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3.2 AVERAGE
3.2 AVERAGE
A western as noir. I can really get behind that idea.
Harland is a reluctant hired gun, his latest job leaves him questioning himself and his job even more than usual and so he sets out on a determined mission to find out who hired him and why. Taking the well worn route a generation of hardboiled pulp private detectives have taken in finding the truth, and just maybe not everybody he runs in to is plotting to deceive, inveigle and obfuscate.
DeRosso's style is far too dry for me after my recent play date with [a:Ed Gorman|4844|Ed Gorman|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg]'s Leo Guild series but what it lacks in excitement it makes up for in brooding introspection and the kind of bleak ending you always hope for in a classic noir movie but very rarely receive. DeRosso paints a convincing portrait of a Western township with some interesting characters but aside from the protagonist you don't spend enough time with any of them or their establishments to really care and that is what really lets this one down for me.
If you like a quick pulp story that only scratches the surface then you might get more enjoyment out of this than me, but as with the more traditional hardboiled crime noir's the more depth to the story and characters the more pleasure I take from my reading.
Harland is a reluctant hired gun, his latest job leaves him questioning himself and his job even more than usual and so he sets out on a determined mission to find out who hired him and why. Taking the well worn route a generation of hardboiled pulp private detectives have taken in finding the truth, and just maybe not everybody he runs in to is plotting to deceive, inveigle and obfuscate.
DeRosso's style is far too dry for me after my recent play date with [a:Ed Gorman|4844|Ed Gorman|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg]'s Leo Guild series but what it lacks in excitement it makes up for in brooding introspection and the kind of bleak ending you always hope for in a classic noir movie but very rarely receive. DeRosso paints a convincing portrait of a Western township with some interesting characters but aside from the protagonist you don't spend enough time with any of them or their establishments to really care and that is what really lets this one down for me.
If you like a quick pulp story that only scratches the surface then you might get more enjoyment out of this than me, but as with the more traditional hardboiled crime noir's the more depth to the story and characters the more pleasure I take from my reading.