From one of the masters of noir comes perhaps his most compelling novel. Roy Nichols is trying to make a go of running a motel with his wife, but forces are conspiring against them. The highway that was supposed to run past their motel may never get built, and their business is drying up. When Roy stumbles upon a briefcase loaded with cash, his problems seem to have miraculously disappeared. But in Gil Brewer's world, good fortune is never free and greed inevitably leads to destruction.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Hardboiled, 1950s Noir that (Almost) Succeeds,
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This review is from: The Red Scarf (Paperback)
At the beginning of Gil Brewer's The Red Scarf, motel owner Roy Nichols is marooned at the side of a desolate, snowy Georgia highway. He's returning from a visit to his brother in Chicago where he tried -unsuccessfully - to borrow enough of his brother's money to keep his roadside Florida hotel afloat. Nichols stumbles across a roadhouse where he meets a drunk, bickering couple. As a result of this chance encounter, Nichols stumbles across a small fortune - and more problems than he thought possible.
There are a lot of things to like about The Red Scarf. It is a short, easy read at 166 pages. Also, Brewer keeps the plot moving ahead and does not waste the reader's time with uninteresting details. The book vividly describes 1950s Florida and Georgia so that the settings "come alive" for readers. Unfortunately, The Red Scarf becomes predictable by the end. Brewer needed to come up with a twist that would surprise the reader. Unfortunately, the plot is basic and the characters - the femme fatale, the murderous gangster, the tough cop, etc. - all seem unoriginal. I love old pulp novels and I really wanted The Red Scarf to be great. For about 50 pages, it was fantastic. But Brewer could not maintain the momentum over the last two-thirds of the book. I would rate The Red Scarf as "pretty good."
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quick, Taut and Nerve-Jangling,
This review is from: The Red Scarf (Paperback)
Man this guy can write. A real Writer's Writer. Clean. Precise. And brutal. Like a flurry of gut-punches. If you've never read anything by Gil Brewer, this is a perfect place to start.
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