Displaying 1 of 1 1981 Format: Book Author: Wiltz, Chris. Title: The killing circle / by Chris Wiltz. Publisher, Date: New York : Macmillan, [1981] ©1981 Description: 220 pages ; 22 cm Notes: 350358 ; *350359 LCCN: 81013648 ISBN: 0026301504 Other Number: 7732430 System Availability: 1 # System items in: 1 # Local items: 1 # Local items in: 1 Current Holds: 0 Place Request Add to My List Expand All | Collapse All Availability Fiction/Biography Profile Characters Neal Rafferty (Male), Private investigator, Single, Ex-police detective Genre MysterySouthern fictionFiction Topics BooksellersRare booksMurder investigationsLove affairs Setting New Orleans, Louisiana - South (U.S.) Time Period 1990s -- 20th century Large Cover Image Trade Reviews Kirkus ReviewNeal Rafferty of New Orleans, 35-year-old ex-cop and fledgling private eye, is easily the best new American shamus of the year--a moderately hard-boiled, laconic-humored narrator. . . but one who avoids most of the clichÉs and has life-sized, un-literary groundings. Rafferty's New Orleans ""Irish Channel"" neighborhood is grittily vivid; his tensions with his retired-cop father (who wants him to re-join the force) are palpable. And, except for a formula windup, his first case is consistently intriguing. Hired by tycoon Carter Fleming to recover his set of rare William Blake editions from book-restorer Stanley Garber (who seems to have disappeared), Rafferty discovers Garber's long-dead body in the shop. Among the missing: the Blake books. . .and Garber's assistant--an overage, suspiciously well-paid vamp. But other suspects abound: there's the impoverished aristocrat who wanted to buy the Blake books; there's Fleming's rebel-artist son (whom Rafferty tracks down in a funny sidetrip to N.Y.'s Soho); and there's Garber's terminally ill wife. . . and his beautiful, strange daughter, with whom Rafferty rather predictably (but believably) falls in love. Hammett and Chandler.hang far too heavily over the last pages here. And inklings of sentimentality or pretentiousness pop up throughout. For the most part, however, this is a lean, smart, warm-centered mystery debut--rich in unromanticized New Orleans backgrounds, shrewd character sketches, and steady, non-corny action. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission. Librarian's View Syndetics Unbound Displaying 1 of 1
