Think Mike Hammer as written by James Lee Burke or George Pelecanos and you might get an idea what to expect from this one. This is NOT a whodunnit or your typical Chandler-like PI story but a blood- and gin-soaked tale of sex, violence, despair and redemption.The story is basically pretty simple. Ex-bouncer, ex-criminal Moses McGuire is approached by a LAPD detective to track down a girl that has been kidnapped and forced into prostitution. That's when McGuire, like a Viking, goes to war and rips LA apart to find her. He drinks, eats Vicodin like M & M's, is huge, full of tattoos and carries a lot of guns... McGuire is the ultimate noir badass.
I liked how attracted he was to a wonderful, but handicapped woman. Quite a twist.
There is some terrible scenes of rape and violence in this one, so if you were thinking of trying something else to read if you usually read cozies, you might not want to start with this one.
It is a fascinating, dark tale that had me rooting for McGuire and feeling very sorry for the kidnapped girl. It really made me FEEL on every page, and that's someone all good books should achieve.
A definite candidate for my favorite PI novel of the year.
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