![]() Visitation with the family will be held on Friday, April 15, 2022, at 1:00 PM in Heritage Hall at Sandersville United Methodist Church, 202 W Church Street, Sandersville, Georgia, to be followed by a service to celebrate her life in the church sanctuary at 2:00 p.m. Portia Hargrove McDonald, born March 18, 1943, departed this world to receive her eternal reward on April 10, 2022, at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. For current readers, however, it does add an additional level of meaning, which adds to already good story.Mrs. I don’t think Estleman originally intended for this to be such a jarring juxtaposition of past and present. The story appeared in 1986, which doesn’t seem that long ago, except that that the world in the book almost seems from the dark ages: daily big city newspapers were actually relevant Viet Nam was still vivid in our collective unconscious no cell phones or computers, you needed a dime for the pay phone smoking was not treated like a crime. One thing that is authentic is the setting. “It’s not all an act, though, is it? You’re really that way.” When they think they’ve pegged you your job’s half over.” “Sometimes it pays to let the people you meet in this business think you’re into some kind of trip. “It has its advantages,” I said, stripping off the cellophane. I broke a pack of Winstons out of a carton in the drawer of the telephone table and held it up. ![]() “You talk and act just a little like a character in a black-and-white film.” ![]() We find out, however, this is not entirely the case, as revealed in this exchange: What I had was a drink.”Īt first it almost seemed a little over the top, almost like a gimmick. Metaphor: “… the moment hung in time like a miner’s hat on an oaken peg in a saloon abandoned ninety years ago.” Like them, Amos is quick with a metaphor or a clever quip. The protagonist is Amos Walker, who almost seems a throwback to the heroes made popular by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. It is solid mystery, with an interesting character. EVERY BRILLIANT EYE, however, is his first mystery I have read. I have enjoyed his westerns ever since I met him at a writer’s conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Estleman is one of those writers who have found success in at least two worlds: westerns and detective mysteries. This novel is a fine example of how a crime novel should be written brilliant prose, strong empathetic hero, realistic rather than gratuitous violence and sex scenes, a strong story line and the lashings of tension. I would love to see Estleman write in a genre other than crime or westerns, his words are so poetic. ![]() The reality is a stretch of broken pavement with the lines scrubbed off and signs on the corners, where there are still signs, rusting around bullet holes.the curbs are lined with long low cars with tailfins and syphilitic decay around the wheel wells.” (p.57) Beautifully written prose that despite the grimness is enchanting to read. I enjoyed his lush almost poetic descriptions “there was some sun, blinking, milk-eyed through shifting thin sheets of cloud (p.31). Estleman has created a sympathetic character that comes alive on the page and has a life beyond the length of this novel – he is a worthy protagonist in the Amos Walker series, which to date number twenty three books that span a life from 1980-2013, an outstanding feat for a series. His hero, Amos Walker is a sardonic, eloquent, gutsy and determined and resourceful private investigator and a solid and loyal friend. He paints the pictures as he sees it colour me real. The images of war in Cambodia are chilling, controlled, honest and are juxtaposed cleverly against the other war, in down town Detroit. The streets of Detroit, the bars, the restaurants, the people of this alien landscape (Detroit is alien to me) come alive in vivid technicolour. A thoroughly enjoyable read, Estleman is a gifted words smith. ![]()
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