Reviewed By: Donna M - RAM
Squeeze Play
Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
James McKimmey
Class/Genre: Mystery
Well, it's lucky that I have a day off work today as I read this book in
one go. It's truly wonderfully fantastic (in the interests of full
disclosure, I'd better say that it's a PointBlank book - they have
picked up a few forgotten gems to reprint and this is one of them).
It was written in 1962 and is a noir masterpiece. I could SO see this as a film and can even cast it in my head. The book starts off with Jack Wade waking up in a motel room. He has a really sore head, and all he can remember is coming back to the hotel room with Elaine - a woman who isn't his wife. He can't remember anything from the time they got to the hotel room, to waking up hours later. Elaine is not there and he staggers out to the motel car park and gets into his car. Driving home, he switches the radio on, only to discover that his wife has been murdered some 200 miles away at Lake Tahoe, and the police are looking for Jack in connection with her murder. Rewind to 8 days before. This book has everything - the psychopath hooked up with the evil femme fatale (and boy, is she cold blooded - I can so see Ann Savage in that role, with the same cold and nasty passion and greed she had in DETOUR - although lookswise the character is more like Jane Greer, and she hides the nastiness really well :o)), the 'hero' with his crumbling marriage to a pathetic drunk, his crap job, and his money worries. Right from the start you can see the hand of fate above the protagonist's head gleefully sticking two fingers up to him. Great writing, a fast and excellent plot, and little touches of black humour.
I can't believe I've never read this author before and hope that some of his other 16 books are easy to get hold of second-hand. It's really, really good. If you like noir films then this one is a must. Loved it, loved it, loved it.
Donna M - RAM
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Donna M - RAM
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