My Review* of Joe Ide's "The Goodbye Coast: A Phillip Marlowe Novel"

 

LA Noir

 

Joe Ide has resurrected Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe investigating the seedy underbelly of today’s Los Angeles. He is acute in noting how the residents of Malibu obstruct the required coastal access lanes and the fact that the USC campus has failed to uplift its adjacent neighborhood. Although not mentioned Ide’s Marlowe is likely an African American with his detective father living in South Central Los Angeles.

 

His main case involves the fading movie star Kendra James who seeks his help in finding her wayward teenaged daughter who has fled after her father is murdered. The daughter accuses Kendra and her paramour of the murder. His other case involves Ren Stewart who is seeking to recover her daughter who was kidnapped by her estranged husband now living in LA.

 

Along the way we meet more than a few sociopaths, an Armenian gang and Russian mobsters who laundering their ill-gotten gains through Kendra’s husband’s production company. The writing is fast paced as the very well-dressed Marlowe cruises in his Mustang on the freeways and side streets of LA. Ide has written a true LA noir mystery.

*- Amazon had some technical issues in posting this review.

Amazon fixed its glitch the URL is here: LA Noir (amazon.com)

My Amazon Review of Taylor Jenkins Reid's: "Malibu Rising: A Novel"

 

Malibu Soap in the Surf

 

Taylor Jenkins Reid tells the story of the trials, travails, and successes of the Riva family in Malibu. The book revolves around a 1983 end of summer party at their Malibu home where Hollywood and the surfer contingent engages in debauchery along with lots of family drama. We learn of the Riva family through flashbacks going back to the 1950’s. And we know from the introduction that it will end with a fire. This is not a serious novel; it is a light summer beach read.

 

There are strong, yet flawed women; all of them drop dead good looking. The men are serial philanderers, especially Mick Riva, a super star ballad singer. Riva succeeds in messing up his family on many levels and his four kids and wife suffer for it. His eldest daughter Nina holds the family and the story together. She exhibits great strength, and her body enables her to become a pin-up surfer girl that rescues her from her family’s restaurant. She too follows in her mother’s footsteps by marrying a philandering tennis star. In the end she rises above the family drama and finds herself. As I said at the outset it is a beach read.

For the full Amazon URL see: Malibu Soap in the Surf (amazon.com)