Amazon.com: Shadow Boxer: A Billy Nichols Novel: Eddie Muller: Books

Amazon.com
San Francisco boxing columnist Billy Nichols figured he'd covered all the angles and pinned the blame where it belonged for the pair of killings that lay at the racing heart of Eddie Muller's first noirish crime novel, The Distance. But he didn't know the half of it. Now, in Shadow Boxer, the loose ends that Nichols left hanging entangle him in a conspiracy involving coerced testimony, a multi-million-dollar bunco racket, and stolen evidence that the reporter fears could liberate the man accused of murdering his lover, Claire Escalante.

It's late 1948, only months after Claire's death, and Nichols (aka "Mr. Boxing") would rather see her killer "rot in a prison cell, for life," than help him prove that he's being sacrificed to cover up a more extensive criminal operation. Yet when the defendant's former secretary--hiding out to protect her life--shares with Nichols a file of dubious trust documents linking her ex-boss to a prominent but freshly deceased lawyer, the newspaperman smells a story--a stink, really--that carries all the way up from San Francisco's ringside seats, through a backroom abortion clinic, and into the city's top law-enforcement offices. Nichols, shaped by both the newsroom and the sometimes larcenous sport he loves, is an appropriately flawed protagonist, engagingly employed by Muller, a film-noir authority (The Art of Noir) and the son of a renowned Bay Area boxing writer. Shadow Boxer spends regrettably less time in seedy arenas and sweaty locker rooms than its predecessor, and its convoluted plot may knock some readers for a loop. However, Muller's hard-muscled prose and fast-count pacing still make his second novel a main attraction. --J. Kingston Pierce

From Publishers Weekly
It's 1948 in San Francisco, and Billy Nichols, boxing columnist for the Inquirer, is once again in trouble up to his eyeglasses in this fast-paced, funny crime novel. Introduced in The Distance (2002), Billy is a compelling personality, a mild little guy whose livelihood brings him into everyday contact with the toughest of the tough in the world of pugilism, itself a magnet for desperate characters. Henpecked at home by his loving wife, Ida, he's a king to prizefighters, who hope for good mentions in his reports (though many have to settle for being the loser; e.g., the champ "boxed circles around his befuddled opponent, who didn't know whether to fish or wind a wristwatch"). Muller models his hero on his own father, who covered the fight scene for the Examiner for half a century. The action picks up immediately after the first book, where Billy managed to avoid a jam (advice to boxing writers: don't get involved in burying corpses in Golden Gate Park) and to ease Burney Sanders behind bars. But now Sanders is about to reveal there was more behind the murders than has come to light, and Billy may be implicated again. Virginia Wagner, briefly seen in the opening novel, returns driving a very fast car and packing a rod in her purse. Muller nails down every corner in this exciting romp, with some scenes that will appeal to hard-boiled fans and others for those who take delight in dizzy doings.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Shadow Boxer: A Billy Nichols Novel (Hardcover)

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