"[historian Kevin] Starr at least acknowledges You Play the Black’s unique merit, calling it 'the most sociologically explicit of the hardboiled California novels,' albeit with a 'crackpot utopian subplot.' Which sounds about right. The book does read like James Cain filtered through Thomas Pynchon" [Woody Haut, 'Snappy and Reckless: On Why Richard Hallas Deserves More Respect,' Los Angeles Review of Books,, July 29, 2011, http://lareviewofbooks.org/post/82085243... More...