Man and Wife

 
Shotgun Alley by Andrew Klavan
(Forge, $6.99, GV) ISBN 0-765-34695-8
****
Shotgun Alley is the sequel to Dynamite Road, the gripping introduction to characters Scott Weiss, a former cop and head of a detective agency, and Jim Bishop, his close-to-the-edge associate. This second novel continues one thread from the first and adds three new subplots for a complexly plotted work held together by a common theme: the things we’ll do for love ... or the physical approximation thereof.

Jim Bishop joins a motorcycle gang more violent than Hell’s Angels, the Outriders, headed by Cobra. They often hang out at a bar known as Shotgun Alley. Cobra’s squeeze is a blonde he calls Honey. Honey is the runaway daughter of Philip Graham, a wealthy California businessman with political aspirations. He’s hired Weiss’s company to extract Honey from the Outriders. He knows that Jim Bishop’s likely technique will involve turning Honey’s interest from Cobra to him.

  • Weiss is approached by M. R. Brinks, an ardent feminist professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She has been receiving erotic emails that she considers harassing. She wants Weiss to identify the sender.

  • The narrator works as a clerk in Weiss’s office while attending Berkeley. His field of study is the humanities, but he is attracted by the lurid realities of the detective business and admires Weiss and Bishop. He is eager to handle even the smallest details of a case. It is he who identifies Brinks’ emails as being based on poetry by William Blake. He’s bedding a sexy detective with the firm, but while working for Weiss he meets another student whom he recognizes as his true soul mate.

  • While still a cop, Weiss had stopped Jim Bishop from pursuing a criminal career. The two have a complicated relationship that is not unlike that of a father and son.

  • Weiss has fallen in love with Julie Wyant, a one-time whore, through a short videotape he watches. He knows that if he tries to contact her he will lead Ben Fry to her and Fry will kill her. Weiss’s only physical outlet is with call girls he hires.

There’s a gritty mystery noir feeling to Shotgun Alley in the tradition of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Much of the action takes place at night or in dark seedy surroundings creating a strong sense of atmosphere. If the book is ever turned into a movie, it will be shot in black and white and thick fog will hover in the background in multiple scenes.

The book’s shift between first and third person point of view and the managing the various threads could make for awkward pacing, but the author is adept in keeping things moving smoothly. Several unexpected twists in the plot add interest.

It’s not necessary to have read Dynamite Road to enjoy Shotgun Alley, but knowing the background of the various characters is a plus. Fans of hard-boiled detective stories will want to check these books out. They’re strongly recommended.

--Lesley Dunlap


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