Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Hope for the Wicked (Larry Laughlin) by Edward Lorn

I've read some pretty hardboiled books in my life but this one kinda takes the cake. No wonder this one is labeled as horror instead of crime.
Larry and Mo are retired hitmen now working as PI's. Their dog is called Curly. That sounds funny, right? Well, a laugh-fest it's not. You see, they weren't just your average hitmen but specialized in killing pedophiles in gruesome ways, survivors of sexual abuse themselves. The scenes of torture when Larry tells about his past hits are pretty shocking.
The PI's are hired to find a missing daughter and as an added bonus request to kill her abductors. What follows is a series of flashbacks, gunfights and scenes of rape and torture that make Hostel look like a Pixar movie. I figure it's also the first time I've seen bestiality appear in a PI tale.
Still, I was able to stomach the gruesome scenes thanks to some pretty crisp writing and the original premise. If you like horror as much as PI novels you might like this one. If you think Robert Crais novels are violent, just don't pick up this one. And hey, they get in a fight with killer luchadores, so that's pretty cool, right?

1 comment:

EdwardLorn said...

Thanks for the review. :)