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December 2016
Book Review Don West. The Art of Murder Reviewed by Diane C. Taylor |
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Don West is a painter and writer. Read an interview with him here Don West-Interview. West currently has artwork on display at Davis Dominguez Gallery in Tucson.
I confess, I read a lot of mysteries: J.A. Jance, Donna Leon, John Sandford, Tony Hillerman and his daughter Anne, Jacqueline Winspear, Daniel Silva, Carl Hiassen, John Grisham, David Baldacci, Lee Child. What all these authors have in common for me is: I read the first paragraph, and I’m pulled into some person’s life. The prose is easy, it flows. Descriptions are easy, you get the information, almost without realizing it.
Don West’s The Art of Murder drew me in, but it was a little more forced. Set in Los Angeles, an ex-Los Angeles police officer-turned-detective is drawn into murder and the search for stolen fake antiquities. Along the way he’s beaten up a few times and threatened by a number of large Middle Eastern types and an Australian.
Descriptions were plentiful: “I was just about to turn the page to get the rest of the details when two over-sized, over-stuffed but well-tailored Brooks Brothers’ suits sleazed through the door into my office.”
I’m guessing this took place in the late 1990s, since main character Nestor “Nes” Pike never pulls out his cell phone to call the police. He does give a lot of insight into his thought processes, talking both to himself and the various characters he deals with.
Apparently, because I read a lot of mysteries, the author knows that I know a “greaser” is a gun. (Actually, in Arizona I grew up with a different meaning for the word).
Fortunately, I was reading this online, so I could have the Merriam-Webster online, Wikipedia and a Spanish-English dictionary open, to fill in the gaps in my language and general education. My usual authors don’t use words like “cholo” and “vato”, or – for that matter – “shanked”, “jigged” and “Kouri” (actually, one is “kouros”, two are “kouroi”).
The author credits some old-time mystery writers, and maybe that’s the problem. He packs so much information and odd jargon into each sentence that his writing no longer flows. Add the Spanish words in, and it really stops.
If you like action, The Art of Murder has it. If you’re bothered by misplaced commas, overused semicolons, occasional long and convoluted sentences, missing hyphens in words, misspelled names (Earl Schibe instead of Earl Scheib, remember him and his paint jobs?), redundant words (“large potted guavas, fichus, and figs”), odd uses of words (“mufti”), odd accent marks on Spanish and French words (compadré, Cartiér) and especially misuse of “its”, then maybe you should pass on this one.
Don West’s The Art of Murder drew me in, but it was a little more forced. Set in Los Angeles, an ex-Los Angeles police officer-turned-detective is drawn into murder and the search for stolen fake antiquities. Along the way he’s beaten up a few times and threatened by a number of large Middle Eastern types and an Australian.
Descriptions were plentiful: “I was just about to turn the page to get the rest of the details when two over-sized, over-stuffed but well-tailored Brooks Brothers’ suits sleazed through the door into my office.”
I’m guessing this took place in the late 1990s, since main character Nestor “Nes” Pike never pulls out his cell phone to call the police. He does give a lot of insight into his thought processes, talking both to himself and the various characters he deals with.
Apparently, because I read a lot of mysteries, the author knows that I know a “greaser” is a gun. (Actually, in Arizona I grew up with a different meaning for the word).
Fortunately, I was reading this online, so I could have the Merriam-Webster online, Wikipedia and a Spanish-English dictionary open, to fill in the gaps in my language and general education. My usual authors don’t use words like “cholo” and “vato”, or – for that matter – “shanked”, “jigged” and “Kouri” (actually, one is “kouros”, two are “kouroi”).
The author credits some old-time mystery writers, and maybe that’s the problem. He packs so much information and odd jargon into each sentence that his writing no longer flows. Add the Spanish words in, and it really stops.
If you like action, The Art of Murder has it. If you’re bothered by misplaced commas, overused semicolons, occasional long and convoluted sentences, missing hyphens in words, misspelled names (Earl Schibe instead of Earl Scheib, remember him and his paint jobs?), redundant words (“large potted guavas, fichus, and figs”), odd uses of words (“mufti”), odd accent marks on Spanish and French words (compadré, Cartiér) and especially misuse of “its”, then maybe you should pass on this one.
Diane C. Taylor is a writer and fused-glass artist. She frequently interviews artists for Sonoran Arts Network and also writes for Zocalo. See more of her artwork here> Diane's Fused Glass