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The Long Legged Fly and Moth
 
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The Long Legged Fly and Moth (Paperback)

by James Sallis (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 183 pages
  • Publisher: No Exit Press (25 May 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1901982416
  • ISBN-13: 978-1901982411
  • Product Dimensions: 19 x 13 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 606,248 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

A hard-boiled PI investigates missing persons cases in New Orleans's French Quater over a span of three decades in this uncoventional suspense novel. --"Publishers Weekly
Black detective Lew Griffin skips his father's final illness (New Orleans, 1964) when he's hired to find a missing person--well-known black leader Corene Davis. Successfully finding Davis, he repeats the trick three times--searching for runaway teenager Cordelia Crayson in 1970, his friend Jimmy Smith's kid sister Cherie in 1984, and finally his own long-unseen son David in 1990. The searches are understated, variously successful, and seasoned with increasingly elegiac glimpses of Lew's erratic home life (his unlikely romance with British nurse Vicky, his repeated return to his obliging friend LaVerne); and readers waiting for first-novelist Sallis (the story collection A Few Last Words, 1970) to drop the connections among them will wait in vain. But an unexpectedly poignant sketch of the detective emerges through the apparent holes in the plot. Not so much a detective story as a story about a detective, then- -but one that exploits the conventions of the genre with quietly distinctive power. Likely target audience: people who think James Lee Burke's moody Dave Robicheaux novels are overplotted. --"Kirkus Reviews


Synopsis

Set in the more sordid parts of New Orleans, Long Legged Fly and Moth feature a black private investigator who has a bad drink problem, a shady past and a present that continually tries to drag him down into the depths of hell.'

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A truly wonderful character is born, 18 Mar 2001
By A Customer
These are the first two titles featuring Lew Griffin, a black private eye/lecturer/writer in New Orleans.Full of atmosphere,the books put one in mind of James Lee Burke on one of his best days.Gritty and philosophical at the same time,the writing will keep you turning the pages in sheer pleasure.Particularly recommended to readers of Robicheaux,with whom Griffin shares many character traits.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Melancholy, 10 Jan 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: The Long-Legged Fly (Lew Griffin Mysteries) (Paperback)
This is the best of the Lew Griffin series despite its unexpected structure, namely four unrelated events spanning 26 years in the main character's life. It is the best because of the emotional response it achieves while depicting the life of a black man in New Orleans. The reader can not but help feel for the people portrayed, which enables some understanding for their predicaments, because eachis rendered with truth. The dialogue is also very good although the descriptions of the city and the region surrounding it are sketchy to say the least. A bonus is the absence of too many literary references that clutter the later works. Likewise the melancholy of the main character, Lew Griffin, is kept in check in this work - something James Sallis is unable or unwilling to do in subsequent books in the series.

Be prepared to sympathise with Lew Griffin and those he tries to help even if you are unable to empathise, which I suggest you will.

His books are not an emotionally easy read.

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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Well written, very interesting and beautiully characterised., 9 Nov 2001
Sallis seems to write almost without trying in "Long Legged Fly". Characters just pop up from Griffin's past, present and future. Of course, this would not work if it weren't for the fact that Sallis rounds each one beautifully, leaving you utterly familiar with them after only a few pages. The story skips along with several sub-plots, all emanating from previous events, and sending Griffin further into the dark rabbit-hole that is his own existence. Griffin himself (or the persona Sallis uses which adopts the name Lew Griffin) lives a double life- On the one hand he is as courageous as they come, able to scare witless several targets with the sight of his fist, yet on the other hand a total coward, backing away from the people he loves, yet pulling them into the horrific miasma of his career and fears. I give this novel four stars because, yes, Sallis scripted "Long Legged Fly" with everything a story needs. Well, almost everything. One overwhelming aspect of the book is the abundance of sheer coincedence. Lew Griffin seems to devote his time as a private detective searching for missing persons, and how many does he find? Some of Sallis' characters appear all to often and know far too much about how to contact people in order to help sucha detective! A thoroughly enjoyable, realsistic read- if somewhat harsh. After all, the truth hurts.
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