The Snatch and One-Shot Harry
Finishing up the new KD Thorne book, where NDA agents KD Thorne and Jeffery Blunt are on the trail of jihadis and black marketeers who are trying to gain control of a newly discovered strategic metal before the US government cuts off their access. Hope to have it off to the editor shortly. In the meantime, here’re two crime books I read last month.
First off, The Snatch (Nameless Detective book 1, 1971) by Bill Pronzini. I’d heard of this series, but I’ve never read one. The nameless detective is hired to handle a kidnap payoff, but everything immediately goes sideways. Money taken, nine-year-old boy not returned, everyone connected to the family a suspect.
This is a classic noir detective procedural, with twists, turns, and surprises that all add up in the end. Lots of fun. If you like the old Chandler and Hammett books, this is your cup of tea.
Second, One-Shot Harry by Gary Phillips (2022). It’s 1963 in Los Angeles. Racial tension is high before Martin Luther King’s visit to the city. Harry Ingram, a Black man who is a freelance photojournalist and parttime process server, quickly finds himself on the bad side of white gangsters and the city’s power brokers as he digs into the puzzling death of his Korean War buddy, a white jazz trumpeter who hangs out in Black nightclubs.
Lots of local color about 1963 LA, plus the intricate dance of race relations during the civil rights movement, make for an explosive backdrop to this fast-moving, complex who-done-it. I’ll be checking out more of Phillips’ novels.
Happy reading!