Little Elvises

Junior Bender #2

by Timothy Hallinan

JUNIOR BENDER UNTANGLES ONE OF THE WEIRDEST MYSTERIES IN TINSELTOWN
 
LA burglar Junior Bender has (unfortunately) developed a reputation as a competent private investigator for crooks. The unfortunate part about this is that regardless of whether he solves the crime or not, someone dangerous is going to be unhappy with him, either his suspect or his employer.
 
Now Junior is being bullied into proving aging music industry mogul Vinnie DiGaudio is innocent of the murder of a nasty tabloid journalist he'd threatened to kill a couple times. It doesn’t help that the dead journalist’s widow is one pretty lady, and she’s trying to get Junior to mix pleasure with business. Just as the investigation is spiraling out of control, Junior's hard-drinking landlady begs him to solve the disappearance of her daughter, who got involved with a very questionable character. And, worst news of all, both Junior's ex-wife and his thirteen-year-old daughter, Rina, seem to have new boyfriends. What a mess.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Humor, Crime, Audiobook, Mystery Thriller, Noir

353 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 29, 2013

About the author

I'm a thriller and mystery novelist with 22 published books in three series, all with major imprints. I divides my time between Los Angeles and Southeast Asia, primarily Thailand, where I've lived off and on for more than twenty years. As of now, My primary home is in Santa Monica, California.

I currently write two series, The Poke Rafferty Bangkok Thrillers, most recently FOOLS' RIVER, and the Junior Bender Mysteries, set in Los Angeles, Coming up this November is NIGHTTOWN. The main character of those books is a burglar who works as a private eye for crooks.

The first series I ever wrote featured an overeducated private eye named Simeon Grist. in 2017 I wrote PULPED, the first book in the series to be self-published, which was actually a lot of fun. I might do more of it.

I've been nominated for the Edgar, the Macavity, the Shamus, and the Left, and won the Lefty in 2015 (?) for the Junior Bender book HERBIE'S GAME. My work has frequently been included in Best Books of the Year roundups by major publications.

Reviews

[Michael Sherer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elvis may have left the building, but Timothy Hallinan is still very much in residence with LITTLE ELVISES, the second in his new Junior Bender series. Unlike the four-chord, imitative 60s rock and roll he writes about in this outing, Hallinan is a virtuoso who plays with words the way the real Elvis played with his audiences.

With a hip swivel here, a nostril-flaring sneer there, Hallinan takes us through the seamy underbelly of a little corner of the music business—the “little Elvises” that initially followed in the wake of The King, churning out songs and performing in front of squealing throngs of teenage girls. In many, if not most, cases, these flash-in-the-pan musical Lotharios were managed and produced by the unscrupulous. And in some instances, as is the case here, the unscrupulous had connections to the mob.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Junior has to clear one of these types of murder. And, for something to do in his spare time, he also looks into the disappearance of the motel owner’s daughter where he’s staying. Junior’s a crook with a heart not quite of gold—perhaps slightly tarnished brass—but a pragmatic one, and he exercises the type of care evident in a professional who takes pride in his work.

And work it is, as Junior spends most of his time sleuthing as opposed to stealing or burgling, and like a good P.I. employs stringers who help with the grunt work and pays them with stolen money. It’s fascinating to watch all of these “self-employed” characters on the wrong side of the law work harder than most Joe Six-Packs and take greater pride in what they do.

Hallinan keeps both stories on track and clipping along, and at the same time does a terrific job of elaborating on Junior’s personal life, some of which we learned about in CRASHED. Of particular note is the way in which Hallinan handles Junior’s relationship with his teenage daughter Rina. Brighter and perhaps more articulate than most teens in real life, Rina rang emotionally true for me as a parent of two daughters (and, full disclosure, two older sons).

Hallinan also gives Junior a little more insight into his own motivation for living the life he does. The conclusions Junior comes to are good news for readers, as they promise many more adventures to come, and the potential for rich conflict in Junior’s personal life as he establishes a life after divorce and an ongoing relationship with Rina.

This is a terrific series entry, with a thrilling dual-plotline rife with nasty characters and danger along the way, and rich with details both pertinent to the story and character development that will keep readers coming back for more.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little Elvises has one of those very cool storylines where the past returns to bite people in the butt in the present. Like its predecessor, it's very funny, peopled with a lot of odd duck characters and really hits the nail on the head with the Los Angeles feel it conveys. Also as in the previous book, Junior is once again being blackmailed into something he doesn't particularly want to do.

A Detective DiGaudio tells him that the cops can make him for a crime that could put him away for twenty years even though he and Junior both know he didn't do it. Even though he has an alibi, the people he was with at the time of the crime have been imitated by the cops so he can't hope for any help in that arena. As it turns out, diGaudio's uncle Vinnie, who lives with an ex WWF wrestler named Hilda the Queen of the Gestapo and now goes by Popsie, is on the edge of being arrested for the murder of Derek Bigelow, who writes for the tabloids. He's the main suspect because people have heard him say he was planning on offing the guy, but someone beat him to it. The detective wants Junior to get his uncle's name cleared ... or Junior goes down.

Vinnie has a long history with the music industry and in the 1950s and 1960s, he promoted "Little Elvises," who were all the rage on an American Bandstand-type program -- there for their handsome looks rather for any musical talent. They filled a vacuum between the "raw" -- Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, for example, and the Pat Boone types. These "handsome Italian kids with tight pants and big hair," as his daughter told him in a report she did for school were "churned up to the surface in the wake of Elvis Presley" in Philadelphia, and also according to Rina, the "most pathetic" of the little Elvises was named Giorgio, and one of the better ones, Bobby Angel, just disappeared one day. Having no choice, Junior has to take this seriously, but it isn't long until Junior realizes that someone's after him -- after his first visit to Uncle Vinnie, someone's already shooting at him. Hiding out at the North Pole Motel in the Blitzen room, he enlists the help of Louie the Lost, his friend who gained his name when as a getaway driver he got lost in a Compton neighborhood with a trunk full of diamonds. With the help of his daughter Rina, Junior blazes his way through a very strange case; however, he's actually in for more than he bargained for when Bigelow's widow cozies up to him and when Marge, the North Pole's owner, asks him to find her missing daughter.

You just have to appreciate Timothy Hallinan's whacked imagination in these books. Once again, he's done an excellent job in evoking LA's craziness and its overall atmosphere, which really is like nowhere else if you really get to know it. Junior's character has definitely become a bit more complex since Crashed, especially in his interactions with his daughter and his ambivalence about his ex-wife, especially now that she seems to have a new boyfriend. Like the other book, his interactions with the other characters are often hysterical, but in this slice of the world Hallinan has created, make perfect sense. And what characters they are -- crazy as loons some of them. The author notes that he wanted to "play with the idea with the idea of media imitation" here, but there's also a theme that carries over from Crashed -- namely, the idea that fame can destroy someone who's not prepared for it.

Once again, I'm floored by how good this book is -- while it may seem a bit complicated at first, as the few initial "aha" moments are reached, things begin to fall into place easily. I also thought the scene leading up to the ending was poignant, in its own way, making this book, like its predecessor, a very human story underneath all of the fun. Definitely recommended.

[Hallie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Junior Bender, the crusty, loveable hero of Timothy Hallinan's "Little Elvises," is a career burglar who does "detective stuff" for criminals. But this time his client is a cop, and Junior's reward will be avoiding a jail sentence for a heist he didn't commit. His assignment is to keep the cop's uncle, an aging music industry mogul who promoted a string of '60s pop stars known as the "Little Elvises," from going down for a murder he didn't commit. To clear the uncle, Junior has to figure out who killed a tabloid journalist whose body was dumped, tellingly perhaps, on the Hollywood sidewalk star emblazoned with the name of one of the Little Elvises, one who was killed in a fire.

Meanwhile, Junior proves a mensch. He's got an ex-wife he still regrets losing, a spunky computer-whiz daughter he adores, and a girlfriend who finds him irresistible. He's got a soft spot for elderly Marge who runs Marge 'n Ed's North Pole, a seedy Christmas-themed motel in North Hollywood where he's staying, and she talks him into finding her daughter who's disappeared with a creep.

There's a lot going on in this book with a teddy bear of a main character and laugh-out-loud dialogue -- though I couldn't help noticing, even the dumbest characters seem to crack awfully wise, and some villains feel as if they've been hauled out of the Marvel Comics crypt.

"You want to be funny," says one of Junior's sidekicks, "hire a writer." For that, Hallinan's your man.

(Review originally published in The Boston Globe)

[Aristotle · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're caught in a trap
I can't walk out
Because I love you too much, baby
Why can't you see
What you're doing to me
When you don't believe a word I say?
We can't go on together
With suspicious minds.

You should hear me crooning at a karaoke bar

This was fun and that's what books like this should be. The plot was a bit of a stretch, the characters were cartoonish and the snarky dialogue became tiring. I look forward to book 3

[Lance Charnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fictional burglars who end up starring in their own novels have to be multi-talented. The ones whose stories I've read generally have to be detectives, guidance counselors, therapists, AA buddies, and diplomats. In fact, they rarely have time to ply their primary trade when they're driving a story; The Hot Rock notwithstanding, publishers seem to think that readers won't put up with a plot that consists entirely of the lead character stealing things all the time.

So it goes in Little Elvises, Junior Bender's second outing in the series named for him. Junior's a burglar in Los Angeles, at least when he's not onstage. This time around, a crooked cop coerces him into trying to clear the cop's uncle of murdering a low-rent tabloid freelancer who left behind a long line of people who might want to delete him permanently. At the same time, the manager of the cheap motel Junior lives in (he moves from motel to motel to make himself hard to find, though everyone manages to find him anyway) wants Junior to track down her missing daughter, who may be consorting with a psychopath.

Junior's good at what he does -- both burgling and detecting -- knows the ecosystem in which he lives, and is generally far more competent at life and work than, say, your typical Scandinoir protagonist. He's quick with a bon mot, describes people and places in a clear if sometimes offbeat way, and doesn't ruminate at unseemly length. In this episode, we see more of his ex-wife and teen daughter than we did before, in ways that add to the plot rather than distracting from it. You won't mind following him around -- at least you'd best not, because he's telling the story and he's on every page.

The various plotlines develop organically and follow their own internal logic. Junior has to apply actual brainpower (his own or other people's) rather than magic or coincidence to sort them out, a bonus.

The members of Junior's repertory company continue their Runyonesque personas from the first book without much noticeable development. The new supporting characters fall into varying types, some more successfully than others. The crooked cop comes off like a refugee from a 1970s Serpico knockoff, while the dead writer's inexplicably hot widow is mostly a collection of quirk. On the other hand, an old-school political/criminal fixer is suitably menacing without becoming a supervillain. All of them are wiseacres to one extent or another, which leads to some funny lines at the expense of tonal consistency or real-world grounding; you'll have to decide if this is a feature or a bug. This is what happened to the fifth star in case you're keeping track.

Little Elvises is a comedy of criminal manners wrapped in the skin of a dark-side detective story. If you're looking for wry rather than wacky or grit rather than lip gloss, this may be the ticket for you. Don't take any of it too seriously -- the characters don't -- and you may have some quick, kicky fun.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story and these characters -- five stars. It's so rare to find a character like Junior who is funny and dangerous at the same time. I've read a lot of mysteries and it's lovely to find. a well-adjusted, intelligent person with a sense of humor. I read several Bernie Rhodenbarr books and they were fun (but kind of dated). I was reluctant to take up with another burglar, but Junior Bender is light years more plausible somehow. Funny and exciting.

[Emmalynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do I did like this book a little better than the first. The “monster” accent narration is still annoying but I’m getting used to it. Junior is still witty and facing having a teenage daughter with a boyfriend ( gasp) and not just a boyfriend but one of another race, something he admits that as open minded as he “thought he was” he had to take a minute to digest.

The murder mysteries (yes two of them) were pretty good and the book moved along at a fast pace.

Overall a better follow up to Crashed

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first Junior Bender book I’ve read. There’s a very different vibe than the Bangkok series. Little Elvises was slapstick - very entertainingly so.

[Sx3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read any of Timothy Hallinan's Junior Bender mysteries. Little Elvises was my first and I had a very push-pull moody reading experience with it.

I couldn't make up my mind if I liked it or disliked it while I was reading it.

Bender is an LA burglar. A good one. Never been caught, charged, nothing. He's 37, divorced, still might love his ex-wife who has new boyfriend, has a genius 13 year old daughter named Rina who may have a boyfriend too.

In order to keep his record clean, a police detective named Paulie DiGaudio wants Bender to help keep his uncle Vinnie from being tied to a murder of a sleazy coke addicted British tabloid writer.

Problem is: Vinnie may have done it. Brit tab writer Bigelow was found on the Hollywood star of one of Vinnie's most famous Little Elvises (pretty boys who could only marginally sing but looked a bit like Elvis back when Elvis was serving for the US Army). Giorgio was a Lucky Star. Incredibly beautiful. Terrible singer. Not much of an actor either. Apparently he meets an untimely death after walking off the set of his fourth movie and he gets a star on the Walk of Fame.

Anyway, Bender figures this may not be so bad. Find an alibi and old uncle Vinnie is in the clear. But of course, at 343 pages, it isn't going to be so easy.

Of course.

There's also a substory of Bender's new landlady Marge's daughter who may have run off with a serial killer.

I'm still not sure if the Doris story was really needed but I really liked Marge so I'm not going to quibble too much over it.

There was a lot I liked about the book. The mystery itself was pretty darn good. It kept me guessing throughout. Who the fck is Giorgio? What is Vinnie's problem? Who is Nessie? Is Popsie really a former female wrestler?

But there were so many distractions too. The dialogue is so hyper stylized and over padded. It was like, "Get to the point already!" And there was too much description at times. And then there was the Widow Bigelow who was the worst kind of character: useless, unneeded, the 1/2 inch of icing that everyone skims off the cake at the company party because it is just too much.

That's Ronnie Bigelow. Unneeded icing.

I'd have traded her in for more Marge.

Book is at its best when Bender is with Louie as he and Louie have some great back and forths that move the story forward. Best scene is with Dressler though. Seriously good stuff in that scene. I liked Rina but she was a bit too precocious at times but I'd take her over Ronnie any time.

Overall, I guess I can say I liked it. But I probably won't be reading another Bender mystery. Not unless it is 100 pages less than this one because this one was 100 pages too much.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

One picks up a book by Tim Hallinan to have fun. There’s a little murder, sure…sometimes a lot of murder…but it’s usually the bad guys that “get it” and we rest easy, knowing there is someone out there who’d rob us blind if he could, but who won’t take more than we can afford to lose.

Hallinan’s creation, Junior Bender, is the kind of guy you might ask back to your house for a party, after he’d robbed it, just to ask how he did it. He’s that amusing.

The Junior Bender series of books is based in Los Angeles and captures the vibration of southern California precisely. If you’ve ever found yourself missing the place, you might want to pick up one of Hallinan’s books for a cure. Hallinan lasers in on defining characteristics, and picks up those things we thought we’d fixed with botox, or managed to hide with designer advice. He is brilliant at describing environments, in this case an old art deco apartment building with a view of the city purchased by crooked Koreans. Crumbling and unkempt on the outside, it is gloriously restored on the inside, with secret escapes and hidden garages, just perfect for hiding ill-gotten gains or for a man on the run.

Junior has a code of ethics that is not taught in any religion, but like many southern Californians, is just something he created out of whole cloth and “evolved” into. But we like this code, just as we like him. He is a thief, yes, but his heart is in the right place. Everyone wants his help at some time or another, even the cops, and if they don’t, well, mostly they want to lock him up or kill him. Which keeps Junior on his toes.

Junior has a family, and in this episode, his thirteen-year-old daughter, Rina, shows she is growing up into someone he can admire. Do I need to say she has computer skills that put her father to shame? And while she is not old enough to have a boyfriend, she has a friend that is a boy who is as special and interesting as everyone else in the family. We yearn to see more of him, and watch him grow.

Hallinan writes crime novels that defy the type. One can imagine finding a sprung-binding massmarket paperback of his with its delicious, distinctive single-color cover and woodcut silhouettes and opening to the first page…only hours later surfacing to reflect that one had found gold.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are four of these Junior Benders, and as usual I started in the middle because someone gave the book to me.

The story is insane, the characters memorable (and insane), and the dialogue and narration is absolutely first-rate. Hallinan is the king of "Snappy Things I Wish I'd Thought Of."

Sometimes it seems everybody in the book studied at the same Snark Seminar, however. And the second strand of the plot is tied up in what seems to me a rather cursory manner.

But these are quibbles. I laughed out loud a dozen times, and even subjected others to the hideous experience of me reading aloud.

If you like Westlake or Hiassen or comic capers in general then snap up this and the other three as well.

[Kaycee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I listened to the first 2 of 9 parts and just wasn't involved or interested. Perhaps it is the hangover from the last book I listened to or my overall mood but I just didn't want to continue.

[MT · Rating 4 out of 5]

great plots, characters and writing!!

[Lee Thames · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just completed the 4th book in the 8 book series. The first book published in 2012 and the 8th book published this month, June 2022.

Fun murder/mysteries with an eclectic cast of characters whom Mr. Hallinan is not afraid to bump off (usually in a very violent manner). And just after you get to know them. Mr. Hallinan claims too many voices in his head. I like that excuse.

The over-arching theme is Junior's struggle with being a 'good' person. Within his own ethical structure and how Junior's ethical structure changes through these stories.

[Carolien · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot focuses on an interesting sub culture that existed in the post-Elvis days where music promoters focused on churning copies through the American music scene. Junior Bender remains one of my favourite characters as burglar extraordinaire with education and family issues. I enjoy the pace and humour of this series and highly recommend it for fans of Robert B. Parker or Robert Crais.

[Maddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Junior Bender, Burglar
SETTING: California
SERIES: #2 of 3
RATING: 4.5

Junior Bender is a professional burglar who has at times acted as a private investigator for some of his friends on the wrong side of the law. Unfortunately, Detective DiGaudio is using this information against him. In exchange for not being accused of a robbery he did not commit, Junior must prove that the cop’s uncle, Vincent Di Gaudio, did not murder a slimy tabloid journalist named Derek Bigelow. Back in the 1960s, Vinnie was the manager for a series of young pop stars known as “Little Elvises”. Each of the boys would be in the limelight for a short while and then replaced when their popularity waned.

Things quickly get complicated. While he is investigating the murder, he meets the writer’s wife and finds himself falling for her. He knows that this is probably not a good idea, since it doesn’t appear that she is not somehow involved in what happened to her husband. At the same time, his landlady’s daughter goes missing and he feels compelled to try to find her. And then there’s the drama on the home front—his ex-wife has a live-in boyfriend and his 13-year-old daughter, Rina, is trying to figure out which parent she will choose to live with in the future.

Rina proves to be invaluable in working on Vinnie’s case. She has deep background knowledge of the music industry and aids Junior in understanding the Little Elvises situation. There are a few of the Elvises who stood out, some for their talent and some for other reasons. “Giorgio” falls into the latter category; he is completely beautiful but doesn’t have an ounce of talent. Eventually, he becomes a movie star; later, he completely disappears from the life and is presumed dead.

In addition to a nicely complex plot, Hallinan has peopled LITTLE ELVISES with a wide variety of unforgettable characters. He has an uncanny knack for inserting humorous observations into a narrative that is by turns amusing or suspenseful without ever going over the top. I did wish that Junior would balance his private investigation duties with his trademark robberies—those are always very entertaining. But that’s a minor issue in a series where the lead character has so much heart, despite his career choices.

[Spuddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to preface this by saying that over the past few months I have found myself "going off" mysteries. Even several previously favored series and authors have been causing me to either gnash my teeth in frustration or yawn with boredom. I keep finding hideous typos and proofreading errors and wrong forms of words being used (peace/piece, taut/taught, do/due, etc.) which annoys me enough to pull me out of the story. I'm just finding little care or attention to detail in many series books these days...and I'm sick of it! There are so many books that seem to be written by automatons, formulaic rehashings of previous books and so on.

I never have to worry about these problems with Tim Hallinan. Why? Because this guy can write! He's not only got a good story to tell, he knows how to tell it. The way he strings words together, the phraseology , the characterizations...just the whole package, really...make his books a delight to read. The passion he has for his characters and their stories shine through very obviously. I find myself often grabbing my book journal, in which I jot quotations from books I'm reading, when I'm reading a Hallinan. He has a way with words, so he does.

In this second installment in the Junior Bender series, we find Junior--a burglar--roped into assisting an aging mobster beat a murder rap. I thought I wasn't going to like him much when I started the first book but I'm now firmly in Junior's corner and cringe with all the troubles that befall him as the story unfolds. I did figure out part of the mystery, but there are always a few surprises in store. All I can say is, read the book...but if you haven't yet read the first in the series, start there. You won't be sorry!

[Philipc · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second in the Junior Bender series (the first is Crashed) has Junior up to his neck in other people's plots from the first page. A cop has Junior in a room; the cop tells Junior that he, the cop, has two problems, and Junior can help with one of them, whichever he chooses. If he likes, he can help the cop's uncle out of a spot of bother; if he doesn't like, he can take the rap for a recent burglary during which a judge's wife was pistol-whipped. Yes, says the cop, we know you didn't actually do it, but we won't let that stand in our way.

Junior opts to help the cop's uncle. Uncle's problem is that he looks like the perfect candidate for helping the cops with yet another recent crime, a murder to be exact, in which a slimy Limey played a key role (he was the corpse). Uncle has an waterproof alibi, but refuses to use it. In fact he's not even very cooperative. Why not?

Get in the car, Junior, get in the goddam car and drive. (This is LA - Junior spends more time in that car than he does in bed).

Meanwhile, in a parallel plot, Junior's landlady at the North Pole (it's a themed motel, as seedy as the dead Brit) has another problem: her daughter is missing. Daughter's married a sociopath, a man who's no danger to other men but very probably responsible for the disappearance of several women in the LA area.

Meanwhile meanwhile (the English language surely needs a word for the attempt to tell a three-strand plot), Junior has a daughter/ex/girlfriend problem, involving ... oh hell, just read the goddam book!

(P.s.: No dogs come to any harm in the course of this book)

[Gloria Feit · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pattern seems to be developing n the Junior Bender series. In the debut novel, “Crashed,” Junior, a professional burglar, was blackmailed, indirectly, by Trey Annunziato, the female head of a crime family, to steal a Klee. In this, the second book in the series, he is blackmailed by a detective to try to protect his uncle, Vincent Di Gaudio, from a murder rap. I guess we’ll have to wait for the third installment, expected in June, “The Fame Thief,” to find out whether the trend continues.

Be that as it may be, there are two stories in the present novel. First is the murder of a gossip reporter, for which a prime suspect is Vincent DiGaudio, known for finding and promoting various boys known as the “Little Elvises” during the 1950’s. Then the owner of the motel in which Junior is living asks him to find her daughter, from whom she has not heard for some time. Apparently she was living with a man suspected of murdering several women. Just to add an additional touch of complexity and humor to the novel, Junior becomes involved with the journalist’s widow, while his ex-wife and 13-year-old daughter each have new boyfriends, complicating his life further.

A hallmark of a Timothy Hallinan mystery novel are unusual situations and characterizations, and a whole lot of humor. “Little Elvises” is no exception. Junior continues to evolve in this book, and we find him becoming softer and more human, despite the bizarre confrontations he gets into. It’s a worthy follow-up, and we look forward to the next chapter in his life.

Recommended.

[Susan (aka Just My Op) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The good guy in this story is a bad guy, a burglar who has to solve one crime so a cop doesn't frame him for another crime. But this bad guy is thoroughly likable, well aware of his own numerous shortcomings, most of the time anyway. And he just keeps trudging on anyway.

There is gore in this story, but not huge, gross, horrible amounts of it. Well, except for Fronts - a pretty interesting character in his own right. Three different mysteries are intertwined, well, three main ones anyway. Some surprises, some terrific writing, some funny bits.

"Jesus. Vinnie, Paulie, Popsie. Where are Vito and Sonny? Why not just hang some neon sign in the window, Mobs R Us?"

"For a while, he'd worn bangs, but he had a natural curl in his hair,and the bangs flipped up at the ends with a twee effect that made him look like a hitman for the Campfire Girls."

I have not read the first book in this series but I'm definitely going to have to read it and then keep my eyes out for the next one.

Great characters, fresh and funny writing, an entertaining plot add up to 4 stars overall, 5 for this genre.

I was given a copy of the book for review, for which I am grateful.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm now hooked on Junior Bender (but I think there are only three so far.) There really are parts that are laugh out loud funny. But they are also good mysteries. The pull quote compares the author to Carl Hiassen but I think there's an important difference--Hallinan can sustain and develop a character. He doesn't do the same thing over and over but moves along. And really, Junior is a pleasure to spend time with.

[Rayni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This might have been a very, very good story. The plot and conclusion were interesting. Some nice twists and turns. And some really good character development.

Those things were good--but unfortunately, simply too difficult to really enjoy because the author described (and described, and described, and then described some more) every mundane, boring, and useless thing in every scene throughout the book. This was really a novella. At best. If I had taken out all the tedious descriptions that did not lend anything to the story, I would have been left with a very short book.

I'm not saying I don't like descriptions. I absolutely like books that present material in such a way that I "see" or "feel" what is happening. But I don't need a description of a drawer in a coffee table to make a scene come alive. Or the way a wall on the side of a room looked. A paragraph on that. And, to be clear, the design on the wall had absolutely nothing to do with the story. Also, nothing to do with developing any character. Just a paragraph about a wall.

The descriptions were so boring and useless that I found myself having to go back and replay parts of the book because some important element was included while I was tuned out to the endless descriptions.

A good editor was needed. Or a friend who the author could have watched fall asleep while reading some long, boring, useless description.

On the other hand--many, many parts of this book were funny. Sardonically funny. Very funny. I did not like that there had to be a precocious thirteen year old computer genius in the book. I'm a little tired of that plot enhancement. But still--very funny. I laughed in places. I had to wipe the boredom tears from my eyes first--but still, a laugh is a laugh.

[wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

finished 25th november 2022 good read three stars i liked it kindle library loaner and this is the 6th from hallinan, second in the junior bender series...the 1st is still on loan at the library and i've got a hold on it...two weeks they tell me. reading the 3rd now...so i imagine that is recommendation enough. why keep reading a writer unless the stories are satisfying. this one is l.a. land. bender is a crook, thief, burglar...and also some sort of detective private. there's italian mob guys, italian cops, jewish mob guys...women...a weird hit man who provides comedic relief. two of the italian names are a bit confusing...both end in "io" so one needs to keep them straight, plus there's multiples of one name, father, son so forth so on. couple of the women characters read almost like the same person...something about their character, their reactions, the words they use, dialogue. like the poke rafferty character of the other series (hallinan says he has three series) junior bender has a daughter and that dynamic is portrayed much like the one in poke rafferty. i wonder if the other series has a father/son? anyway, i've started the 3rd in the series and the jewish mob guy is in act one, wine and cheese and advice...so forth so on. onward and upward.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing is ever easy for Junior Bender. He is a burglar; everyone knows that. He is never violent, he never enters a home when people are present. Everyone knows that, too. He has a foolproof alibi for the time of the robbery. So why is he in a police station being accused of breaking into the home of a judge and attacking the judge’s wife? Detective Paulie DiGaudio lets Junior know that his alibi is no longer foolproof. “My name mean anything to you?” “Sure,” I said. “It’s a synonym for all that is admirable in law enforcement.” “Beyond that.” I said, “Philadelphia in the fifties. Imitation Elvises. Handsome Italian kids with tight pants and big hair.”

Those handsome kids were famous for fleeting moments but during those moments they made a lot of money and that money was managed by Vincent DiGaudio, Paulie’s uncle. The offer to Junior is straightforward. If he solves Vinnie’s problem, Paulie will make sure that alibi is foolproof again. Vinnie’s problem: something to do with murder.

Since his divorce, Junior has been living in a series of motel rooms. The motel of the month is Marge ‘n Ed’s North Pole, a Christmas themed business where the rooms, as much as possible, were identified by the names of Santa’s reindeer rather than numbers. The bright spot in Junior’s life is his daughter, Rina, a thirteen year-old computer whiz who can find her way into any place that has information Junior needs. She easily discovers that among the Little Elvises Vincent DiGaudio managed was Giorgio, a man-child of exceptional beauty who was completely devoid of any talent and was absolutely terrified every time he stepped on a stage. Giorgio was a shooting star that flashed across the television screen and the movie screen and then disappeared while on a movie project in Hawaii. Giorgio is gone but not forgotten; he has his own star on the music industry’s walk of fame. Vincent DiGaudio wants Junior to investigate that previously mentioned murder. Derek Bigelow, a reporter for every supermarket tabloid in the US, has been found dead, his body resting on Giorgio’s star. Vincent had made it known that he intended to kill Bigelow but someone got to him first. Vincent had a hit all set up for the next night. Now the police are going to be coming for him; his threats are coming back to haunt him.

In short order, Junior finds himself being chased by some murderous characters in a Humvee without any clue as to why. He meets Derek Bigelow’s wife, Ronnie, and before there is time to give it any thought, they become bedmates. And Marge, the owner of Junior’s motel of the month, comes to him, terrified, because her daughter Doris is missing. last seen with a decidedly unsavory character.

Junior’s life becomes dangerously complicated when he finds a note on his windshield – CALL IRWIN. Irwin is Irwin Dressler, a man of incredible power in the state of California. That he was in his nineties didn’t make his less dangerous. Irwin Dressler was ” The power broker, the man who made things happen, the guy with the secrets. The Wizard of Was.” Despite all that, Junior decides not to call him so Irwin sends some friends to bring Junior to him. Irwin doesn’t mind if Junior discovers who killed Bigelow but he doesn’t want a connection to be drawn from Bigelow to Vinnie DiGaudi. If Junior agrees to this plan Irwin will owe him a very big favor and Junior knows that isn’t something to be sneezed at.

As in all Timothy Hallinan’s novels, the characters, heroes, villains, and all the people in between, are perfect. Junior is not a hero in the truest sense of the word but when Junior gives his word, people know he can be counted upon to follow through on the promise. The rest of the characters are secondary in that, like CRASHED, LITTLE ELVISES is a Junior Bender book and make no mistake about it. Junior is the moral center of the books, honest as defined by his moral code. If Junior were a character in a fifties television Western, he would wear a white hat. Junior and Bret Maverick could be soul mates and the Maverick reference brings up something really interesting about the characters.

Hallinan uses the term “the Wizard of Was” to describe Dressler and as the title of a section of the story. Junior is thirty-eight years old but this book plays to the readers who remember the real “Little Elvises” who had their moments of glory on American Bandstand. We remember Maverick and Matt Dillon and the stories about the mob wars in New York and Chicago and Las Vegas. It was a more innocent time, those early teenage years, before all innocence was lost on November 22, 1963, a watershed moment for the world. Hallinan captures those days in the fifties when songs on the radio were a couple of minutes long and singers weren’t expected to set their own versions of DANTE’S INFERNO to music. Payola doesn’t seem like such a terrible crime fifty years later. He also reminds the reader that the important things don’t really change. In writing about the girls who screamed for the Little Elvises, he describes their devotion. “They were crushes, not love affairs.” Describes Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers for today’s tweens.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Tim Hallinan book if there weren’t more than a few lines that sneak up on the reader and evoke laughter. “Want to join Marge in a glass of vodka?” “Sure, it there’s room.” This one took me awhile – “…Arthur Love Johnson…used to be called Algae on account of his initials.” Then there is the word problem that I swear was on a test.

Hallinan has, again, written a story that is so much more than a good mystery. Buried in the funny lines and the character development are glimpses of life as everyone experiences it in one way or another. Be it Simeon, Poke, or Junior, Hallinan’s men are the good guys who do their best to do right. And Hallinan succeeds in writing some of the best books in the genre.

And he manages to tie up all the ends of all the stories in LITTLE ELVISES, making it a completely satisfying reading experience.

[Tweiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just plain good book

Well written, good characters - not cartoons, but all have enough depth to be worth reading about. This must not be easy, as I read hundreds of mysteries and even if the main characters have life, the side ones are often tossed off. The humor is wry and witty - worthy of some of my favorite British writers and in the class of David Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter, and I don't day this lightly. Which brings me to the plot. I really don't care so much about the plot of the above is good enough - I read for the writing. However, the plot in this, as in the other Junior Bender books is done well. Hallinan is such a good writer that I appreciate having at least one of his serieus I can read without being either grossed out or depressed - hope he turns out a whole lot more of them

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Damon Runyon meets Tarantino. Hallinan's books generally have entertaining (and eccentric) characters and a level of idealization: luck and coincidence rule the day, and the main character is generally every good person's sweetheart. Realistic, this ain't: would it actually be possible for someone to steal enough to keep several storage areas and an exclusive hotel suite paid up, in addition to irregular day-to-day expenses?

Way more characters than I wanted to keep track of, and I find I'm not interested in Junior's progressing love life. Real problem character, though, is Rina, who never sounds or acts 13; her research paper is (1) on a topic weird for a middle-grade student and (2) written on a college level. Glad I didn't pay for this novel; not sure I'm going to move on with the series.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A palate-cleanser, but an enjoyable one. I like Junior Bender, and Hallinan is a witty and skillful writer. Junior is a professional burglar with a heart of gold (mostly). He still loves his ex-wife, although he can't give up his life of crime for her, and he truly loves his 13-year-old (going on 20) daughter, for whom he might give up his life of crime. As this book opens, he's being blackmailed by a policeman, who threatens to arrest Junior for a murder he didn't commit if Junior doesn't clear his uncle for another murder (which he may or may not have committed). The little Elvises are based on a real phenomenon that arose after Elvis Presley's meteoric rise, as handsome young singers tried to emulate him, inspired by greedy promoters. It's fun.

[Bruce Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The premise that a master thief makes a good "detective for underworld figures" is wonderfully realised in this series.
Junior Bender is a fully-formed character with confidence in his abilities and a way of staying alive while getting involved with some really strange and nasty types including con artists, snitches, standover men, hitmen (and women), bodyguards, bosses and big bosses while also staying one step ahead of the police.
Timothy Hallinan is a consummate story teller. He lets us glimpse parts of Junior's character that Junior himself seems unaware of, while deftly concealing elements so that the reader is kept guessing until the final chapter.
Highly recommended!

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this author. If you want to know how entertaining his books are let me put it this way - I no longer care if I am stuck in rush hour traffic! Just means I get to hear more.

I discovered him through a recommendation and are so glad I did. Finally a mystery author you don't figure out the who and why by the second or third chapter. Funny and moves at a good pace. Twists you don't see coming and a story which keeps your attention from beginning to end.

Enjoy following Junior Bender, a PI for crooks, in this case in the music industry as he tries to solve a murder and judge his relationship with ex-wife and teenage daughter. With a missing person case for his landlady thrown in.

[Danhammang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think of combining Henry James and Robin Williams and setting the result loose on a romp through the nooks and crannies of Los Angeles in the person of Junior Bender, a burglar for our own times. The somewhat strange title quickly makes sense as Hallinan weaves a story that involves our cultural penchant for trying to replicate big successes. I really did laugh out loud and even read a few of the passages out loud to my wife. Junior is hard not to like. It was a treat to read. I will be back for more.