Director's Cut : A Moses Wine Novel

Rating:
Summary: First post-9/11 mystery novel?
Review: "Director's Cut" is the latest mystery novel starring the wise-cracking LA-detective Moses Wine, a private hack who cut his cultural teeth during the 1960s ... if you know what I mean ... but this book contains more than a few surprises, and I don't mean the "mystery novel" kind.

It starts off with a bang in Chapter One, speaking favorably of John Ashcroft, and unfavorably of Louis Freeh. Uh oh. The countercultural cred is being blown already. At one point mid-novel, in an excellent little scene, it boldly compares the Holocaust to the Rwandan massacres. Gee, what kind of disrespectful guy is this Moses character anyway? Actually, the whole book is a gutsy cultural statement for a mainstream mystery novel, especially for one with this character's past, and this author's history. The book is written with a sense of personal freedom and confidence, which clearly shows through.

And oh yeah ... during all this cultural commentary, there's apparently a mystery novel going on. (Smile.) Seriously, I loved the feeling of being on a movie set. It's such a mysterious industry to begin with, it was so interesting to read about it from an insider's point of view, seeing it treated like any other real job. Moses even shows his hand at directing at one point, which was a lot of fun to read.

I also loved the wonderful descriptions of Prague, which made me jealous of the author's experiences there; as well as all the contemporary references to the Internet sprinkled throughout the book, which were really fun to see in a novel. It certainly had its share of the "mystery novel" kind of surprises too, with enough twists and turns to keep the plot going from Los Angeles, to Prague, to New Mexico, to the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

The only question is, if the novel begins with a bang, does it end with a bang? I'll never tell. But I will say this book can be recommended as the nation's first post-9/11 mystery novel.

Rating:
Summary: Very commendable actions, T. Tucker...
Review: ...and not a all transparent.
I haven't read a Roger L Simon book yet, but I felt a five star recommendation would be only fair in light of T. Tucker's 1-star rating that he has given 4 of Mr Simon's books, and a two-star rating on a 5th. I doubt T. Tucker has read one either, unless he's truly masochistic and only too happy to turn the thumbscrews on his literary sensibilities with yet another 'Awful' (the title of two of his reviews) Simon novel.
I think Tucker gives away his motivation when reviewing 'The Lost Coast'. He writes
"This book is awful. I'm assuming the other reviewers have written positive things because they agree with Mr. Simon's political views." The previous 5 reviews were fives.
I have a leftist American friend who is always telling me how intelligent and morally upright Liberals are. Maybe I won't tell her about T.Tucker.
I've gotta try a Simon mystery now.

Rating:
Summary: Get out the way of old T. Tucker, he came to town without...
Review: ...his supper. Or much of a clue. I give Mr. Tucker 0 stars for superficiality, marginal literacy and the cardinal sin of playing petty political games.

Rating:
Summary: brush up on your Latin, Mcenroe
Review: I give previous reviewer Richard S. Mcenroe zero stars for his knowledge of Latin. The word "gratia" takes the genitive. Sadly, I doubt he knows what that means. Maybe he should should spend less time attacking reviewers whose political beliefs he doesn't like and more time studying Latin.

Rating:
Summary: An Amusing Tale for Our Time
Review: I have read a couple of Simon's books, but I don't remember them being this clever. A private detective becomes a movie director. Quite witty. Wild Turkey (was that the name?) was also humorous.

(Some strange reviews on here with seemingly hostile motive perhaps? I don't understand what that is, but shouldn't Amazon have a way of dealing with this?)

Rating:
Summary: terrible
Review: I'd give this zero stars if that were an option. It is poorly written, poorly edited (there are a tremendous number of grammatical and spelling errors for a published book), and, most importantly for a thriller, it is just plain boring.

Don't waste your time on this garbage.

Rating:
Summary: Director's Cut... Cut, cut, cut
Review: Like anyone who enjoys a good mystery, I was looking forward to this read especially having been recommended by Hugh Hewitt, a radio talk show host who had previously suggested works from Joseph Epstein and Daniel Silva. Both were great reads.

I should have been somewhat suspicious seeing only 240 pages, surely not enough to develop the characters, background and rich plot that often adds to pleasure of a good novel. I found the plot sophomoric, even laughing out loud not a the humor but the utter ridiculous situations. For example, why would private investigator Wine consider staying on with the production of a "B" rated movie that ends up on some obscure cable channels? Not only does he stay but becomes the director of this crazy movie. Perhaps some of Mr. Simon's humor was lost on me but too many times I found the plot farfetched.

If Mr. Simon were to remove a few choice swear words, this book might be appropriate for junior high school. They might appreciate characters like "Anna Rockova", yes Mr. Simon has seen several episodes of the Flintstones. My advise would be to "Cut" this one off at the pass and move on to more seriously researched terrorist mystery. It's no wonder that Mr. Simon must use a blog to help promote his work. Not worth the $16.95.

Rating:
Summary: Cutting Up
Review: Moses Wine, that wistful, ironic and always thoughtful P.I. has been with us through eight books and some thirty years, rambling from his beginnings in Berkeley to the capitals of the world. We've been along with him through marriage and family, divorce and acrimony, to what he hopes will be his final wife. Has Moses done everything? Well, not quite because now, in this new book, Moses Wine wants to direct.
In "Director's Cut," Roger L. Simon has rediscovered his satiric impulse. In "The Big Fix," the first in the series, Simon had fun with the Los Angeles-Chandler style. ("I turned left on La Cienega and drove right on Santa Monica...") This time around, Moses gets mixed up with the twin scourges of the present age: movie making and terrorism. He's game, if not quite ready, on both counts.
Book for book, I've always been caught up in the various capers and scrapes, and that, appropriately, is the case here. But this time, I saw something else. Moses Wine has become part of the American cultural landscape. Simon has created an American archetype, a fictional detective who has entered our collective mind and now stands for more than his adventures. Like Lew Archer or Sam Spade, Moses Wine -- who is just trying to get through the day -- finds people are shooting at him. Just like the country he reflects. What Simon has done to keep this series fresh is to let Moses grow and change. That's unusual for literary detectives who are usually frozen along one mean street or another. The joke is that as Moses ages, it seems that he's only going to make new mistakes, and he does, but then damned if he doesn't also manage to achieve a certain wisdom.
In "Director's Cut" he's in Prague with a pregnant wife, chasing down a completion bond problem (it's a kind of insurance)on a movie set. Moses winds up in the director's chair. He's not bad at it, at least he's no worse than the people who direct movies all the time, and after all Moses Wine can also collar miscreants, crack cases and crack wise.

Rating:
Summary: Scary-funny view of the film biz
Review: This book would be laugh at loud funny if it wasn't so scary at the same time. I'll never look at indie films the same way again.W I'm not a real mystery fan (read a few) but this book is fascinating on every level. Totally unpredictable

Rating:
Summary: Stunning bad
Review: This book would have been merely a laughably sophomoric piece of poorly-edited hack fiction if it didn't try to promote itself as capitalizing on September 11th. The book will probably be historically significant only in that the author's fascination and glorification of such insidious real-world personas as Ashcroft and Freeh lends it a bit of Leni Riefenstahl kitch.