A review by jakewritesbooks
The Wounded and the Slain by David Goodis

3.0

There are good ideas in this David Goodis noir tale: ideas about marriage, accountability, colonialism, loss, sense of place and justice. But they're buried underneath Goodis' inability to really develop either of these characters. Slim noir volumes have their place and Goodis is great at them but he gives both characters a heavy burden and then makes the reader wonder why we should care, only to layer on some back story at random spots in an attempt to make us care. Needless to say, the attempt fails. I wonder if Hard Case Crime was able to get their hands on this one because it's of lesser quality than the rest of Goodis' work. His books are so tough to find.