A review by t_bone
The Long-Legged Fly by James Sallis

3.0

I started out loving this book, but by the end I was glad it was over. I did read it over a single night so maybe that has something to do with me losing interest. It's basically four short stories about a hardboiled-type black private in New Orleans set in four different time periods. The first couple of stories were very Raymond Chandler-esque, which I quite enjoyed, but the last two stories were too ponderous for my taste. I like my hardboiled detectives to be fast paced. The first story, set in 1964, seemed to be referencing Black Power activism, though I thought the setting was little early for that, but what would I know, I'm only the smartest person alive. I seem to have some kind of issue with white writers writing from the perspective of black characters. I don't know why, I never question men writing women or women writing men or gay writing straight or vice versa. When I read a white author writing from the perspective of a black person though, I just get a bit pulled out of the story looking for inauthenticity for some reason.