East of A

Rating:
Summary: good, promising modern hardboiled stuff.
Review: It's good to see a harboiled PI novel that isn't loaded with tired '40s cliches or written by some nitwit whose urban experience begins at Bllomingdales and ends at some trendy trattoria. Atwood has done a good job of taking the classic formula and idragging it into the '90s. I look forward to his next book.

Rating:
Summary: Middling First Detective Novel
Review: Russel Atwood's "East of A," in which the author introduces us to New York City private detective Payton Sherwood, is a well written book that has many of the elements (lonilesness, cynicism, street-wise attitude) that make for great private detective fiction. Unfortunately, it is all put into service of a story that is just not terribly compelling, particularly if it is meant to be the first in a series starring Sherwood.

The plot is fairly straightforward. Sherwood is beaten up by a trio of street thugs when he attempts to stop them from attacking a runaway teenage girl. No good deed goes unpunished, and while he's lying in the street the girl steals his Rolex watch, the only valuable thing he owns. After cleaning himself up, Sherwood goes in search of the watch. That premise doesn't exactly compell one to keep reading, and it was only Atwood's light and easy prose that kept me interested.

The case takes some unexpected turns when Sherwood discovers that the thugs are after the girl because they believe the girl stole a new designer drug from their boss, a wealthy eccentric dance club owner. From there Sherwood encounters a trail of murder and deceit. The New York street scenes are well described and the characters that inhabit them are fairly well drawn (except, curiously, for the girl, who the reader never really gets to know). Unltimately, the story just doesn't amount to all that much, though there is one grisly scene in which two men fall out a high window that is quite shocking and shows that Atwood has potential as a storyteller. He just needs more scenes like that one.

Overall, "East of A" is not a bad novel, just not a terribly memorable one.

Rating:
Summary: Middling First Detective Novel
Review: Russel Atwood's "East of A," in which the author introduces us to New York City private detective Payton Sherwood, is a well written book that has many of the elements (lonilesness, cynicism, street-wise attitude) that make for great private detective fiction. Unfortunately, it is all put into service of a story that is just not terribly compelling, particularly if it is meant to be the first in a series starring Sherwood.

The plot is fairly straightforward. Sherwood is beaten up by a trio of street thugs when he attempts to stop them from attacking a runaway teenage girl. No good deed goes unpunished, and while he's lying in the street the girl steals his Rolex watch, the only valuable thing he owns. After cleaning himself up, Sherwood goes in search of the watch. That premise doesn't exactly compell one to keep reading, and it was only Atwood's light and easy prose that kept me interested.

The case takes some unexpected turns when Sherwood discovers that the thugs are after the girl because they believe the girl stole a new designer drug from their boss, a wealthy eccentric dance club owner. From there Sherwood encounters a trail of murder and deceit. The New York street scenes are well described and the characters that inhabit them are fairly well drawn (except, curiously, for the girl, who the reader never really gets to know). Unltimately, the story just doesn't amount to all that much, though there is one grisly scene in which two men fall out a high window that is quite shocking and shows that Atwood has potential as a storyteller. He just needs more scenes like that one.

Overall, "East of A" is not a bad novel, just not a terribly memorable one.

Rating:
Summary: Middling First Detective Novel
Review: Russel Atwood's "East of A," in which the author introduces us to New York City private detective Payton Sherwood, is a well written book that has many of the elements (lonilesness, cynicism, street-wise attitude) that make for great private detective fiction. Unfortunately, it is all put into service of a story that is just not terribly compelling, particularly if it is meant to be the first in a series starring Sherwood.

The plot is fairly straightforward. Sherwood is beaten up by a trio of street thugs when he attempts to stop them from attacking a runaway teenage girl. No good deed goes unpunished, and while he's lying in the street the girl steals his Rolex watch, the only valuable thing he owns. After cleaning himself up, Sherwood goes in search of the watch. That premise doesn't exactly compell one to keep reading, and it was only Atwood's light and easy prose that kept me interested.

The case takes some unexpected turns when Sherwood discovers that the thugs are after the girl because they believe the girl stole a new designer drug from their boss, a wealthy eccentric dance club owner. From there Sherwood encounters a trail of murder and deceit. The New York street scenes are well described and the characters that inhabit them are fairly well drawn (except, curiously, for the girl, who the reader never really gets to know). Unltimately, the story just doesn't amount to all that much, though there is one grisly scene in which two men fall out a high window that is quite shocking and shows that Atwood has potential as a storyteller. He just needs more scenes like that one.

Overall, "East of A" is not a bad novel, just not a terribly memorable one.

Rating:
Summary: Noir for a New Millenium
Review: The mystery novel is probably the closest thing we have to a moral x-ray machine capable of penetrating through the shiny, slick surface of a malled-out America to illuminate the tawdry recesses of its darkest inner organs.

Russell Atwood is off to a fantastic start, seizing all of the noir conventions and making them work for a new generation. Payton Sherwood isn't a knight on a white horse. He's just a working stiff trying to get through the day with his hide intact and keep his conscience square with the house.

Noir fiction, the best at least, is a morality play pitting a flawed hero against the temptations of lust, greed, anger and revenge. The characters the hero comes across during his investigation inevitably serve as avatars of these various human frailties. Our pay-off as readers comes when the hero, despite his personal woes, does the right thing, the thing we all hope we would do in his situation, but aren't sure we would.

Atwood seems to understand this emotional dynamic implicitly. What he brings to the table is a fantastic ear for snappy dialogue and characterizations that refuse to divide cleanly into black and white absolutes.

This is a fast read and it's well worth the time and money. Russell Atwood is on his way to a great career as a mystery writer and commentator on modern mores.

Rating:
Summary: Above average, but not breaking any new ground
Review: There's a lot of neo-noir novels out there pretending to expand the throne left them by Hammett and Cain. Most don't realize how closely they're walking in the path of their betters. Only folks like Auster and Lethem are really taking chances and showing things we haven't seen before.

That said, East of A is a good solid read. Despite one horrid, "Got milk"-one-liner, Payton Sherwood comes across an accessible, if not ambiguous crime-solver. Still the relationships Atwood manages to develop between his PI and the swirling group of characters around him builds well.

If you're a big reader always on the lookout for your next book, this is probably one to check out. If you're dipping your toe into this genre I'd go for a heavier hitter--something like Motherless Brooklyn. Otherwise we'll wait for Atwood's next book and hope its even better.

Rating:
Summary: Above average, but not breaking any new ground
Review: There's a lot of neo-noir novels out there pretending to expand the throne left them by Hammett and Cain. Most don't realize how closely they're walking in the path of their betters. Only folks like Auster and Lethem are really taking chances and showing things we haven't seen before.

That said, East of A is a good solid read. Despite one horrid, "Got milk"-one-liner, Payton Sherwood comes across an accessible, if not ambiguous crime-solver. Still the relationships Atwood manages to develop between his PI and the swirling group of characters around him builds well.

If you're a big reader always on the lookout for your next book, this is probably one to check out. If you're dipping your toe into this genre I'd go for a heavier hitter--something like Motherless Brooklyn. Otherwise we'll wait for Atwood's next book and hope its even better.

Rating:
Summary: Fast, funny, lean and mean
Review: When you first meet Payton Sherwood, the hero of East of A, he seems to be stepping right into the footsteps of every great PI that has come before him. But Sherwood quickly steps out on his own and takes a new path that's fresh and yet still loyal to the past heroes of PI legend. With an expert eye for the East Village of New York City, East of A's author Atwood knows his turf and he knows how to show it off. If one paragraph makes the East Village seem like the kind of place that would be fun to visit, the next paragraph makes you want to run, run, run for your life. The characters are wild and full of surprises, and yet still very real. With all the suspense and drama, Atwood takes the time to give his main character Payton Sherwood, a depth and charm that pulls the reader in. Not a macho tough guy, Sherwood is the kind of hero that's closer to us all, and so we're a little more fearful for him. There is also a great deal of humor in East of A. Something that doesn't always work in the dark world of the PI novel, the humor here fits right in. It fits. That's what makes East of A so good. Atwood's characters, locale, story, and humor all fit perfectly together. And it's a good fit that makes for a great read. Can't wait for the next Payton Sherwood adventure! But who should play Payton in the movie?