Full of delightful characters, and dialogue that provides at least one good laugh on every page, the book is so hard to put down you'll swear it's been glued to your hands. It's quirky and hip, and often laugh-out-loud funny. Junior Bender isn't a gumshoe, but the cadence of his voice and his observations harken back to other great detectives who were expert at landing a crucial, devastating remark, as well as using their fists or a pistol. Tim [Hallinan] is a master at tossing out the kind of hard-boiled lines that I wish I thought of first. Great narrative voice, complex plot, 3-D characters.
Hallinan's deft comic tone and colorful characters have earned him comparisons to Donald Westlake and Carl Hiassen. Check it out now. Bender's quick wit and smart mouth make him a boon companion on this oddball adventure. It's laugh-out-loud funny without ever losing any of its mystery. It's a whole new style and I love it. Junior Bender--a crook with a heart of gold--is one of Hallinan's most appealing heroes, rich with invention, and brimming with classic wit. I can't recommend it highly enough. Crashed is a pleasurable outing, without the personal risk, to the criminal underbelly of Los Angeles, where moral ambiguity fills the air.
Timothy Hallinan knows how to write a smart aleck main character who has his own set of morals and a heart of gold. After years of working in the television and music industries, he now writes full-time. He has homes in California and Thailand. Book ratings by Goodreads. There are so many books that seem to be written by automatons, formulaic rehashings of previous books and so on. I never have to worry about these problems with Tim Hallinan. Because this guy can write! He's not only got a good story to tell, he knows how to tell it.
The way he strings words together, the phraseology , the characterizations The passion he has for his characters and their stories shine through very obviously. I find myself often grabbing my book journal, in which I jot quotations from books I'm reading, when I'm reading a Hallinan. He has a way with words, so he does. In this second installment in the Junior Bender series, we find Junior--a burglar--roped into assisting an aging mobster beat a murder rap. I thought I wasn't going to like him much when I started the first book but I'm now firmly in Junior's corner and cringe with all the troubles that befall him as the story unfolds.
I did figure out part of the mystery, but there are always a few surprises in store.
Little Elvises (junior Bender #2) : Timothy Hallinan :
All I can say is, read the book You won't be sorry! Sep 25, Philipc rated it it was amazing. The second in the Junior Bender series the first is Crashed has Junior up to his neck in other people's plots from the first page. A cop has Junior in a room; the cop tells Junior that he, the cop, has two problems, and Junior can help with one of them, whichever he chooses.
If he likes, he can help the cop's uncle out of a spot of bother; if he doesn't like, he can take the rap for a recent burglary during which a judge's wife was pistol-whipped. Yes, says the cop, we know you didn't actually The second in the Junior Bender series the first is Crashed has Junior up to his neck in other people's plots from the first page. Yes, says the cop, we know you didn't actually do it, but we won't let that stand in our way.
Junior opts to help the cop's uncle. Uncle's problem is that he looks like the perfect candidate for helping the cops with yet another recent crime, a murder to be exact, in which a slimy Limey played a key role he was the corpse. Uncle has an waterproof alibi, but refuses to use it. In fact he's not even very cooperative. Get in the car, Junior, get in the goddam car and drive. This is LA - Junior spends more time in that car than he does in bed.
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Meanwhile, in a parallel plot, Junior's landlady at the North Pole it's a themed motel, as seedy as the dead Brit has another problem: Daughter's married a sociopath, a man who's no danger to other men but very probably responsible for the disappearance of several women in the LA area.
No dogs come to any harm in the course of this book A pattern seems to be developing n the Junior Bender series. In this, the second book in the series, he is blackmailed by a detective to try to protect his uncle, Vincent Di Gaudio, from a murder rap. Be th A pattern seems to be developing n the Junior Bender series. Be that as it may be, there are two stories in the present novel. Then the owner of the motel in which Junior is living asks him to find her daughter, from whom she has not heard for some time.
Apparently she was living with a man suspected of murdering several women. A hallmark of a Timothy Hallinan mystery novel are unusual situations and characterizations, and a whole lot of humor. Junior continues to evolve in this book, and we find him becoming softer and more human, despite the bizarre confrontations he gets into.
The good guy in this story is a bad guy, a burglar who has to solve one crime so a cop doesn't frame him for another crime. But this bad guy is thoroughly likable, well aware of his own numerous shortcomings, most of the time anyway. And he just keeps trudging on anyway. There is gore in this story, but not huge, gross, horrible amounts of it. Well, except for Fronts - a pretty interesting character in his own right. Three different mysteries are intertwined, well, three main ones anyway. Some su The good guy in this story is a bad guy, a burglar who has to solve one crime so a cop doesn't frame him for another crime.
Some surprises, some terrific writing, some funny bits. Where are Vito and Sonny? Why not just hang some neon sign in the window, Mobs R Us? Great characters, fresh and funny writing, an entertaining plot add up to 4 stars overall, 5 for this genre. I was given a copy of the book for review, for which I am grateful. Aug 22, Beth rated it it was amazing. Nothing is ever easy for Junior Bender. He is a burglar; everyone knows that. He is never violent, he never enters a home when people are present. Everyone knows that, too. He has a foolproof alibi for the time of the robbery. Detective Paulie DiGaudio lets Junior know that his alibi is no longer foolproof.
Handsome Italian kids with tight pants and big hair. The offer to Junior is straightforward. Since his divorce, Junior has been living in a series of motel rooms. She easily discovers that among the Little Elvises Vincent DiGaudio managed was Giorgio, a man-child of exceptional beauty who was completely devoid of any talent and was absolutely terrified every time he stepped on a stage. Giorgio was a shooting star that flashed across the television screen and the movie screen and then disappeared while on a movie project in Hawaii. Vincent DiGaudio wants Junior to investigate that previously mentioned murder.
Vincent had made it known that he intended to kill Bigelow but someone got to him first. Vincent had a hit all set up for the next night. Now the police are going to be coming for him; his threats are coming back to haunt him. In short order, Junior finds himself being chased by some murderous characters in a Humvee without any clue as to why.
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Irwin is Irwin Dressler, a man of incredible power in the state of California. The Wizard of Was. Junior is not a hero in the truest sense of the word but when Junior gives his word, people know he can be counted upon to follow through on the promise. Junior is the moral center of the books, honest as defined by his moral code. If Junior were a character in a fifties television Western, he would wear a white hat.
Junior and Bret Maverick could be soul mates and the Maverick reference brings up something really interesting about the characters. It was a more innocent time, those early teenage years, before all innocence was lost on November 22, , a watershed moment for the world. In writing about the girls who screamed for the Little Elvises, he describes their devotion. Hallinan has, again, written a story that is so much more than a good mystery.
Buried in the funny lines and the character development are glimpses of life as everyone experiences it in one way or another. And Hallinan succeeds in writing some of the best books in the genre. Damon Runyon meets Tarantino. Hallinan's books generally have entertaining and eccentric characters and a level of idealization: Way more characters than I wanted to keep track of, and I find I'm not interested in Junior's progressing love life. Real problem character, though, is Rina, who never sounds or acts 13; her research paper is 1 on a topic weird for a middle-grade student and 2 written on a college level.
Glad I didn't pay for this novel; not sure I'm going to move on with the series. Just plain good book Well written, good characters - not cartoons, but all have enough depth to be worth reading about. This must not be easy, as I read hundreds of mysteries and even if the main characters have life, the side ones are often tossed off. The humor is wry and witty - worthy of some of my favorite British writers and in the class of David Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter, and I don't day this lightly.
Which brings me to the plot. I really don't care so much about the plot of the above is Just plain good book Well written, good characters - not cartoons, but all have enough depth to be worth reading about. I really don't care so much about the plot of the above is good enough - I read for the writing. However, the plot in this, as in the other Junior Bender books is done well. Hallinan is such a good writer that I appreciate having at least one of his serieus I can read without being either grossed out or depressed - hope he turns out a whole lot more of them Jun 27, Bruce Morgan rated it it was amazing.
The premise that a master thief makes a good "detective for underworld figures" is wonderfully realised in this series. Junior Bender is a fully-formed character with confidence in his abilities and a way of staying alive while getting involved with some really strange and nasty types including con artists, snitches, standover men, hitmen and women , bodyguards, bosses and big bosses while also staying one step ahead of the police.
Timothy Hallinan is a consummate story teller. He lets us glimpse The premise that a master thief makes a good "detective for underworld figures" is wonderfully realised in this series. He lets us glimpse parts of Junior's character that Junior himself seems unaware of, while deftly concealing elements so that the reader is kept guessing until the final chapter. Apr 14, Danhammang rated it really liked it. Think of combining Henry James and Robin Williams and setting the result loose on a romp through the nooks and crannies of Los Angeles in the person of Junior Bender, a burglar for our own times.
The somewhat strange title quickly makes sense as Hallinan weaves a story that involves our cultural penchant for trying to replicate big successes. I really did laugh out loud and even read a few of the passages out loud to my wife. Junior is hard not to like.
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It was a treat to read. I will be back for Think of combining Henry James and Robin Williams and setting the result loose on a romp through the nooks and crannies of Los Angeles in the person of Junior Bender, a burglar for our own times. I will be back for more.
Sep 07, JDK rated it it was amazing. Well-executed plot, and some wonderful descriptions that had me laughing out loud and I don't laugh out loud at something I've read very often. As he's done a number of times before, Hallinan took a bit of historical fact the "little Elvises" of Philadelphia, in this case and wove a really entertaining book around it. The Four Last Things.
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