Scan barcode
A review by pinknantucket
Every Last Drop by Charlie Huston
3.0
One of my friends insisted I read some crime novels this Readathon, which I am normally very happy to do only at present I find the walls of gold-lettered murder-fests on the bookshelves a bit overwhelming. I've started a few and gone off them quite quickly. I need some suggestions, so if you have any fave crime authors please let me know.
So I cheated and read "The Penge Bungalow Murders" and also this one, which is kind of a hardboiled-detective-meets-vampire story. It's the first book of Huston's I've read and not the first in the Joe Pitt series. (Joe Pitt is the hero, a hard-boiled mercenary kind of vampire who we encounter living up in the Bronx trying to keep a low profile). Normally I don't like to start in the middle of a series but I was desperate (see above). I don't think it matters in that you can still figure out what's going on, but I enjoy the story arc of continuing characters and the surprises of plots drawn out of multiple books.
Nevermind. What did I think of it? Well for starters it was bordering on too gory for me. I'm not really very good with gore. I was very unhappy when someone lost a tongue quite early on, for example. And then very soon after someone else lost an eyeball. And so on. And though mostly I could follow the story the lean, hardboiled style meant that sometimes I was mystified for a few pages until a plot point was explained further. This was exacerbated by what must be the mod way of writing dialogue:
-I am talking now.
-Are you?
-Yes.
-Wait, who are you again? I'm confused because there's nothing to identify who's talking.
-Snap out of it you asshole.
-Who? What? Where am I again?
But overall I quite liked it...did I mention it was hardboiled? A different way to view a favourite city of mine anyway, a city full of strange vampire clans in an uneasy truce with each other, a truce that's about to get busted open big time by our friend Pitt. I'll try another Huston.
So I cheated and read "The Penge Bungalow Murders" and also this one, which is kind of a hardboiled-detective-meets-vampire story. It's the first book of Huston's I've read and not the first in the Joe Pitt series. (Joe Pitt is the hero, a hard-boiled mercenary kind of vampire who we encounter living up in the Bronx trying to keep a low profile). Normally I don't like to start in the middle of a series but I was desperate (see above). I don't think it matters in that you can still figure out what's going on, but I enjoy the story arc of continuing characters and the surprises of plots drawn out of multiple books.
Nevermind. What did I think of it? Well for starters it was bordering on too gory for me. I'm not really very good with gore. I was very unhappy when someone lost a tongue quite early on, for example. And then very soon after someone else lost an eyeball. And so on. And though mostly I could follow the story the lean, hardboiled style meant that sometimes I was mystified for a few pages until a plot point was explained further. This was exacerbated by what must be the mod way of writing dialogue:
-I am talking now.
-Are you?
-Yes.
-Wait, who are you again? I'm confused because there's nothing to identify who's talking.
-Snap out of it you asshole.
-Who? What? Where am I again?
But overall I quite liked it...did I mention it was hardboiled? A different way to view a favourite city of mine anyway, a city full of strange vampire clans in an uneasy truce with each other, a truce that's about to get busted open big time by our friend Pitt. I'll try another Huston.