The Second Murderer by Denise Mina

I had another birthday this month (66 in case you were wondering - finally got my bus pass!) and this fine book arrived in the post. I thanked several members of the family for it before I identified my brother as the sender, but he hadn't immediately sprung to mind as he's not generally known for reading anything that was written after the Edwardian era. When I spoke to him on the phone he said he had been to lunch with the author, and after investigating her work, decided this book sounded fun and would make a great birthday gift. Now, his idea of fun might possibly include The Canterbury Tales so one has to take his use of the f word with caution, but in this instance we were on the same page and it was fun.

Set in Los Angeles between the wars, the story follows a private detective, Philip Marlowe, at the point he is called in to find a wealthy heiress who has gone missing right after her engagement party. Marlowe doesn't normally do business with such wealthy people, and doesn't want to take the job, but the heiress Chrissie has a four year old son by her late husband, and that suddenly makes the case more interesting. Why would she walk out and leave her boy behind?

The book captures the mood of the time and Marlowe is a hard drinking man with friends in low places. The writing is stylised, and that can be risky for an author as it's difficult to maintain, but Denise Mina kept it running smoothly all the way through with just the right amount of humour to keep the bar high. I particularly enjoyed the exchange between Marlowe and a nightclub gatekeeper called Sheil who is keen to keep him out of her bar which is intended for women and their girlfriends. Marlowe tells her they have a mutual friend in Jimmy the One and hopes that will be enough to change her mind.

'A straight friend of Jimmy the One, man, I never thought to see it. Surely this is an auger of the Second Coming of the Sweet Lord. Say, that's a mighty fine suit. Finer than a frog's hair split three ways. Where's that from now? I'm fixin' to get me one.'
'Sheil, if you can live with a six inch turn-up on the leg, you can have this suit. I'm sick of talking about it.'

'Ain't that neighbourly!' She rubbed the fabric on my sleeve. It's sexier than socks on a rooster.'

So you see. Fun. There's also a good plot line with plenty of well drawn characters and background scenery soo it doesn't end up being style over substance. I hadn't heard of Denise Mina before I read this book but I would be happy to read another from her list.

Comments

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