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Fast Lane
When a young woman approaches Denver private eye Johnny Lane to find her birth parents, the last thing he expects is the path the case leads him down. FAST LANE is a harrowing novel where as the chasm between words and reality grow wider, past and present deeds unravel with deadly force.
195 pages, Hardcover
First published September 30, 2004
14 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
About the author
Dave Zeltserman
102 books172 followersAuthor of the crime noir novel SMALL CRIMES named by NPR as the best crime and mystery novel of 2008, and by the Washington Post as one of the best novels of 2008, and made into a major film (to be released in 2017) starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Molly Parker, Gary Cole, Robert Forster, and Jacki Weaver.
Shamus Award winner for JULIUS KATZ. Ellery Queen's Readers Choice Award winner for ARCHIE'S BEEN FRAMED and ARCHIE SOLVES THE CASE.
PARIAH named by the Washington Post as one of the best books of 2009. THE CARETAKER OF LORNE FIELD (2010) shortlisted by American Library Association for best horror novel of the year and named a horror gem by Library Journal. MONSTER selected by Booklist Magazine for their 2013 list of top 10 horror novels and WBUR for one of the best novels of the year.
OUTSOURCED (2011) and THE CARETAKER OF LORNE FIELD are also currently being developed for film.
Shamus Award winner for JULIUS KATZ. Ellery Queen's Readers Choice Award winner for ARCHIE'S BEEN FRAMED and ARCHIE SOLVES THE CASE.
PARIAH named by the Washington Post as one of the best books of 2009. THE CARETAKER OF LORNE FIELD (2010) shortlisted by American Library Association for best horror novel of the year and named a horror gem by Library Journal. MONSTER selected by Booklist Magazine for their 2013 list of top 10 horror novels and WBUR for one of the best novels of the year.
OUTSOURCED (2011) and THE CARETAKER OF LORNE FIELD are also currently being developed for film.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 21, 2012
This one surprised the hell out of me. At first, it seems to be a rather typical P.I. story, featuring a stalwart hero with an overdeveloped sense of justice a la Mike Hammer. But slowly, over the first half of the book, Zeltserman starts revealing ugly little bits of the "hero"'s psychosis... and by the time you're halfway through FAST LANE you begin to realize you're reading about a real messed-up bastard. As it all plays out toward the inevitable end and Johnny Lane's predicament gets worse and worse, you almost want to cover your eyes. This is pure psycho-noir here, expertly told, as if Jim Thompson or Charles Willeford had taken a stab at a Mike Shayne type novel. Beautiful and terrible.
July 26, 2015
Loved this book. As I was reading this I couldn't help thinking about Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me. Reading the blurb at the end Zeltsterman mentions that Thompson was a big influence. I actually enjoyed Fast Lane more than Killer. The way it started as a straight noir p.i. novel was fine, then it took a big steamy deuce on that plan and went the "in the mind of a psychopath" direction. Great book.
January 2, 2013
Dave Zeltserman morphs Sheriff Lou Ford into private investigator Johnny Lane with Lou's clichés replaced by Johnny's poppa's folksy aphorisms. The next time you feel like reading The Killer Inside Me, read this instead.
December 28, 2018
Couldn't get past 1/3 of the book. Found the main character unlikeable and worse, uninteresting.
June 30, 2017
Fast Lane by Dave Zeltserman is a re-imagining of Jim Thompson’s Lou Ford in the person of Denver’s Johnny Lane, both a private eye and a famed news columnist. It is also a wild psychotic tour-de-force. Told from the point of view of a psychotic egomaniacal private eye, it is a step-by-step descent into trouble, murder, and madness.
14 used & new from $13.82
The tale does start a little slowly and, at the beginning of the book, it appears as if it is just another in a long line of private eye novels involving runaways, peep shows, and bars. But, as the story unravels, it becomes clear that this isn’t really a murder mystery, but something far different. Lane beats up clients, blackmails client’s spouses, beds every woman in sight, although claiming that they are essentially stalking him because he is so irresistible, flees the country, sets up imposters to lie to clients, and has a past involving another identity and a trail of bodies and mayhem and deceit.
In the end, this is a true noir tale with a descent of the lead character into desperation, destruction, and despair. It could have been one of the classic pulp novels that Black Lizard reprinted in the 80’s.
14 used & new from $13.82
The tale does start a little slowly and, at the beginning of the book, it appears as if it is just another in a long line of private eye novels involving runaways, peep shows, and bars. But, as the story unravels, it becomes clear that this isn’t really a murder mystery, but something far different. Lane beats up clients, blackmails client’s spouses, beds every woman in sight, although claiming that they are essentially stalking him because he is so irresistible, flees the country, sets up imposters to lie to clients, and has a past involving another identity and a trail of bodies and mayhem and deceit.
In the end, this is a true noir tale with a descent of the lead character into desperation, destruction, and despair. It could have been one of the classic pulp novels that Black Lizard reprinted in the 80’s.
October 6, 2011
I thought this book was fantastic...it was one of those "high-octane" novels that even though it's short it is very concise and the character, even though he's a morally broken person, is someone you can understand the motivation behind what he does (even though you don't agree with them). Great read, and Dave is a great guy! Very Mickey Spillaine :)
February 24, 2013
This is a very dark novel. It is also compelling, suspenseful, unusual, and fascinating. It's not for the faint of heart, but for those who are fascinated by twisted characters and want to know how their minds work, even a bit about how they got that way, this book works really well. Zeltserman is an excellent writer who keeps the plot moving at a dizzying pace.
February 23, 2014
Oh my! Adoptee Noir is one of my favorite noir subgenres. Fast Lane is more than I expected. Sam Spade meets Chinatown. I'm not sure if James Ellroy would even go there. I don't want to give away anything, but I'll give a warning to Colorado adoptees: Don't ever hire Johnny Lane to do your adoption search!
March 8, 2014
Love this book.
I was really into the main character and I thought all the twists turns were exciting. I plan to read this book again soon.
I was really into the main character and I thought all the twists turns were exciting. I plan to read this book again soon.
February 18, 2015
Dopo tre volumi di circa 800 pagine a testa di media, ho pensato di potermi concedere una lettura velocissima, un noir un po’ sopra le righe e che si prometteva piuttosto sorprendente e imprevedibile, scovato chissà come (curiosando nel catalogo di Meridiano Zero?).
Johnny Lane è un famoso investigatore privato di Denver, tiene anche una seguitissima rubrica su un giornale locale in cui narra i suoi casi più interessanti. L’ambiente in cui è costretto a sguazzare e i figuri che deve frequentare sono quanto di più sordido ci possa essere, perciò, quando la dolce e candida ragazza di nome Mary Williams lo assume per aiutarla a ritrovare i suoi genitori biologici, per lui è come una boccata d’aria fresca. E Johnny arriva alla soluzione del mistero piuttosto in fretta, se non che finisce per scoperchiare qualcosa che forse sarebbe dovuto rimanere sepolto, qualcosa che coinvolge direttamente anche il suo traumatico passato, e che forse preferisce che Mary non scopra mai: perciò architetta un piano per far sì che rimanga all’oscuro, mentre progressivamente lo stress, i ricordi rimossi, la tensione cominciano a fare gravi danni nel suo equilibrio emotivo.
Romanzo abbastanza strano che sembra procedere a strappi e a salti, senza grande coinvolgimento emotivo né da parte dell’autore né del lettore, con una serie di episodi apparentemente scollegati e con una voce narrante sostanzialmente inaffidabile: non si riesce a “entrarci”, mi sono sentita abbastanza tirata per i capelli durante tutta la lettura. Nel finale c’è una manciata di colpi di scena che, però, non invogliano più di tanto ad appassionarsi alle sorti dei personaggi in scena. Le frasi che seguono sono nascoste: da NON leggere se vi interessa il libro. Va beh. Libro forse fin troppo veloce e dimenticabile. Forse non ero ancora pronta ad uscire dalla fase “Trilogia di Haiti” e a farmi piacere qualcos’altro.
2,5/5
http://moloch981.wordpress.com/2012/0...
Johnny Lane è un famoso investigatore privato di Denver, tiene anche una seguitissima rubrica su un giornale locale in cui narra i suoi casi più interessanti. L’ambiente in cui è costretto a sguazzare e i figuri che deve frequentare sono quanto di più sordido ci possa essere, perciò, quando la dolce e candida ragazza di nome Mary Williams lo assume per aiutarla a ritrovare i suoi genitori biologici, per lui è come una boccata d’aria fresca. E Johnny arriva alla soluzione del mistero piuttosto in fretta, se non che finisce per scoperchiare qualcosa che forse sarebbe dovuto rimanere sepolto, qualcosa che coinvolge direttamente anche il suo traumatico passato, e che forse preferisce che Mary non scopra mai: perciò architetta un piano per far sì che rimanga all’oscuro, mentre progressivamente lo stress, i ricordi rimossi, la tensione cominciano a fare gravi danni nel suo equilibrio emotivo.
Romanzo abbastanza strano che sembra procedere a strappi e a salti, senza grande coinvolgimento emotivo né da parte dell’autore né del lettore, con una serie di episodi apparentemente scollegati e con una voce narrante sostanzialmente inaffidabile: non si riesce a “entrarci”, mi sono sentita abbastanza tirata per i capelli durante tutta la lettura. Nel finale c’è una manciata di colpi di scena che, però, non invogliano più di tanto ad appassionarsi alle sorti dei personaggi in scena. Le frasi che seguono sono nascoste: da NON leggere se vi interessa il libro. Va beh. Libro forse fin troppo veloce e dimenticabile. Forse non ero ancora pronta ad uscire dalla fase “Trilogia di Haiti” e a farmi piacere qualcos’altro.
2,5/5
http://moloch981.wordpress.com/2012/0...
September 3, 2007
FAST LANE (Private Invest-Denver-Cont) – G
Zeltserman, Dave – Standalone
Pointblank, 2004 – Hardcover
Private Investigator Johnny Lane has become famous in Denver due to his monthly columns talking about his cases. Unfortunately, he also happens to be a psychopath. When a young woman asks for his help finding her birth parents, with whom it turns out Johnny was involved, things get ugly very quickly.
*** This is a book for those who truly love noir; and I mean those fans of Jim Thompson and Quentin Tarantino. Although I don't number among those ranks, I could appreciate the quality of the writing and certainly found myself caught up in the story. However, personally, I was grateful the book was only 195 pages long. But if you are a Thompson / Tarantino fan, this book is probably for you.
Zeltserman, Dave – Standalone
Pointblank, 2004 – Hardcover
Private Investigator Johnny Lane has become famous in Denver due to his monthly columns talking about his cases. Unfortunately, he also happens to be a psychopath. When a young woman asks for his help finding her birth parents, with whom it turns out Johnny was involved, things get ugly very quickly.
*** This is a book for those who truly love noir; and I mean those fans of Jim Thompson and Quentin Tarantino. Although I don't number among those ranks, I could appreciate the quality of the writing and certainly found myself caught up in the story. However, personally, I was grateful the book was only 195 pages long. But if you are a Thompson / Tarantino fan, this book is probably for you.
September 12, 2011
This is an interesting one for me to review as I am a big Zeltserman fan and enjoy how he typically tweaks the usual genre fare. I have to say I love his premise in showing how the genre staple white knight errant could quite easily go off the rails and morph into a terrifying socio-pshycopath.
Turns out reading that book with that character as the protagonist isn't so much fun. The writing and plotting here are fine, though the author has pared it down and improved in subsequent books and I enjoyed how he slowly let the mask of humanity slip as the book went on, but man, in the second half it's tough to keep reading without any redeeming quality, sympathy or relief coming from the main POV.
Turns out reading that book with that character as the protagonist isn't so much fun. The writing and plotting here are fine, though the author has pared it down and improved in subsequent books and I enjoyed how he slowly let the mask of humanity slip as the book went on, but man, in the second half it's tough to keep reading without any redeeming quality, sympathy or relief coming from the main POV.
September 11, 2013
This is a hard one for me to evaluate. I liked the beginning. When you find out more about the main character Johnny Lane and what kind of person he was it bummed me out a little at first. I don't know if it was the way it was revealed (multiple versions of a story told by the main character) that I wasn't liking or just the overall shift in the character. As the story went on I got past that and enjoyed the story overall.
I think if i could give a half star I would have rated it 3.5.
I think if i could give a half star I would have rated it 3.5.
July 18, 2009
Started out thinking Johnny Lane was an A-ok Denver PI and - before I knew it - I was sucked into a Jim Thompson nightmare....and I mean that in a good way! :o)
August 29, 2016
Hated the book and the main character. Had to quite reading it and that is unusual for me. Doubt if I read an
Read
May 9, 2012Hard to find a more despicable protagonist
August 7, 2012
Fantastic. One hell of a ride...
April 16, 2017
Buon noir.Però, a me lettore, il tipo di escamotage utilizzato per creare il colpo di scena( ho letto altri romanzi che lo utilizzano) lascia sempre amaro in bocca.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews