The Timothy Files

Rating:
Summary: decent read
Review: Sanders has a somewhat minimilist writing style which took a few pages to get accustomed to. However, once I did, I found the characters and stories engaging.

All three stories in the book were good. Timothy is an interesting character, whose lifestyle matches the author's writing style -- sparse. I identified well with Timothy. Other characters also have their own personalities, although they aren't as strong as the main character.

Overall, it's a good read, especially if you like New York, where the stories take place.

Rating:
Summary: great stories
Review: This book was written several years ago, but it still packs a punch. It contains three files or cases involving Timothy Cone, a private eye working for a company that investigates businesses for their clients. He is an interesting character---he lives very simply in a cheap apartment (his bed is a mattress on the floor) with a neutered tomcat named Cleo, is having an affair with his manager, which no one knows about and is a little unusual, in that the way they communicate with each other is more on the rude side than lovey-dovey side. It made for a rather entertaining story in itself and then the case files added along with it even more so. I really enjoyed the book!

Rating:
Summary: Timothy Cone is the man.
Review: When I see reader reviews lauding Sanders' work on Arch McNally, and then only half-baked reviews on his work with Timothy Cone, I wonder what the crime/detective fiction world readership is coming to.

Timothy Cone is the boiled-down essence of the hard-bitten noir detective, not some rich fop who happened into investigations because his daddy is a rich lawyer. McNally? Gimme a break.

The Timothy Files, and Timothy's Game, are Sanders at his best: a real character who fits his surroundings like the shabby hat the character wears, a man who likes rainy days because they fit his disposition better than happy "hellos" and birhgt sunshine, a guy who can get into the seedy underside of things and find out how the wheels are turning inside the dark recesses of people's minds. Motive, desire, love, greed, and yes, sometimes fists, knives and guns are the stock in trade of detective fiction, and Sanders explores that dark extreme most effectively in his Timothy series.

But you won't see Arch down at the waterfront dive, extracting info from criminals by bracing them with implied and not-so-implied threats...he's way too busy with cocktails at the club.

If you are a true fan of hard-boiled detective fiction, read and revel in Timothy's Game. If not, read anything about McNally...in between reels of Mary Poppins.