Many authors would engage (internally, of course) in meaningless self-congratulations if they could create one successful series. Timothy Hallinan has created three.
His Simeon Grist series-revived recently after a long hiatus-is remembered fondly, and the latest installment of PULPED was received with joy. The Pook Rafferty novels – about an expatriate American journalist living in Bangkok, working as a travel writer and unofficially as a private investigator – have put Hallinan at the top of many a must-read list. This status was further cemented by Junior Bender, a favorite heist for members of the Los Angeles underworld. Junior is an unlikely but likable character whose offensive remarks often belie the dark circumstances in which he often finds himself. This is especially true of the seventh book in the NIGHT CITY series.
As you might expect, a book with a burglar as its protagonist features a burglary that is the heart of NIGHTTOWN. What’s different here is that Junior doesn’t want to do the job for several different reasons, even though he should. The “should” reason is that he needs a lot of money as soon as possible. He and his girlfriend, Ronnie, have to hire a kidnapper to get Ronnie’s two-year-old son back from her ex-husband, who has taken up residence in an extremely secure fortified compound in New Jersey. The reason for the “don’t” is a bit more complicated. Junior has a hard-and-fast rule that he should never take a job that pays too well. The job he is offered fits this definition.
Junior is being retained to break into an abandoned mansion – the former home of a recently deceased 97-year-old disabled recluse – to retrieve a doll from her extensive collection. Knowing full well that it is not worth the $50,000 he will be paid, he quickly finds out that there is something inside the doll that is the prize. The woman who hired him is also somewhat unpleasant. However, needs being what they are, Junior ends up creepily crawling around in the crumbling house, only to discover that someone else has been hired to grab the doll. The expensive toy is located quite briefly, but the object – whatever it is – that was hidden inside it is missing. This leads to a violent death, and so Junior is forced not only to complete the caper, but also to get some measure of revenge on the victim, his dear friend.
Both tasks seem to be impossible, but Junior tracks down a couple of thin and fragile threads of evidence, one of which takes him back almost a century to several family secrets involving a former resident of the once-palatial mansion and its original owner. Along the way, Junior acquires several valuable first editions of books and renews some old acquaintances with both friends and foes, even as he is put in terrible danger by his unlikely employers who think he has just found the object they are looking for and is keeping it for himself. The denouement of this intriguing story contains an unexpected noise that resonates long after the last (and very satisfying) sentence is read.