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Kyd for Hire
SIGNED and inscribed and dated (not personalized) by Harris on the front endpaper. Fine first edition hardcover, no writing or marks.
- GenresFiction
Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
17 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Timothy Harris
10 books3 followersTimothy Hyde Harris is an American author, screenwriter and producer. He has been publishing works of fiction since the late 1960s and has been involved in filmmaking since the early 1980s. For his work in film, Harris has been nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay as well as an Annie Award for Writing in a Feature Production.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy...
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy...
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 30, 2018
This is the first of two Thomas Kyd detective novels by Timothy Harris. Kyd is kind of a mash-up of Philip Marlowe and Mike Hammer with more self-effacing humor than either one.
The set-up is satisfyingly traditional. A wealthy man whose wife killed herself days earlier wants Kyd to track down his daughter, who disappeared shortly after learning of the death of her mother. Set in a seedy world of mid-70s LA, it is populated by losers, creeps, and has-beens. Even the rich people are not what you'd call refined.
Kyd is almost comically alcoholic. In one scene, he wanders through the house of a client, finds a jar of olives, eats them all, and quickly downs two tumblers of gin. A few minutes later, he gets the maid to give him a large glass of wine. Every time he manages to swallow some booze, Kyd gets less annoyed at the world. As with many detective novels of this era, the racism and homophobia is casual and often treated as humorous. By modern eyes, it sometimes remains funny, but not as intended. It's just so anachronistic that it inspires giggles.
Kyd has some surprising aspects to his character that don't fit the usual private dick model. For instance, he hates guns. In fact, he says, “they scare the shit out of me”. He's a tough guy who breaks bones and heads and thinks guns are for cowards. A very compelling contrast to the usual stereotype. Though he hates guns and thinks “they're a bad idea waiting to happen”, he does occasionally carry one. In an endearing twist on the typical hard-boiled private dick, Kyd is a bit insecure as he starts his inevitable affair with a young, attractive woman. He wonders if his paunch and hairy chest will get him rejected by her.
The plot movement is familiar to fans of the genre. Our shamus is often on the wrong track but following the right people. His gut tells him things that evidence doesn't necessarily show him. Red herrings abound and people all around him are lying. An interaction with a character who has nothing to hide eventually uncovers truths that so many interested characters are ignoring or intentionally concealing. But that familiarity doesn't take away from the fun you'll have tooling around LA with Thomas Kyd and the group of n'er-do-wells he does his dirty business with.
The set-up is satisfyingly traditional. A wealthy man whose wife killed herself days earlier wants Kyd to track down his daughter, who disappeared shortly after learning of the death of her mother. Set in a seedy world of mid-70s LA, it is populated by losers, creeps, and has-beens. Even the rich people are not what you'd call refined.
Kyd is almost comically alcoholic. In one scene, he wanders through the house of a client, finds a jar of olives, eats them all, and quickly downs two tumblers of gin. A few minutes later, he gets the maid to give him a large glass of wine. Every time he manages to swallow some booze, Kyd gets less annoyed at the world. As with many detective novels of this era, the racism and homophobia is casual and often treated as humorous. By modern eyes, it sometimes remains funny, but not as intended. It's just so anachronistic that it inspires giggles.
Kyd has some surprising aspects to his character that don't fit the usual private dick model. For instance, he hates guns. In fact, he says, “they scare the shit out of me”. He's a tough guy who breaks bones and heads and thinks guns are for cowards. A very compelling contrast to the usual stereotype. Though he hates guns and thinks “they're a bad idea waiting to happen”, he does occasionally carry one. In an endearing twist on the typical hard-boiled private dick, Kyd is a bit insecure as he starts his inevitable affair with a young, attractive woman. He wonders if his paunch and hairy chest will get him rejected by her.
The plot movement is familiar to fans of the genre. Our shamus is often on the wrong track but following the right people. His gut tells him things that evidence doesn't necessarily show him. Red herrings abound and people all around him are lying. An interaction with a character who has nothing to hide eventually uncovers truths that so many interested characters are ignoring or intentionally concealing. But that familiarity doesn't take away from the fun you'll have tooling around LA with Thomas Kyd and the group of n'er-do-wells he does his dirty business with.
April 7, 2024
Kyd for Hire
A good read with great characters and storyline. Being a detective Kyd did a lot of searching for the reason of a man’s wife committing suicide and daughter running off. More going on to read. Recommend highly
A good read with great characters and storyline. Being a detective Kyd did a lot of searching for the reason of a man’s wife committing suicide and daughter running off. More going on to read. Recommend highly
June 21, 2019
Another new series for me. Super strong. Very much in the 40s/50s pulp vein, despite the cheesy (but cool) 80s cover. Definitely want to read more in this series.
May 11, 2015
Wow...This little treasure was buried in a dusty bag of books we received from a friend. It somehow made its way to us from afar. One of the two stamps inside the cover was for Big Mumma's Market on High Street in Preston (Britain). The other was for Busselton Books on Queen Street in Western Australia. The book was printed and bound in England. Funny considering the story was set in Los Angeles. (Or, El Lay as most call it.) Pulp fiction, Chandleresque, hard-boiled, noir...all would be apt descriptions. Really well written. Books of this type all too often lapse into schmaltzy similes. Not so with this book. Written in 1977, this story held up well. I'd never heard of the author but figured him for an Englishman .... tyres, cheques, etc. But learned he was born in Los Angeles and attended schools all over (OK, he graduated with an Honours Degree in English Literature from Peterhouse College). Not only did he write this novel, but he wrote for a number of films - Trading Places, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, and more you've probably heard of. All this to say...if you can get your hands on this book, don't pass it by.
August 26, 2016
Many of the reviews of Harris' Kyd for Hire make it sound like a Raymond Chandler knockoff. And you know what's wrong with that? For the most part, absolutely nothing. To be more precise, the Thomas Kyd is sort of a Philip Marlowe knockoff (boozy lone-wolf Los Angeles PI with a smart mouth who enjoys tweaking authority, even if occasionally at the cost of getting his butt kicked) while the story itself is straight out of Ross Macdonald territory (repressed past sins lead to violence and murder violence for a rich and deeply dysfunctional Southern California family).
It probably wouldn't make it into the top shelf of either of those authors' cannons, but in a field crowded with bad knockoffs, Kyd for Hire is something like an expert forgery. I'd certainly put it up there with the works of, say, Stephen Greenleaf. If Harris had kept at this series we might be talking about him in the same breath as Chandler and Macdonald. But alas, after another Kyd book Harris appears to have departed for the greener pastures of writing for the movies, only to return to Kyd once many, many years later.
It probably wouldn't make it into the top shelf of either of those authors' cannons, but in a field crowded with bad knockoffs, Kyd for Hire is something like an expert forgery. I'd certainly put it up there with the works of, say, Stephen Greenleaf. If Harris had kept at this series we might be talking about him in the same breath as Chandler and Macdonald. But alas, after another Kyd book Harris appears to have departed for the greener pastures of writing for the movies, only to return to Kyd once many, many years later.
February 25, 2015
It seems to be a tradition for authors to name private detectives after historical literary figures; there is Marlowe and Spenser, and Thomas Kyd.
This book is a perfect rendition of a Chandleresque hardboiled novel, set in the same California milieu as so many others. There is a rich family with secrets. There is an ethnic crime boss connected to it all somehow. There are the corrupt and violent cops beating up the hero. And most of all there is the private detective, cynical and sarcastic on the outside, romantic and idealistic on the inside; and eternally world-weary, drowning his sorrow in drink (gin, in this case).
This book never spawned a series, although there is one sequel. Both were apparently written in the 1970s.
This book is a perfect rendition of a Chandleresque hardboiled novel, set in the same California milieu as so many others. There is a rich family with secrets. There is an ethnic crime boss connected to it all somehow. There are the corrupt and violent cops beating up the hero. And most of all there is the private detective, cynical and sarcastic on the outside, romantic and idealistic on the inside; and eternally world-weary, drowning his sorrow in drink (gin, in this case).
This book never spawned a series, although there is one sequel. Both were apparently written in the 1970s.
January 22, 2017
How old ARE these stories ?
A good story, nevertheless, with a very good twist near the end. You KNOW these are some old books by the cost of various things mentioned in the story.
A good story, nevertheless, with a very good twist near the end. You KNOW these are some old books by the cost of various things mentioned in the story.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews