Robert D. Sutherland

Overlong spoof of noir/crime fiction, as well as pulp a la DaVinci Code. With a bit of Accordion Crimes thrown in for good measure? Everything is on the surface here. What you see is what you get. No deep meaning. Although, one COULD read Sutherland's novel as an exercise in deferral ( a la Derrida). As is required by the genre(s), there is a hook at the end of every chapter, pushing the plot along, but in this case, perhaps NOT pushing it forward. So, we go everywhere and nowhere in the end. There may be some sex, but we never get the close up. There is food but, although much money is spent, it isn't memorable (nothing like Jean-Claude Izzo's cuisine). The soundtrack is classical (mid-20th century with a touch of Brahms) rather than jazz, though Benny Goodman is mentioned once & a combo in Racine, WI. As for that garbage dump at the end, it's in Queens, not on Staten Island, so it can't be the Fresh Kills landfill, which, of course, would have been way too meaningful for this novel. Decent entertainment in the end, nonetheless.… (meer)