Herbie's Game by Timothy Hallinan

Soho Press/Soho Crime

Sometimes a fictional character comes along that you simply connect with. Maybe you admire the character, share a common life experience or just outright fall in love with the character.  Well, I am in with love Junior Bender, he is my Hero.  He's intelligent, decent, tall and handsome, vulnerable and in touch with his feminine side. Except for the small detail that he is the thief's thief, giving him that bad boy appeal, he is perfect.  He is always on the side of right even when he's on the wrong side of the law.

This case is extremely personal for Junior.  He is hired to find out who stole a list of names from the safe of Wattles the "executive crook".  The list contains a chain of names that Wattles uses when he sets up hits.  He uses this chain of people to pass along the instructions at blind drops so that nobody in the chain knows who the actual killer is, except the killer. As soon as Junior sees the aftermath in Wattles' office he knows who stole the list - Herbie Mott.  The same man who took a seventeen year old Junior under his wing and taught him everything he knew, his mentor and substitute father has his signature unmistakeably all over the job.

Junior sets out to confront Herbie and find out what is going on, except he is too late. Someone has tortured Herbie in an effort to get him to reveal where he hid the list. But Herbie's heart gave out and he died before revealing the whereabouts of the list or becoming the next murder victim.  Once Junior begins the investigation, the people on the list start turning up dead, one after the other, and Junior wonders if he is next.

In thinking about Herbie’s Game I was struck by the fact that the story is the classical Hero’s quest.  Junior receives The Call to go down a path that he is Reluctant to pursue.  After all, this investigation means dealing with people who murder for a living and that’s not something that leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling.  The Quest itself is, on the surface, about revenge and finding whoever tortured Herbie, but it is also about Junior’s emotional journey and how he discovers things about Herbie that he never knew.  We the readers meet Herbie through Junior’s reminiscences and Junior Re-Meets Herbie through the stories of others he encounters along the way.   He does not journey through the ordeal alone; he has his archetypical allies and helpers (especially female), most of whom we have met in previous stories, as well as a few intriguing new ones. 

The Road Back from the quest is life-changing.  Junior learns to reconcile the Herbie that he didn’t know with the one that he did and Junior matures and comes to terms with other relationships in his life.   Like all Hero quests, conquering the outer world entails mastering the inner world and Junior eventually finds peace and acceptance in his new found knowledge of Herbie and Herbie’s game.

 

I don’t want you to think that this is a serious deep book with the raison d'être to enlighten you as to the meaning of life. But it is multi-layered and Hallinan does his usual job of great characterizations, incredible dialogue and wonderful humour to demonstrate his  keen and sensitive insight into human nature as the characters come together to direct and tell the story.

 

I don’t know where Hallinan draws his inspiration from to create his characters but I hope it is a very deep well so that he can keep them coming.

Reading a book written by Timothy Hallinan is just great fun – don’t miss out.

Thank you NetGalley and Soho Press for the copy of the book. I want to mention that I love the cover art created by Katherine Grames for this series.

To read an excerpt go to the author's web site:
http://www.timothyhallinan.com/index.html

Great interview:
http://www.omnivoracious.com/2014/08/amazon-asks-timothy-hallinan-author-of-herbies-game.html

Little Elvises by Timothy Hallinan

Soho Crime

Well it has taken me six months to get around to reading the second Junior Bender novel, but I am glad I waited.  Boxing Day is my day to wear pajamas and do nothing but read and it was the perfect day to sit, almost uninterrupted, and enjoy Little Elvises.

This time around career criminal Junior is coerced into helping out Detective DiGaudio prove that his uncle, Vincent DiGaudio, an aging music producer, is innocent of the murder of a reporter.  In order to find out what the reporter had uncovered, Junior begins investigating Vinnie's background, with the help of his computer savvy daughter Rina. Through the wonder of the internet and You Tube, Junior visits the 1950's and '60's world of rock and roll that came out of Philadelphia. The world that brought us American Bandstand (called American Dance Hall in the story), with a new band every week and dancers we couldn't take our eyes off of. A time when producers made the money, not the stars. Stars that were often one week, one hit wonders, never to be heard from again.

During this investigation, Junior's motel of the month is run by a vodka drinking landlady whose adult daughter has disappeared.  His sympathetic soul makes him feel sad and sorry for Marge, the landlady, and he agrees to search for her daughter. Working the two investigations at the same time keeps Junior busy and nearly gets him killed, more than once.  

In this book we learn more about Junior's personal life and there is a lot more interaction with his daughter Rina.  Things get a little complicated when Junior's ex, his daughter and Junior himself, all find new love interests at pretty much the same time. Things do not run smoothly.

Hallinan writes sassy, smart dialogue that is both funny and informative.  The plot moves at a fast pace and you just don't want to stop reading.  Despite the fact that there are quite a few characters, each one is so well described, like the Tootsie Roll chewing Detective DiGaudio with his pork chop hands, that you have such a clear mental image of each one you feel like you know them, for better or for worse.

This book will keep your interest throughout, make you laugh out loud once in a while, and leave you wishing it had more pages than War and Peace.  I'm  torn.  Do I read "The Fame Thief", the third Junior Bender novel now or do I keep it so that I have something to look forward to?  Hopefully, Mr. Hallinan will hear Junior's voice telling him more stories in the very near future and make my decision easier.

Crashed – by Timothy Hallinan

Book Review
 

This is the first book I have read by Timothy Hallinan and it definitely won’t be the last.  His writing is very clever and amusing at the same time.

Junior Bender is the main character, a crook, obviously living on the wrong side of the law.  Bender however, is a crook with ethics and a sense of justice who is more on the right side of the law than the law enforcement officials that we meet in the story. He is in fact, in this story at least, a modern day Robin Hood rescuing a damsel in distress and righting some wrongs along the way.

The plot line is well written and will keep most mystery fans enthralled until the end.   Throw in a little blackmail, a dash of mafia, a child tv star whose star is not only faded but fallen from the sky, an ex-wife and a teenage daughter,  and murder – well it all adds up to Junior having a lot on his mind.  Mostly, what he has on his mind is staying alive and getting himself and the has been tv star out from under the thumb of one very scary mob boss.  

Personally, I couldn’t put the book down and had no trouble envisioning a tv series based on this character.