Tag Archives: Massimo Carlotto

2015 mid-summer reading report back: Perfidia, Japanese tattoos, eighties sleaze

Perfidia

Summer in Melbourne is usually the one time of the year I can be guaranteed to get a fair amount of personal reading done. As has become my annual practice, a short report back on the books I have got through is in order.

Perfidia, James Ellroy

I need to preface my comments on Perfidia by stressing I am a massive Ellroy fan. I have read all of his books – ALL of them – many more than once. I even liked The Cold Six Thousand and Blood’s A Rover, the two books that most divided readers. So, it is with a heavy heart that I say Perfidia is very disappointing. The long awaited prelude to Ellroy’s LA Quintet, Perfidia takes place in Los Angeles over 23 days in December 1941, a period in which American went from being at piece to the attack on Pearl Harbour and the country being at war.

The focal point of the book is the brutal murder on the eve of Pearl Harbour of a Japanese family. The killings have all the hallmarks of traditional Japanese ritual deaths. Drawn into the murder investigation are future LAPD chief William H Parker, the meanest crime fiction cop ever created, Dudley Smith, a brilliant young Japanese police forensic scientist, and Kay Lake, a woman with a major thing for bad men.… Read more

My year in books: Court Haslett

Tenderloin_Final_LR

The next guest on the ‘my year in books’ series is someone who perhaps does need a little introduction.

Court Haslett is a San Francisco crime writer whose debut thriller novel, Tenderloin, features a PI called Sleeper Hayes. Tenderloin is set in San Francisco’s skid row Tenderloin neighbourhood in the late seventies, against the backdrop of  punk, disco, and the suicide Jonestown cult. 

The book caught my eye because I am a complete sucker for the seventies, love San Francisco and am particularly fascinated by this period in the city’s history. I’m hoping to get around to reading Tenderloin over Summer and will be reviewing the book on this site in 2014. You can pick up a copy here

Best of luck with the book, Court and welcome to Pulp Curry. 

The Raven’s Gift, Don Rearden

November 23rd, 8pm

Dear Diary,

So my friend Adam recommended The Raven’s Gift to me. It’s about doomed lovers in post apocalyptic Alaska and focuses on the indigenous Yup’ik culture. This is gonna be one looong slog of a read.

November 24th, 6am

Dear Diary,

Finished The Raven’s Gift. So I was wrong. So it was a kick-ass page-turner. So I didn’t sleep. I may have even gotten emotional at times.… Read more