The Wrong Case: A Novel (Hardcover)

Like C.W.Sughrue in The Last Good Kiss, Milo makes no bones about his lifestyle, frequently strung out on speed and alcohol, taking beatings and giving them, finding sex where and when he can. He takes a case for all the wrong reasons, and then Crumley shows us that he would likely as not have taken the case even if he had known the right reasons. If there were any right reasons.

He falls in love with Helen Duffy and offers to help find her lost brother.

He has the wrong information from the wrong friends. He is disliked by any and all that would help him, misled by clients, aided by winos and criminals, and continually sifts through misinformation, disinformation and lies. But it's tough to ferret out the truth when you're going from one binge to the next.

It's difficult to find something redeeming about Milo except there is a certain nobility in his tenacity. The characters are strong. This is dark mystery and not for the weak of heart. But it is particularly native to America and the American myth of the hardboiled Private Eye. We're talking hardboiled. Vintage Mike Hammer and Phillip Marlowe.

Good stuff. And life goes on after it's all done. At least for Milo.

We are introduced to Milo Milodragovitch and his hard-drinking, drug-taking, skirt-chasing ways. Milo's on the edge after two failed marriages, a failing business and a drinking problem. He makes no apologies for any of his bad habits and is prepared to blow off anyone who has a problem with him. The woman who has entered his office steals his heart and asks him to find her brother who has been missing for the past three weeks. It's a case that he doesn't really want to take, but does because, as he freely admits, she is such a stunning woman he'd do anything on the off-chance she might go to bed with him.

If anyone ever wanted to get a taste for modern hardboiled noir fiction, this would be the perfect book to read. I found myself drawn right into the book and could picture the town of Meriwether perfectly and at times I could picture myself occupying a stool at Mahoney's bar, the imagery is so vivid.

The standard gorgeous lady comes to his office with a tearful request as he is consuming his lunch of raspberry yogurt and "office whiskey." Her brother OD'd on drugs and has been declared a suicide. She vehemently insists he was murdered. Her description of her sensitive, academic gentle brother does not jibe with Milo's recollection of the cold-eyed loser he had seen about town, but he has fallen in love--instantly. He assembles his troop of bums, eccentrics and low livers to assist him in investigating the crime. He discovers layer after layer of corruption and rampant drug dealing in his supposedly peaceful town of Meriwether that his great grandfather founded. He is neither surprised nor dismayed.

This is a novel beyond noir; it is a novel of despair. Like Hunter Thompson's hero in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," Milo is destroying himself with clarity and precision. The book is witty, humorous and lyrically written. The action is intense and explosive. But the undercurrents are always there, gray and dark.

Brilliantly written and highly readable, put this book on your "must read" list. You won't regret it.