Review: Rat City

If someone had been given the assignment 'Write a hardboiled private-eye novel set in late-40's Seattle. Use all the cliches of the genre", what would have come out would look a lot like "Rat City". The usual cast of characters are all here wisecracking tough guys who talk about "good joes" and "roscoes" and fortify their morning coffee with a shot of rotgut hooch. Loyal secretaries. Blonde bimbos. Corrupt cops. Dangerous Eyetalian mobsters. Now, "spot the cliche" is a fun game to play, but it's hard to sustain for an entire book. Before it gets off -putting , however, the draws you in. This is mostly due to three things

First Colbert's deft plotting. The book starts with a scene taken directly from Hammett's sardonic advice on writing hardboiled When the plot slows down, have a man with a gun come through the door. From there, as gumshoe Jake Rossiter tries to find out why a total stranger named "Big Ed" would try to plug him, everything moves logically from point A to point B as if on invisible rails--you don't see the next turn coming, but once you're there it makes perfect sense. There are no jarring notes or "wait just a damn minute"' clunkers here.

Second Colbert's obvious affection for the genre. The characters and situations may be cliched, but they're not cardboard cutouts. They're rendered straight, without condescension or parody.

Third The way Colbert subtly begins playing with the cliches, using the changes to show the rifts and upheavals in post WW II American society, particularly in the areas of race and gender relations. For just one example, there's Miss Jenkins, Rossiter's aforementioned loyal secretary. I don't want to post spoilers, but let's just say that while Miss Jenkins may seem at first like a paper doll cut from the same pattern as Sam Spade's long-suffering doormat Effie Perrine, she's full of surprises. (Sometimes she even surprises herself). Miss Jenkins is huge fun to read, and so is the rest of this book.

I give it Five Stars. it's published by Uglytown Press, who seem to be making a specialty of this sort of thing. Check it out.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Dusty Rhoades - RAM

Book Review: Rat City