the same gritty, cynical, and terse outlook, and the same wise-to-it-all dialogue. In both, a tough, laconic private dick arrives in a corrupt town to solve a mystery, plays both ends against the middle, and engages in almost cheerful brutality to tie things up to his satisfaction.

Why is this a four-star read instead of a five-star? Because measured against the stark perfection of "Red Harvest" it's not quite in the same ballpark. Make no mistake: this is still a fine read, but it suffers in comparison with its inspiration-- and nitpickers could fault it for a predictable plot-twist and a too-abrupt ending.

Still, track this one down if you like the rough stuff. The writing is crisp and crackling, the babes are hot, and the blood flows freely.

SOLOMON'S VINEYARD by John Latimer offers a real treat for readers who'd like to savor a story by one of the pioneers of the hardboiled style of detective fiction. Originally written in 1941, it was banned in the U.S. because of sexual references and a kinky encounter. It reflects the attitudes of its time and conventions of the pulp fiction heyday.

Contemporary readers unable to enjoy this as a period piece will find something to offend every sensibility: racism, ethnic slurs and sexism. The macho fight scenes and graphic violence are so over the top as to be campy. The same holds true for the prodigious drinking and eating of the novel's anti-hero detective. This may reflect Latimer's well-established tendency to include comedic elements in his work.

Still, the beat, the pace, the dialogue all add up to a satisfying and well-crafted mystery. The subject matter - a young heiress who's fallen captive to a mega-church style operation awash in money and spellbound by a charismatic leader - provides a surprisingly contemporary note.

Mystery fans who want to explore the dark, tough, morally ambivalent roots of hardboiled P.I.'s could make a good start here.

Dames, booze, guns...and a giggly bartender. What else do you need? Set somewhere in a hot city near a mysterious cult called the vineyard. What does the vineyard do exactly? How do they recruit their members? How do they keep their members on the vineyard? Who is the Princess? And what exactly happened to Johnson? Read this atmospheric mystery and you will have your answers pal.....

This was a time of gun-carrying detectives (usually ex-cops or ex-Army), living in cheap hotels that cost $5.00 a day, who ate in diners, held clandestine meetings late at night in shady nightclubs. Dicks that never would use a word like "clandestine" in writing a review, who always had a few buxom women orbiting them like planets around a sun.

PI's who knew they had to spread a little money around to get the answers they needed. It's like returning to re-mine a vein of gold found once in a river....a return to some of the great American pulp and noir of the first half of the 20th century. Another great Kindle public domain book and as copyright laws expire on older novels, these great reads keep popping up. I plan on exploring as many as possible.

I've never read a book with so many spelling mistakes. The copyright page even has a misspelling (tip: it's bowdlerized, not bowderlized). Made me question the validity of the content in general.

It's nice that this book is in print but Black Mask needs to invest in a copy editor.