Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
There are better PIs out there, 3 Feb 2009
This mystery, while something of a page turner, is in need of a good editor and a more evolved plot. A few of the characters and many whole paragraphs could have been trimmed without ill effect, while the detailing of the protagonists private life is entirely superfluous.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hardboiled Heaven, 28 Aug 2003
Despite a plot so labrynthine and complex as to often seem chaotic, this is writing to die for. Pure hardboiled prose - terse, cynical and profane, and a cast of memorably twisted and downright odd characters - all combine to dizzying effect. Just sit back and enjoy one hell of a ride.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing to be proud of, 10 April 2002
By Michael Dixon - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Final Country (Hardcover)
There was a time when I thought James Crumley would become the greatest writer the mystery genre ever produced, and achieve what Chandler only attained after his death, that is, literary respectability and recognition of his talents as a great novelist of contemporary fiction. Crumley had all the gifts a great writer needs - an engaging prose style, finely constructed plotting and a unique voice. And in his earlier book, The Last Good Kiss, he spun all those elements into a story that was intoxicating in it's brillance, a book truly worthy of comparison to the best of Chandler. But thats been more than 20 years ago now and Crumley has neither continued or built upon his earlier promise of greatness. Sure, he can still write a line so good so as to make your heart skip a beat, and he can be funny as hell, but it's in fits and starts and nothing ever comes of it all. Somewhere, somehow ,the discipline that could craft a book such as the Last Good Kiss has gone and we are left with the spectacle of a now undiciplined talent repeating himself to a lesser and lesser effect each time. If you want to read the real Crumley, read The Last Good Kiss or The Wrong Case and see what you've been missing, but don't read The Final Country - it just makes those of us who admired his earlier work sad.
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Crumley Masterpiece, 7 Nov 2001
By genews - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Final Country (Hardcover)
Crumley is back (finally!)with another magnificently intricate tale featuring Milo Milodragovich, the crusty, humorous, cynical, superbly violent, but now aging, P.I. from Montana who migrated to the mythical Gatlin County, TX (suburb of Austin)in the "Bordersnakes" (1996) novel. Milo (now wealthy)is still all-cattle-and-no-hat as he sorts out a Texas size imbroglio of murder, lust, greed and betrayal. "Final Country" is another Crumley treasure. You'll find there the lyrical quality to rival Chandler, the grit to rival Hammett, violence beyond Stark or Lansdale, and the unique Crumley philosophy of individualism and virtue. Crumley is one of the very few authors working in the P.I. genre who produces literary works with the quality of detail that will pleasure the reader not only on the first reading, but also on re-reading or even re-re-reading.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Believe it: The legend lives and he's on his game!, 5 Feb 2002
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Final Country (Hardcover)
Ask most of the young crime writers in America who they revere and the name Crumley will fall off almost every tongue. In a genre that rewards the fast and the dirty, where publishers throw money at sloppy writing and half-assed plotting, Crumley is a beacon of quality and thoughtfulness. The man cares about the language. What a radical notion for a writer of detective novels. In The Final Country, as in any of his books, you'll find sentences both sleek and rangy, but always beautiful, thought out, worked on. And those sentences come together to form a Voice as consistent and engrossing as any on the contemporary scene - inside or outside the genre. But wait, as the pitchmen say, there's more. You also get a plot as ingeniously assembled as Lamborghini Diablo. A red one. That runs on nitroglycerin. And this books moves as fast as the Diablo. But don't worry, Milo's got his arm around you the whole way, rapping up a coke-fueled storm that, should you listen, will give you a few gem about how an ethical man lives in a foul world. Listen: as long as James Crumley can draw breath and pick up a pen, TV just doesn't stand a chance.
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