The Final Country [Paperback]

It's been too long since James Crumley's last Milo Milodragovitch adventure, but the wait was worth it. The Final Country is a fully satisfying read with plenty of action, even more sex, and superb characterization.

"A chase after money and revenge had brought me to Texas, and a woman had kept me here," Milo explains. But trying to salvage a love affair, keep his PI business going, and run a tavern (whose real business is laundering drug money) hasn't kept trouble from following Milo--or maybe it's the other way around. When a man kills a drug dealer right in front of him, Milo can't help but track the shooter down, if only to keep the Texas cops from railroading him into the death chamber. Soon one beautiful woman frames Milo for the murder of a well- connected Texan, and another one with ties to both killings disappears, setting up the intricately plotted action of this fast-paced thriller.

Crumley's narrative gifts and poetic talents set this crazy-funny mystery apart. Milo is a consistently interesting protagonist, especially here, as Crumley depicts him in the fullness of middle age, a hard-boiled, bruised, and battered dick who, despite all evidence to the contrary, still believes in the redemptive powers of love--not to mention liquor, cocaine, and sex. Texas may not be Milo's natural habitat, but it's a big enough backdrop for his unique talents, and for Crumley's, too. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

PI Milo Milodragovich turns a very hammered 60 years old in this energetic, poetic, violent and extremely funny ride, which comes within a belly laugh or two of equaling Crumley's absolute masterpiece, The Last Good Kiss (1978). "The rumors of my near demise haven't been exaggerated," Milo says, "but unfortunately for my enemies, I'm not dead yet." After finally collecting his long-deferred family inheritance (plus a huge cache of loot from the bad guys) in Bordersnakes (1996), the author's previous novel, he seems ready to settle down in Texas, the state with "more handguns than cows." He has a woman he may love, and now owns a bar. Milo, however, just can't let go of investigative work. As he tracks down a wandering wife whose implants have made her the pool-playing terror of many roadhouse, he is on the scene as a gigantic black man named Enos Walker tears into a dive and kills a drug dealer. When Milo asks a couple of questions about Walker, bullets start coming his way, sending him on a cocaine-and alcohol fueled trip for answers that may be 20 years old, hidden behind deception and sex and death, going from Texas to Las Vegas and Montana. Plot twists and details seem loose and easy, yet every thread is sewn tight as a hardball. This is a brilliant achievement, with Crumley returned to his full powers, seeming to say with each assured sentence, Yeah, I'm an old dog, but I still wag the baddest bone. (Oct. 23).
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Even Crumley's reliably sharp writing can't save this novel from its unlikable hero and convoluted plot. P.I. Milo Milodragovitch (Bordersnakes), usually a self-centered and reckless type, spends the entire novel trying to save a fugitive from being unfairly treated by the Texas justice system. Throughout, Crumley provides a steady stream of fighting, dull conversation, and shady but colorless characters. Milo's vices certainly make him a distinctive character in P.I. fiction, but they also make him difficult to care about. Not only is his sex-and-drug lifestyle unbelievable but it quickly becomes monotonous. This is certainly not one of Crumley's better efforts. Still, his wit, his descriptions of the Texas landscape, and the prose in general an excellent example of classic hard-boiled fiction make it worth consideration by public libraries.
- Craig L. Shufelt, Lane P.L., Fairfield, OH
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Milo Milodragovitch just won't go gently into that good night. After helping out his pal C. G. Sughrue in Bordersnakes (1996), Milo stayed on in Texas, forsaking his native Montana for the arms of the enigmatic Betty. But those arms have grown cold ("A man can make a happy woman sad, but he can't finally make a sad woman happy"), and Milo is left to amuse himself tracking bail jumpers and running a bar. Then he tangles with a tall black man who has just killed a drug dealer, and soon enough he's landed in the middle of another dope-and-booze-fueled adventure, following leads to nowhere and slipping ever deeper into the quicksand of a Chandleresque plot that makes less sense with every clue. Along the way, he's duped by a femme fatale, survives a gunfight on a golf course, and sets traps for a serial killer and a few corrupt politicians--all the while ingesting prodigious quantities of codeine, cocaine, and vodka. Unlike Bordersnakes, which celebrated two world-weary but still ornery roughnecks on their last hurrah, this time the tone is more melancholy, an elegy written in a decidedly minor key. It isn't just that the years are taking their toll on Milo, although, God knows, they are; it's also that Milo is finding the world less and less congenial. If the Matthew Arnold of "Dover Beach" had written a crime novel, it might read a lot like this one. Some of Crumley's fans might find the aging Milo a bit morose, like listening to Hank Williams sing "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" over and over; others will eagerly turn up the volume and pour another drink. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Praise for Bordersnakes: 'Crumley writes like an angel on speed ... Indispensable' Time Out 'Wild, wicked, sweet, painful, courageous, outrageous and obscene' New York Times Book Review 'A cocaine-fuelled enterprise which proves absolutely that Crumley's Texas ... is the place to be' Guardian --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Milo Milodragovitch is back in Texas, running the bar of his dreams and trying to do a little private investigating on the side. His relationship with his woman is on the rocks, especially since he had an overnight fling with Molly McBride, the classy dame with the taste for single malt scotch. Now, Molly's persuaded Milo to help her search for and bring to justice the lowlife who raped and murdered her sister. What appears to be a simple stakeout turns hideously violent when it's discovered that Molly's prey is no ordinary miscreant, but a whirl-wind of brutality with major political connections. Soon Milo is calling on connections of his own, including shady computer geniuses, taciturn bodyguards, underground crank manufacturers, and his old pal C.W. "Sonny" Sughrue, in a plot that takes him from sweaty, dusty Mexico to the subzero mountains of Montana.

James Crumley lives in Montana.