JLS (jlsjlsjls) wrote,
JLS
jlsjlsjls

Evenday series miny mo ...

Keith Hartman has only written three novels. Ever (well, so far). And they are all wonderful. Two of them make up the Gumshoe series (can you call it a series when there's only two?) My copies are better traveled than I am ... they went by mail loan over the border to three different states and then across the Atlantic to Sweden before coming back here to their permanent home. This was because I'd discovered, acquired and raved about them just minutes before a publisher/author issue made them unavailable for purchase; the borrowing friends were very good about passing them on in the true spirit of share and enjoy. Genrewise, the two Gumshoe tales are a little of everything ... primarily mysteries in a noirish style but also science fiction, fantasy, social commentary, humour, and a rather scarily possible look at the near future. Topped off with pulling a writing stunt that's supposed to be a huge no-no and getting away with it: the first story is told from eleven interwoven viewpoints, with each character voice so distinctive that there's not even any need to pay attention to the chapter headers to see who's narrating. This is why so many reviews by other authors have a tongue-in-cheek comment about how much they hate Hartman ... for doing this and doing it successfully. In a first novel. Hartman did eventually bring both Gumshoe titles back into print himself; they are also available as ebooks (Kindle and Kobo). Right now the man is busy making movies (the userpic for this post is the proposed poster for one that doesn't exist yet; he shared part of the script online a few years ago and it was hilarious and I am SO going to see it multiple times if he EVER gets it filmed) but has said that someday there will be more Gumshoe.

From "The Gumshoe, the Witch and the Virtual Corpse":
My client had just walked in through the hotel's big front doors. She was wearing a trench coat and dark sunglasses, a look that screamed "PLEASE! I am trying not to be recognized!" She'd capped off the ensemble with a huge floppy hat. On the plus side, it did succeed in covering half of her face. But on the down side, the thing was so damn ridiculous that it called even more attention to her. Apparently her mother had never taught her how to properly accessorize for a stake-out.

The two Gumshoe books, in order, are:
The Gumshoe, the Witch and the Virtual Corpse
Gumshoe Gorilla
Tags: bookseries: gumshoe, reading
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