A young woman searches for her missing twin sister in a foreign country called America. On the road, she encounters a series of strangers who help her navigate its topography, including a cowboy in a pink Cadillac, a sadistic law enforcement agent, a pulp fiction novelist, the regulars at a nuclear bomb-themed dive bar, and a man who befriends mannequins.
If you're into explicit mysteries, you might want to read this short story. If you can get pass the multiple use of the F-bomb, the drugs, and the sex, you might enjoy this mystery and be shocked by its ending.
Moxie Mezcal. Two drinks that, mixed, would probably combine to form the worst taste you've ever had in your mouth. Thankfully, you don't have to drink it to want to read it. Tough, literate (if amateur at times), fun slice of neo-noir reminiscent more than once of what might have happened had Kathy Acker decided to try and write Raymond Chandler. I should probably take points off for the meta, but I'd just end up adding them back on for the wit and honesty: “I was behind the wheel while he thumbed through the dog-eared paperback I had been lugging around in my backpack. It was a cheap murder mystery called Invisible Ink that tried to ape the old hard-boiled detective stories of Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler with mixed results.” Indeed. I've read a number of complaints with the ending; I didn't see it. I'm wondering if folks didn't get it (while Mezcal drops enough hints to what's going on, she doesn't point them out—and I'm factoring in that I could be totally misreading it myself) or whether it's just too ambiguous for the average reader, but I didn't have such problems. Good stuff from a solid new voice in thrillers. Check it out. ****
I found this title to be "okay", not bad but not great. Flaws in the editing and formatting seemed to be at a higher level than CONCRETE UNDERGROUND, and at least one inconsistency jumped out at me as I was reading. It was a great set-up and once again, the characters were pretty interesting, but in the end, I wasn't sure what "really" happened. This time the strengths of the book weren't enough to overcome the weaknesses for me.
It had potential, but it felt like the author was in a rush to finish it. It makes you feel like you're on a school trip, running from one place to another so you don't miss anything, but you end up not remembering a thing. An entertaining read, nonetheless.